Five Cork City parks awarded Green Flag status for 2023
The Italian Gardens on Garnish Island, Co Cork.
Cork City has added to its Green Flag parks tally, with four public parks retaining the award for 2023 and one park receiving the designation for the first time.
In what is just the the third year of the Green Flag Awards scheme, Cork City Council retained green flags for Shalom Park, Fitzgerald's Park, Douglas Community Park and the Regional Park in Ballincollig.
Gerry O'Sullivan park has also scooped the award for the first time.
Two sites in Co Cork - Fota Arboretum Gardens and Garnish island - were also awarded a Green Flag on Wednesday.
Both are managed by the OPW.
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The awards, run by An Taisce’s Environmental Education unit, acknowledge Ireland's best public parks and gardens and is an international benchmarking standard for parks and green spaces.
The awards aim to encourage the provision of good quality public parks that are managed in an environmentally sustainable way.
Overall, Ireland was awarded 101 green flag awards for its public spaces this year - 72 flags went to formal public parks, 12 went to heritage sites, and the remaining 17 were awarded to volunteer-led community gardens and parks.
In awarding the Green Flags, a judging panel of experts assessed each green space in key areas such as environmental management, health and safety, cleanliness, conservation of buildings, landscapes, habitats, biodiversity, horticulture, arboriculture standards, and community involvement.
Innovation and the way facilities offered are tailored to the needs of the community were also be taken into account.
“The continued success of the Green Flag Award is due to the love staff members have for their green spaces and the hard work they put in to maintaining them," said programme manager of An Taisce's Environmental Unit Emlyn Cullen.
"They do a phenomenal job every day making their parks and gardens beautiful, safe spaces for the public to enjoy.”
Minister of State for Community Development and Charities Joe O’Brien said his department had supported An Taisce with and expansion of the Green Flag initiative in 2018.
"By doing this we have been able to leverage the Green Flag Award values and standards for the benefit of our communities and their voluntary work," he said.
"I want to thank all community volunteers, across the country for all the work they have done by maintaining the many parks, gardens, and greens across the country.
"It is a great credit that they have helped deliver this this Green Flag accreditation across Ireland.”
A full list of Ireland's 101 Green Flag Award winning parks for 2023, along with the parks singled-out for special individual awards, can be found at: https://www.greenflagaward.org/
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