Awards for Ballincollig, Rosscarbery and Bere at the Tidy Towns awards

BALLINCOLLIG has been named Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre at this year’s Tidy Towns awards.

Rosscarbery, once more, took the top prize in West Cork, while Bere Island took the award for Ireland’s tidiest island, with Sherkin named the runner-up. The islands pick up cash prizes of €1,000 and €500 respectively.

Abbeyleix in Co Laois was named Ireland’s Tidiest Town for 2023. This year, 887 towns were competing for the prestigious awards which have been running since 1958.

Rosscarbery was the poll-topper in Cork West with 374 points in Category B, while Clonakilty accrued 373 points, and Timoleague was awarded 372 points. In Category D, for larger towns, Clonakilty (373), Bantry (367) and Skibbereen (366) all received gold medals. In the regional awards, Ballineen and Enniskeane were ‘highly commended’ and Timoleague NS picked up the regional award for the best school in the south west and mid west.

Minister Humphreys also presented a new award to Cappoquin, Boyle and Ballyshannon TidyTowns groups, recognising their tremendous efforts to address vacancy and dereliction.

Some of the other big winners on the day included: Geashill, Co Offaly named Ireland’s Tidiest Village; Abbeyleix, Co Laois which was also named Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town, and Killarney, Co Kerry was named Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town. 

Minister Humphreys also announced a special allocation of €1.5m in funding to support the work of TidyTowns groups in their continued efforts to make their towns and villages better places to live, work and visit. Since 2017, the Department has provided €9.5m in funding to support the important sustainability and other activities of these groups. 

The SuperValu TidyTowns competition is organised by the Department of Rural and Community Development and sponsored by SuperValu who have sponsored the competition since 1991.

Full details at www.tidytowns.ie and supervalu.ie