The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
FIVE TIDY TOWNS GOLDS FOR KERRY
LISTOWEL IS IRELAND’S ‘TIDIEST SMALL TOWN’ FOR SECOND YEAR IN-A-ROW AND IT’S GOLD TOO FOR KENMARE, KILLARNEY, TRALEE AND SNEEM.
YOU could say the streets are paved with gold right now for five Kerry towns after they struck gold at this year’s National Tidy Towns Awards with Listowel making it a clean sweep by bagging ‘Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town Award’ for the second year in succession.
Tralee, Kenmare and Killarney all retained their gold medal status, while Sneem is also back in the golden habit. There was also widespread joy in Knightstown and across the channel in Portmagee with both villages receiving a bronze medal for their efforts.
Meanwhile, all entrants increased their scores on last year with impressive jumps of 10 marks or more for Duagh, Glenbeigh, Killorglin and Kilmoyley.
It’s a fantastic achievement for Kerry considering the huge level of competition and work that takes place in every town and village as scores of busy volunteers put their shoulders to the wheel – week in week out – to make their locality looking the best and brightest it can be.
Each Tidy Town entrant is assessed under eight separate criteria ranging from community involvement, planning, built environment, streetscape, wildlife and tidiness and litter control with points awarded for each specification.
“This is wonderful news for Kerry and the various towns involved,” said Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council Michael O’Shea. “I congratulate in a special way the five gold medal winners, including Listowel which is Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town for the second year running – this is no mean achievement. These are truly magnificent results for our county,” he added.
Kieran Moloney of Listowel Tidy Towns is delighted with the result and he praised the wider community effort within Listowel for the back-to-back victory.
“It’s a magnificent achievement as the competition is fierce and we’re happily surprised to have won the award for the second year running. We have people out early each morning keeping the town in tip-top shape and this is a marvellous reward. It truly is a community effort as our schools are also high achievers having won Green Flags. The town is looking fantastic and it’s down to the people who live here,” said Jimmy.
Mayor of Tralee, Terry O’Brien, praised the hardworking volunteers and council staff for keeping Tralee at the top.
“We’re extremely excited and it’s great to have won the fivein-a-row. Huge congratulations are in order and it’s especially pleasing for the volunteers who keep Tralee’s Tidy Town standards so high. We’re gone up seven points and we must keep the finger on the pulse. However, there’s always room for more volunteers if people want to get involved,” he added.
Over in neighbouring Killarney, Yvonne Quill of the Killarney Tidy Towns committee said they were extremely pleased and pointed to the town’s many projects which will hopefully help Killarney achieve higher rankings in the future.
“We’re delighted to have retained our gold medal and we also went up two points. We were nominated for the large town category and, considering we have many new projects in the pipeline, the years to come will be exciting. When you consider the size of a town like Killarney it makes you realise just what effort is involved. We’re delighted and every year we will aim to work harder,” said Yvonne.
Further south, the delight was also palpable with the Kenmare contingent in fine voice on their way home from Dublin when contacted.
“A lot of hard work is involved and you have to be consistent. We build on the work year after year as there are different categories and you have to try and improve all the time. We first secured a gold medal in 2000 and we have retained it ever since which is testament to all involved. It’s a great addition to what Kenmare has to offer as a town,” said Maureen Finnegan.
In neighbouring Sneem the excitement was equally high as the scenic village celebrated winning gold.
“We’re over the moon and this gold medal has its origins back to the 1980s when people first put this vision into place. The businesses here put in a huge effort and keep their buildings looking fabulous. Tourism is important to us and it’s a year round effort,” said Joe Murphy.