Tidy Town’s Committees throughout the Shannon Region were honoured today (Thursday 26th October ‘06) for their tireless commitment to enhancing the environment, when they were officially presented with a total of 32 Tidy Towns Awards, by Mr Batt O’ Keeffe T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, SuperValu Director, John O’ Callaghan, the overall competition sponsor, and Liam McElligott, Chairman, Shannon Development.
The Awards ceremony was organised by the Tourism Division in Shannon Development, who administer and promote the National Tidy Towns Competition in the Shannon Region. Congratulating all the Shannon Region Tidy Towns Committees on their success in the competition Mr. Liam McElligott, Chairman, Shannon Development paid them glowing tributes for their wonderful achievements saying, “We want the Shannon Region to be the envy of other regions - and recognised as THE region where people want to live, learn, work and spend their leisure time. That is why we place such value on the work of the Tidy Towns Committees around the Shannon Region, so my sincerest congratulations to you all”.
The Shannon Region scooped two national awards in the competition; Birdhill, Co. Tipperary won the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Village (with an award of €4,000 and a trophy), and the overall Shannon Region Tidy Towns Award (with an award of €1,500 sponsored by Repak and presented by Bob Cullen). Birdhill was also nominated for the 2007 Island of Ireland’s Best Kept Towns Competition and the 2007 European Entente Florale. Ennis, Co. Clare won the national title of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre (with an award of €4,000 and a trophy). This was a new category introduced this year to give specific recognition to the great efforts made by towns with a population in excess of 15,000 throughout the country.) This was a wonderful achievement for Ennis following their win of the overall National Tidy Towns Award in 2005.
A number of other new awards were introduced to the competition this year and these included;
• A new Tidy Town’s Schools Award was inaugurated this year. For the first time schools have been directly involved in the National Tidy Towns Competition. The Shannon Region award winner in this category was Scoil Athain, Lisnagry, Limerick who received an award of €750.
• A special SuperValu award for towns that don’t have a Tidy Towns development plan was also introduced this year. Tulla in Co. Clare and Loughmore in North Tipperary were the Shannon Region winners. Each winner was presented with €1,000 to go towards funding the development of a plan to be prepared by an Environmental Consultant.
“2006 saw many new developments, including research which led to initiatives such as the 'waste minimisation' category and the new award for Tidiest Large Urban Centre, as well as new TV advertising to recruit more volunteers and a special competition for Primary Schools to encourage young people’s involvement. Tidy Towns and the hard-working committees are a real force for change in communities and we are very proud to support their great work”, said John O’Callaghan, Director, SuperValu at the event.
SuperValu celebrates fifteen years of national Tidy Towns sponsorship this year and the 180 locally owned SuperValu stores countrywide have contributed over €5.5m in sponsorship funding, new competition initiatives and prizes.
Other Shannon Region awards presented on the night were: the Best Shopfront Award which was won by Frawley’s Pharmacy, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, who were presented with a cheque for €1,000; the Best Landscape Award, sponsored by the Tree Council of Ireland, was presented to Kilcommon Prayer Garden of Devine Mercy, Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary who received a cheque for €1,000.
The Best Bring Bank Award sponsored by Repak, was won by Mountcollins in Co. Limerick and they were awarded €1,000.
In the City Neighbourhoods Special Category Awards, cheques of €500 were presented to each of the following winners; The Woodfield House Hotel in Limerick who won the award for the Best Maintained Restaurant Forecourt; the Shannon Development Crossagalla Business Park in Limerick who won the Best Business Park award; Eve’s Shopfront, Limerick winner of the Best Shopfront award.
This year’s SuperValu Endeavour Awards were presented by Supervalu’s John O’ Callaghan in each county and the Shannon Region winners each received a cheque for €650, the winners were: Newmarket on Fergus, Co. Clare; Ardpatrick, Co. Limerick, and Borrisokane in North Tipperary.
In the County Awards section, Ennis was the winner in Co. Clare, with Kilrush winning a Highly Commended Award, and Mountshannon receiving a Commended Award. In Limerick, Adare again came out as overall County Award winner, with Galbally receiving a Highly Commended Award, and Ardpatrick Commended. Birdhill was the overall County winner in North Tipperary, Terryglass was Highly Commended, and Garrykennedy Commended.
Ennis, and Birdhill both picked up Gold in the Medals section of the competition, with a Silver Medal going to Kilrush (also nominated for Ireland’s Best Kept Towns Competition 2007), and Bronze Medals going to Adare, Terryglass and Mountshannon.
The Shannon Region Tidy Towns ‘Personality Award’, a closely guarded secret until the presentation, was unveiled at the event by Jimmy O’Loughlin, Visitor Services Manager Shannon Development who was the MC for the Awards ceremony. This special Award was instigated in the Millennium year by Shannon Development to acknowledge long-service and commitment by an individual working voluntarily for the benefit of their community.
“This year Shannon Development chose Brendan Carmody from Roscrea Tidy Towns Committee. He received the award for his long service to the Tidy Towns effort in Roscrea where he has been the back bone of the team for the past 20 years. Brendan’s loyalty to Tidy Towns has been superb and he is the ideal role model for Tidy Towns volunteers throughout the country”, said Mr. O’ Loughlin.
A special presentation was made to Baz Millar from Shannon Development on the occasion of her
Retirement as a Tidy Towns adjudicator. Baz has been synonymous with the Tidy Towns project in the Shannon Region for many years. She was totally dedicated to the Tidy Towns Movement and her departure from the work she loved so much marks the end of an era.Baz received very warm and glowing tributes at the function.
The Tidy Towns Competition is organised nationally by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and it is coordinated in the Shannon Region by Shannon Development.
Nandi O’Sullivan
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