Ennis claims top honours in this year's Tidy Towns as Cobh also wins awards

Ennis was named the Tidy Towns 2021 winner. Picture: Eamon Ward

Ennis in County Clare has claimed the top prize at the National Tidy Towns Awards.

It also won the Tidiest Large Urban Centre award and beat competition from Cobh in Co Cork, Geashill in Co Offaly and Abbeyleix in Laois for the overall prize.

Although Cobh lost out on the top honours, it won the title of Tidiest Large Town. The Cork town also won the special Covid-19 Community Award.

Both islands awards went to Cork with Sherkin Island highly commended and Bere Island bagging the national award.

Glaslough in Co Monaghan was named as the inaugural winner of the Young Persons in TidyTowns Award.

Speaking at this afternoon's ceremony in Dublin's RDS, Minister Heather Humphreys said Ennis showcased all that is good about community and volunteerism.

"They have been consistently achieving high standards in the competition at local, regional, national and European level and won the competition previously in 2005.

"Given the tremendous interest in the competition and the increasing efforts made by all entrants, it is a wonderful achievement to take the national title for a second time; this really demonstrates that resilience and determination do reap rewards."

All of the entrants were commended for their unwavering dedication and hard work during the pandemic.

Ms Humphreys said the volunteers put their community first and continued to make their areas better places to live and work and to visit.

As the competition marks its 30th anniversary, funding of €1.5 million has been secured to directly support the 1,022 Tidy Towns committees across the country.

This year saw a record 847 entries submitted to the competition from Tidy Towns volunteer groups across the country.

Ian Allen, Managing Director, SuperValu noted the increasing number of initiatives focusing on biodiversity, conservation and effort to create more sustainable communities.

This year, the winners were announced at a scaled-back event with a small number of representatives.

It was live streamed to thousands of Tidy Towns volunteer groups around the country.