A tidy sweep for Cork
Cork county has cleaned up at this year’s Tidy Towns event, bagging an incredible 20 medals overall.
Among the winners were Clonakilty and Rosscarbery who were awarded Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town and Ireland’s Tidiest Village respectively.
Special awards were also given to Sherkin and Bere Island with the All-Island Pollinator Plan and Young Persons in Tidy Towns awards both going to Cobh Tidy Towns.
Congratulating the winners, Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Danny Collins, thanked the volunteers for their “incredible and inspiring” efforts.
“Their dedication and personal sacrifice have made county Cork a cleaner and more beautiful place to live,” he said.
Chief Executive of Cork County Council Tim Lucey added: “The results are much more than what we see but the real success is evident with community spirit and a shared sense of pride.”
Over 750 TidyTowns volunteers from around the country gathered at the RDS in Dublin last Friday for the SuperValu TidyTowns’ first full scale awards ceremony since the beginning of the pandemic.
This year’s competition received the third highest number of entries in its almost 65 year history.
The top prize of Ireland’s Tidiest Town for 2022 went to Trim in county Meath.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, paid tribute to all of the winners and complimented TidyTowns groups for the extremely high level of competition this year.
“The time and effort that you put in to making your town or village a better place says so much about your commitment and dedication to your community. Your hard work and enthusiasm is nothing short of inspiring,” said the minister.
Minister Humphreys also announced a special allocation of €1.4 million in funding to support the work of individual TidyTowns groups around the country to assist them in their continued efforts to enhance their towns and villages.
This is the 6th consecutive year that funding has been provided to support these groups and brings the total allocated since 2017 to €8.1 million.
Minister Humphries said: “In total, 935 TidyTowns groups across the country will be eligible to benefit from this investment. The initiatives taken by volunteers in areas of climate action, sustainability and inclusivity are most encouraging and as such I am very pleased to be able to announce this funding today,” she added on Friday.