A bilingual seminar in Westport highlighted key Tidy Towns points, in both English and Irish.
TOKEN OF APPRECIATION Eithne Larkin, Chairperson, Westport Tidy Towns, presenting a gift to Minister Éamon Ó Cuív TD after he officially opened the first National Bilingual Seminar on Tidy Towns in Hotel Westport. Looking on are Peter Hynes, Westport Town Manager, Cllr Myles Staunton Leas-Chathaoirleach, Westport Town Council, and Cllr Dave Keating.
Pic: Frank Dolan
Tidy towns ‘as Gaeilge’ comes to Westport Denise Horan
MINISTERIAL funding advice, tips on impressing the judges, words of wisdom from past masters and copious amounts of encouragement were among the benefits for the 100 delegates from Tidy Towns organisations all over the country who attended a special seminar in Hotel Westport last Saturday.
The occasion was the first National Bilingual Tidy Towns Seminar, the theme was ‘Ní neart go cur le chéile – partnership is key’, and the hosts – appropriately – were Westport Tidy Towns committee, winners of the inaugural Bilingual award in the Tidy Towns Competition in 2007, and two-time winners of the overall national Tidy Towns accolade. So successful was the event considered to be by all who took part that it is now likely to become an annual fixture in the Tidy Towns calendar.
Minister Éamon Ó Cuív opened the seminar – following an eloquent welcome by the Leas-Chathaoirleach of Westport Town Council, Cllr Myles Staunton – with a wide-ranging address on the importance of Tidy Towns, the need to maintain and accentuate the unique aspects of our Irish culture, the ways for community organisations to access funding, the benefits of healthy rivalry between communities and the necessity for communities to help themselves.
“The best way forward for the future is to encourage people to have pride in their own community, to encourage them to help themselves and then to row in behind them with help and support,” he said.
Speaking on the bilingual theme, the Minister remarked that when tourists come to Ireland they want things to be different here; they want to experience the real Ireland, not a copy-cat version of another country’s culture.
“Things like bilingual road signs are important because they are unique to Ireland. Americans in particular are becoming much more sophisticated in their sense of Irishness and they are willing to pay for things that convey that Irishness,” he said.
Eithne Larkin, Chairperson of Westport Tidy Towns committee, gave a detailed presentation on how Westport, from humble beginnings in 1991, has grown into a multi-award-winning organisation with 24 active members and 130 volunteer helpers. Partnership, she observed, has been the key to Westport’s success story; in addition to the Tidy Towns committee itself and the volunteers, the local town council, Mayo County Council, FÁS and the local schools all contribute to the year-round effort to keep Westport neat, tidy and litter-free.
There are still some problems to be overcome, she said, and the work is never complete, but the more people that are involved in the effort the lighter the workload is for everyone – and the better the outcomes.
National Tidy Towns judge, Frank Donaldson, outlined the ten categories on which entrants are marked in the annual competition and stressed the fact that, for new entrants in particular, as much feedback as possible would be given by the adjudicators to assist them in improving their chances of success from year to year. “Remember that the judges are on your side,” he said. “We want to help you.”
Tony Dawson, Tourism Office with Fáilte Ireland, detailed the importance of an area’s appearance in terms of its attractiveness to tourists and gave examples of positive and negative comments made by visitors to Ireland about the country’s appearance. Interestingly, he noted that one-off houses in the countryside was not mentioned by any tourists as a blight on the landscape.
Details of the Bilingual Award and how it is likely to be reviewed this year were given by Gearóid Ó Maolmhichíl, a judge for that category, while Mary Thompson from Glenties in Co Donegal – who hold the most national Tidy Towns titles of any place in the country, the last of their five honours being claimed in 1995 – spoke of how her community had struggled for a time following their early successes in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, but had managed to refocus and rejuvenate in the 1980s and they were now regularly winning county and regional awards and were aiming for the top prize once more.
Seán Carolan from Mulranny gave a detailed account of how they came to win the Biodiversity Award last year, because of work on the Rossmurrevagh machair area in the community, and Tadhg Ó Conghaile from Údarás na Gaeltachta followed with details of the Baile Beo competition, which is open to Gaeltacht areas around the country and for which a new scheme is to be launched next month.
Westport Town Architect, Simon Wall, gave a fascinating presentation on how Westport’s built environment had been planned and developed in the past decade and of the criteria used in the making of certain key decisions about buildings and what is acceptable and unacceptable in relation to features like facades, colour schemes and windows. He also spoke about how pedestrian walkways have been developed within the town core and how modern developments are designed to complement the historic buildings that already exist in the town.
Westport Town Manager, Peter Hynes, concluded proceedings with a brief summation of all the presentations, and by thanking all who participated in the event.
Westport Tidy Towns committee was assisted in organising, promoting and staging the event by Westport Town Council, Gnó Mhaigh Eo, Foras na Gaeilge, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Fáilte Ireland
