THE ALL-IRELAND football final may still be a fortnight away, but the people of Killarney are already celebrating having won the title of Ireland’s tidiest town for the first time.
Killarney, with 310 points, edged out Emly in Co Tipperary, Irelands tidiest village, by a single point and Westport, a previous winner, for the overall prize.
Killarney lost out last year by a point, a result which galvanised local people into ensuring that this year they would win the overall prize.
Killarney is the largest town in Ireland to win it since Kilkenny won in 1985.
Judges lavished praise on Killarney describing a summer visit there as a “great joy”.
They noted the town was largely litter free despite an enormous number of visitors – Killarney has more hotel beds than any city outside Dublin.
The town remained in excellent shape when the second inspection was being carried out during the Irish Open this year. The judges attributed much of the town’s success to the network of volunteers involved in the “adopt an area/road” initiative.
Aside from discarded cigarette butts, any litter that was found was “minimal”.
This year’s Tidy Towns competition was by far the biggest to date with 821 entrants, 57 more than last year’s total of 764.
The number of new entrants has increased by 20 per cent in the last two years thanks to a new wave of volunteerism.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan used the awards ceremony yesterday to announce that he intended to introduce new litter laws.
Mr Hogan said the present laws were inadequate and he would support laws that provided for more on-the-spot fines and stiffer penalties.
He also announced that he would give local authorities an additional €750,000 to deal with litter black spot areas.
There was joy too for another place well used to success with Kilkenny taking the title as Ireland’s tidiest large urban centre.
The city was described as a “pleasure” to visit.
The judges praised the Kilkenny tidy towns committee for their ability to use the city’s medieval heritage to the fullest extent, particularly using signage in keeping with the surroundings.
The residents of Emly, Co Tipperary, forgot their All-Ireland hurling final woes, and sang Slievenamon after winning tidiest best village at the awards ceremony in the Helix Theatre, Dublin, yesterday.
They won the overall prize two years ago.
The judges described the village as a “really special place”.
The people of the area had “clearly demonstrated how any town or village can be transformed by a combination of vision and hard work”, the judges said.
Lismore in Co Waterford won Ireland’s tidiest small town.
It had a “warm and welcoming feel” to it and its Millennium Park was one of the finest parks of its kind in Ireland.
