Town Tidiest As Ballincollig Was Ireland's Named Team Effort': 'it A

'It was a team effort': Ballincollig named as Ireland's Tidiest Town — Been Ballincollig Culhane Tidiest Naoise Has In Named Town Picture: Ireland The

Fri, 01 Nov, 2024 - 19:06

Alison O'Reilly

Cork were the big winners at this year’s Supervalu Tidy Towns awards with Ballincollig claiming the overall national award.

It is also the 12th consecutive gold medal for Ballincollig's dedicated committee of 13 volunteers who said they have “never gone backwards with our results”.

Now in its 66th year, a packed-out ceremony on Friday lunchtime in Croke Park saw dozens of awards handed out to communities all over the country - with a big emphasis on climate change and sustainability.

There were 904 entries this year, while 30,00 volunteers worked across nine communities, with more than 108,000 trees planted and two tons of waste collected.

The event also heard that 20% of the committee members are under the aged 25 years old.

In addition to the overall top prize, Ballincollig also won "Ireland's Tidiest Large Urban Centre", while Ballyphehane won the "Young Persons in Tidy Towns" award.

Volunteer Sheila Philpott out on her route during the weekly clean up in Ballincollig, Cork. Picture: David Creedon

Ballinahown in Westmeath won the tidiest village accolade and Blackrock, Co Louth, won tidiest small town.

The winner of the tidiest large town was Westport, Co Mayo.

Bere island won the National Island award, while gold, silver and bronze medals for the County Awards went to several towns across North South and West Cork including Bandon, Douglas, Fermoy, Bantry, Kinsale and Youghal.

Diarmuid Horgan, Ger Keogh, Garret Kelleher and Jimmy Shorten told the Irish Examiner how the win was very much a 'community and a team effort".

Gerard Keogh hailed the efforts of the large amount of volunteers who give their time to come out - sometimes on a Sunday morning - and litter pick etc.

Vapes a "scourge"

He also said that vapes were a "scourge", with volunteers picking up hundreds that had been thrown away. They are, however, now recycling them to put the different the three different parts of vapes - the battery, aluminium casing, and the plastic to good use.

"From something that was creating an awful lot of hassle we are doing some good with it, the fact that we are recycling the various different parts.

He added that they have picked up “hundreds of vapes” and that they have “huge bins full of them.”

Garrett Kelleher said the win was down to "years of continuous improvement, this is our 12th gold medal, and we have never gone backwards.”

He added that they also engaged with the local school which harvested the rainwater from their roof.

“Our allotment is directly adjacent to the nation school and Ger was directly involved in harvesting the rainwater from the roof of the national school,” he said.

They also paid tribute to one of their volunteers, the late Tony Whelan, who passed away two years ago.

Diarmuid Horgan said: “He was a great initiator of various different things that we have up and running at our allotment - particularly our water harvesting, taken from Scoil Barra waters the plants during the summer.

“He was also involved in setting up the compost and now we take in all of the leaves that are falling and use them the following year.”

Announcing Ballincollig as the overall winner, Minister Heather Humphry’s said: “I offer my warmest congratulations to Ballincollig and all of its TidyTowns volunteers for being crowned Ireland’s tidiest town for 2024.

“This is a truly great achievement and a special moment of immense pride for Ballincollig and indeed the wider county of Cork.

“Having first entered the competition in the 1960s, Ballincollig today continues to showcase all that is good about innovation, sustainability, community spirit and volunteerism. This is at the core of what the competition is all about.”

Cork City Council Chief Executive, Valerie O’Sullivan said: “Huge congratulations to Ballincollig Tidy Towns. This award and their ongoing work is a testament to their fantastic community spirit and great pride of place which is evident for all to see in Ballincollig. Cork City Council is very proud to support and appreciates the dedication and volunteer effort that goes into winning such a prestigious award”.

Other big winners were:

Ballinahown, Co. Westmeath awarded Ireland’s Tidiest Village.
Blackrock, Co. Louth awarded Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town.
Westport, Co. Mayo awarded Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town.

The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan for Local Authority Award went to Sneem in Co. Kerry.

A total of 26 medals were awarded to towns and villages in County Cork with special awards given to Bere Island and Sherkin Island. Ballineen and Enniskeane TidyTowns Association was also named the National Winner of the Waters and Communities Award.

Co Cork medals: