Tidy Towns

IN CELEBRATORY MOOD Pictured at the Tidy Towns ceremony in Dublin Castle yesterday were, from left: Donal Horgan, Managing Director, Super Valu; Eithne Larkin, Chairperson, Westport Tidy Towns Committee; Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, and Éamonn Ó hArgáin, Foras na Gaeilge. Pic: Maxwells

Another tidy performance

Claire Egan

LAST year’s Tidy Towns Award winners, Westport, turned in another sparklingly performance in the 2007 campaign.
Despite not taking the top accolade, the seaside town scored highly in a variety of categories, claiming four awards at the Tidy Towns Awards ceremony in Dublin Castle yesterday (Monday).
Westport retained its Gold Medal Award, County Award and Regional Award and added the Building a Bilingual Society Award to its list of honours.
“We are absolutely delighted to have retained the Gold Medal, County and Regional Award and to have added the new Bilingual award. We knew it would be extremely difficult to retain the title and no other town has managed that since Glenties in the early 1960s. The committee have put in tremendous work and kept up the high standards and overall we are extremely happy with how we fared,” said Ms Eithne Larkin, Chairperson of the Westport Tidy Towns Committee.
The Bilingual Society award, under the National Special Award, acknowledges the promotion of the Irish language within the community. Huge efforts were made to encourage businesses and services to operate a bilingual policy.
“This was always an element of the Tidy Towns and we are particularly pleased to have been chosen for it. Huge efforts have been made to put up both Irish and English signs around the town and it is fantastic to see businesses and services encouraging the use of the Irish language,” said Eithne.
Further good news was in story for the county with the outlying villages of Aughagower and Murrisk securing commendations from this year’s Tidy Towns judging panel while Eachléim secured a special endeavour award.
Meanwhile, Mulranny won the National Special Notice Biodiversity Award for the Rosmurrevagh Dunes Project. There was also joy for the Partry Tidy Towns Committee who scooped the Best National Bring Bank award.
“It is fantastic for Mayo to have done so well and scored so highly,” concluded Eithne.