IT WAS once referred to as a honky-tonk town full of plastic and litter. Rather than take insult, Killarney’s inhabitants took it as wake up call and set about changing things, according to Yvonne Quill, chairwoman of Killarney’s Tidy Towns committee.
Yesterday, those labours bore fruit in the form of top prize at the annual Tidy Towns competition.
“Last year we were pipped at the post by just one point and this year the whole community came out in amazing numbers to support the Tidy Towns drive and get Killarney well and truly over the line,” Ms Quill said at Dublin’s Helix Theatre.
“Volunteers had been out every evening after work for the past six months, painting, planting and picking up litter. The business community has also played its part by ensuring shop fronts and grounds were well looked after throughout the year,” she said.
Ms Quill said the Kerry town had been 20 years climbing the Tidy Towns ladder, “but the benefits to the town, whether we won it or not, have been huge.” The prize comes only a week after Killarney was named the cleanest town in Ireland, in the Irish Business Against Litter awards.
The town was early yesterday hung with green and gold bunting early. “We weren’t being presumptuous. The bunting was going up because Kerry are in the All-Ireland,” said mayor of Killarney, Seán Counihan.
Killarney had been picking up gold medals for years, had won in its categories, but the overall title had been as elusive. Many volunteers had spent 17 years of their lives trying to get to yesterday’s award, Mr Counihan said, referring to the setting up of a local tidy towns committee.
The local people had came out “in their droves” this year, but the town council staff had set the pace, the mayor said.
Perhaps the secret ingredient in this year’s winning bid was 86-year-old Fr Michael Murphy, who acted as a special adviser to the committee. Dubbed Mr Tidy Towns, Fr Murphy has played a central role in the two other winning bids: Kenmare’s in 2000 and Sneem’s in 1987.