Clonakilty, the west Cork town famous for its black pudding, has won this year's Tidy Towns competition with a record number of points. As well as the national award, Clonakilty won - for the third year in a row - the title of Ireland's tidiest small town.
The town scored 257 points out of a possible 300 to secure a narrow win over Rathbarry, which scored 256. Clonakilty's reward is the Tidy Towns perpetual trophy and a cheque for £10,000.
Rathbarry in Co Cork was judged Ireland's tidiest village, and Carrickmacross the tidiest large town.
At the awards ceremony in Dublin Castle yesterday, a delighted Mr Seamus O'Brien, chairman of Clonakilty Tidy Towns Committee, was all the happier to be presented with the national title by a Meath man, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey.
Mr O'Brien, who had spent the previous night at the Burlington Hotel with All-Ireland hurling champions Cork, said he had put Mr Dempsey on notice that Cork intended adding another trophy to its collection, the Sam Maguire Cup, when they face Meath in the All-Ireland football final on the last Sunday in September.
He put Clonakilty's success down to the 25 to 30 Tidy Town committee stalwarts, "tremendous support" from the townspeople, and "great community pride".
With a population of almost 3,000, Clonakilty is the largest town to have won the competition since 1990. It won the award for Ireland's tidiest small town in 1997 and 1998, but this is its first overall award.
The competition is organised by the Department of the Environment, and sponsored by SuperValu supermarkets. There were 725 entries this year, and Mr Dempsey and Supervalu chief executive Mr Eoin McGettigan paid tribute to all involved.
"On this, the last Tidy Towns competition of the millennium, we should celebrate the wonderful contribution which Tidy Towns have made to Irish life," Mr Dempsey said. "It has transformed our towns and villages and in the process turned local people into local heroes".
Mr McGettigan added: "The truly unique aspect of Tidy Towns is that the entire country wins. We all enjoy cleaner surroundings and the renewed vigour of towns and villages preserving their heritage and securing their long-term development."
Mr McGettigan also referred to the persistent problem of plastic bag pollution and welcomed the recent consultants' report on the issue, which included proposals for a levy on each bag.
"This issue has been a concern for us in SuperValu for a long time and, having tried numerous alternatives to plastic, which shoppers didn't respond to, we recognise that something has to be done to encourage shoppers to behave responsibly."
The winners of the population category awards were:
Rathbarry, Co Cork (up to 200);
Castletown, Co Laois (201-1,000);
Kenmare, Co Kerry (1001-2,500);
Clonakilty, Co Cork (2,501-5,000);
Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan (5,00110,000):
Ennis, Co Clare (10,001 plus).
Regional award winners included Skerries, Co Dublin; Ardagh, Co Longford; Malin, Co Donegal; Terryglass, Co Tipperary; Rathvilly, Co Carlow; Clonakilty, Co Cork and Keadue, Co Roscommon.
Best new entries were Carlanstown and Rathmolyon in Co Meath; King's Island, Co Limerick and Bishopstown, Co Cork.
The national winner of the traditional shopfront award was the Dundalk Democrat, Dundalk, Co Louth, for a "superbly designed frontage" with strong signwriting.
Innishannon, Co Cork, took the National Landscape Award.
The Best Urban Village Award went to King's Island, Co Limerick, while Skerries Mill Industrial Heritage Centre, Co Dublin, won the Heritage Award.
