Ballincollig won the overall prize in SuperValu’s Tidy Towns at a ceremony in Croke Park, Dublin on Friday.
The Co. Cork town also won Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre for the second consecutive year.
There were 904 towns and villages from around Ireland in contention for the top prize, making stiff competition for Ballincollig.
Other big winners on the day included Ballinahown, Co. Galway for the tidiest village and Blackrock, Co. Louth for the tidiest small town.
Westport, Co. Mayo took the title of tidiest large town at the ceremony.
‘At The Core’
Speaking about the honour, the chair of Ballincollig Tidy Towns Tom Butler highlighted the 25 years of effort in the initiative, in which the group improved its score “year on year.”
Butler said, “We worked steadily, and it’s a constant 52 weeks of the year that we work and it has eventually paid off.”
Speaking to RTÉ’s News at One, Butler added that it was a “group effort” supported by local authorities, and that the win was a “fantastic” feeling for the committee and volunteers.
The Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphries congratulated Ballincollig on the win, saying, “Having first entered the competition in the 1960s, Ballincollig today continues to showcase all that is food about innovation, sustainability, community spirit and volunteerism.
“This is at the core of what the competition is all about.”
SuperValu Tidy Towns
Since the Tidy Towns competition commenced in 1958, it has become one of Ireland’s best-known sustainability and environmental initiatives.
The competition is administered by the Department of Rural and Community Development and has been sponsored by SuperValu since 1991.
Last year saw over 880 entries from villages and towns across Ireland, with some 30,000 volunteers involved in the initiative.
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