Many hands make light work as laneway gets makeover from volunteers in Kilkenny City

The saying that many hands make light work was illustrated last week when a group of volunteers from Keep Kilkenny Beautiful (KKB) joined forces to overhaul an often forgotten laneway in Kilkenny City.

The laneway in question runs from Wolfe Tone Street Car Park to Francis McManus Square, and over the years it became a litter dropping hot-spot, and increasingly vandalised with graffiti.

The idea to tackle the laneway head-on was spearheaded by Fabian Gaspari, a recent addition to the Keep Kilkenny Beautiful team.

[Picture: Keep Kilkenny Beautiful volunteers Shannon Long and Fabian Gaspari]

Fabian grew up in Francis McManus Square and always felt that the local residents, comprised predominantly of elderly and vulnerable individuals, had been left behind.

Following recent representations to local councillor and Chairperson of KKB, Maria Dollard, a plan was hatched to undo the cumulative damage of years of neglect.

Keep Kilkenny Beautiful rallied the troops last Thursday and in the space of just over an hour they had given the alley a fresh coat of paint, removed all the overgrowth and collected bags of rubbish, cans and bottles from behind the houses.

"The neighbours and I are now over the moon," Fabian told Kilkenny Live.

Cllr Maria Dollard said that the team at KKB were 'delighted' to tackle the project and expressed her appreciation for the number of people who stopped to say thank you.