Ballon’s Siopa Glas nominated for Ireland's Greenest Places award
An Siopa Glas has been shortlisted in the Ireland's Greenest Places competition
Derry Lenehan SIOPA Glas, a community-led thrift shop in Ballon, has appropriately been nominated in Ireland’s Greenest Places Awards 2026.
Siopa Glas is a volunteer-led community thrift store that was set up 14 years ago and has become a cornerstone of Ballon’s circular economy.
It has been nominated in the greenest community category and one of its volunteers, Marie George, spoke to about how the shop operates.
“The shop is under the umbrella of the Ballon Improvement Group and it collects, repairs, reuses and resells donated clothing, furniture, books, household goods and more,” Marie said.
“It prevents many items from ending up in landfill and all income generated from sales is invested into the village enhancement scheme, school projects, biodiversity initiatives and local charities,” she added.
Some of those projects include providing a vegetable polytunnel to the local school, establishing the village nature walk, Slí an Dúlra, and creating the new Coill Óg Balána woodland and biodiversity area.
The shop is open four days a week, Wednesday to Saturday, with volunteers of all ages across the community pitching in to help.
Marie said the shop has grown from a simple thrift store promoting the circular economy into a community hub and social centre.
“We have a great passing trade here, with people able to park outside and elderly people able to walk in without having to trudge through a shopping centre,” she explained.
“People get to know the staff behind the counter, they build up a relationship with them and it is great to be recognised with a nomination like this,” she added.
The competition aims to showcase what can be achieved when people work together to deliver more sustainable and greener communities.
Former minister for the environment and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who is one of the judges, said the panel was very impressed with the quality and diversity of the environmental projects being undertaken across the country.
“It was a real challenge for us to come up with the longlist and we spent many hours reviewing and debating the entries. But that is a compliment to the excellent quality of the work being done by the people, the projects and places that were nominated,” Mr Ryan said.
Each place was judged on specific criteria, including its beneficial environmental impact, the level of ongoing engagement by the community and evidence of behavioural change by people in the area.
Other community initiatives nominated include Castleknock GAA club, Enniscorthy Community Allotments and the Circular Square in Clonmel.
