'It's like winning the All-Ireland' – Munster towns and villages clean up at Tidy Towns awards
Anthony Conlon and chairman Brian Heffernan celebrate with their fellow committee members and Rural and Community Development Minister Heather Humphreys and SuperValu/Centra MD Ian Allen after Trim Co Meath was declared overall winner of Tidy Towns 2022 at the SuperValu Tidy Towns Awards. Picture: Naoise Culhane
“Somebody said to me this morning, ‘you know the weather is not good, some of the groups might not make it,’ and I said this is the Tidy Towns you’re talking about, they’re used to all sorts of weather, they’ll be here.”
That’s how Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys summed up the importance of the awards as 750 volunteers from across the country attended the first full-scale awards ceremony since the onset of the pandemic.
Delayed trains due to flooded tracks could not stop the delighted representatives of local communities from making it to the RDS in time for what she described as the “event of the year”.
The changing nature of the competition — which has evolved from neatly-cut lawns and begonias to wild meadows with sustainable native flowers to encourage biodiversity — was abundantly clear.
Thousands of volunteers were commended for their efforts across the country, with entrants from 882 towns and villages, the third-highest number of entries since the competition was first held 65 years ago.
Trim in Co Meath took home the coveted overall award this year as Ireland’s tidiest town. Brian Heffernan, a volunteer since 1999, said the Trim team was “in shock” and “overwhelmed”.
He became emotional while speaking about what the win meant for the team involved, before adding: “My wife will be delighted now because she thinks I can retire.”
Clonakilty was awarded Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town — a “marvellous’ victory according to 91-year-old Noreen Minihan.
The popular West Cork town was commended for its use of the Irish language on shopfronts, its public garden, and its increased biodiversity along the Feagle River.
“I’m still shivering, my legs are only barely holding me up at the moment, we put the work in so it was great to be rewarded for it,” said Ms Minihan.
She has been involved since 1978 and described the town as “dull” at the time. She said:
Being a Tidy Town brings the community together and creates long-lasting bonds, says Ms Minihan.
“There’s great friendship, we meet every Tuesday and Thursday night during the summer. There’s great pride in cleaning up and it encourages other people to clean up as well,” she said.
Ennis in Clare, last year’s overall winner, was named Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre.
The town was commended for its decorative murals and absence of shutters — which allows for evening window shopping.
Mary Coote Ryan has been involved for more than 35 years and said she was “only a cleaner” before adding that the Ennis team didn’t expect anything but that it was “fantastic” to be awarded.
“It boosts you up and energises you to start working again for the next year,” she said.
Ms Coote Ryan said Tidy Towns is a “wonderful thing to be involved in.”
“There’s great fun as well as everything else in it, and you meet so many wonderful people. We’ve met so many people here today, not from Ennis but we know each other’s faces you know? It’s just brilliant,” she said.
“We’re passionate about our town, but you have to be,” she said.
Mrs Coote Ryan said she and her fellow volunteers are passionate about climate change and that Tidy Towns has evolved in terms of its focus on biodiversity.
“It’s new, so I’m still learning,” she said.
After it was named Ireland’s Tidiest Village, Michael Walsh held Rosscarbery’s trophy aloft onstage and gave a loud cheer, before adding that it was “a long time coming”.
“I’m there 22 years, and we’ve been longing to get up on that stage for 22 years. It’s like winning the All-Ireland,” he said.
“Originally, when we started, all we wanted to do was make our environment better,” he said.
Mr Walsh said the Tidy Towns competition is “very competitive” in West Cork.
“You have Clonakilty and Rathbarry who were always on top and to get to that level is brilliant. The local competition made it for us,” he said.
The village was also runner-up for the main award and was described as an important destination on the Wild Atlantic Way, before being commended for its pollinator-friendly planting.
Mr Walsh said Rosscarbery has been focused on biodiversity since long before it became “fashionable”.
“Other Tidy Towns came to us to see what we were doing in terms of biodiversity because we’ve been letting areas go wild and we’ve been planting hedgerows and trees for 15 years,” he said.
Mr Walsh said Tidy Towns has evolved from keeping areas clean and neat to allowing areas to become wild, which sometimes takes a bit of convincing within the team.
“Some people have a vision in their heads of having everything cut and neat,” he said before adding that education from horticultural and pollination experts is key.
Eamonn De Stafort, adjudicator, was among those who were honoured at the ceremony for their service Aged 83, from Silvermines in Tipperary he has been adjudicating Tidy Towns for four decades.
He spoke of the impact the competition has had in towns across the country and foresees a pivotal importance for the competition in the age of climate change.
“My kick-off was at Adare in 1976 and when Adare won, the first reaction was ‘are they only winning it now?’ because as we know, Adare was there before any of us and is one of the most beautiful towns.
“Four decades later, we have dozens of towns like Adare now, right across the land with small populations, medium populations and large populations,” he said.
Tidy Towns is a bit like tourism, he said, as it is everybody’s business and it brings all age groups and economic groups together.
Mr De Stafort described Tidy Towns as undoubtedly the “success of the century,” particularly in terms of encouraging the protection of Ireland’s environment.
“It’s never been more important, in the coming years, Tidy Towns will play a major part in climate change, because all of these people are ‘tuned in,’ it permeates right across the land,” he said.
He said that volunteers and adjudicators have become increasingly passionate and knowledgeable on climate change.
“We have ten new adjudicators this year and there’s plenty of brain power, they’re coming from the universities now as well and we have a wonderful team of 30 adjudicators,” he said.
However, the age of volunteers is a concern for Mr De Stafort and other adjudicators.
“We’re a bit concerned about that, you’ll see those receiving awards today, we’re not exactly youngsters anymore so there’s a drive now to recruit.” He hopes that down the line, young activists will join in to volunteer with the groups and keep the tradition alive.
Many towns in Cork in particular were awarded for their efforts with Carrigaline, Kinsale, Youghal, Cobh, Ballincollig and Bantry receiving Gold Medal awards.
Ms Humphreys described SuperValu as a loyal supporter and sponsor of Tidy Towns for over 30 years.
Managing Director of Supervalu, Ian Allen said climate action was “critically important”.
“Every year, 30,000 volunteers across 1,000 committees give over 3 million hours of their time,” he said which he described as a “phenomenal effort.”
Mr Allen said that since 2019, 30,000 trees have been planted as well as 180,000 bags of litter being collected each year.
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