The 'towns' cleaning up this year are Castletown, Lismore and Ennis, writes Tim O'Brien, Regional Development Correspondent
Castletown, Co Laois, a village of some 300 people, has won this year's Tidy Towns Competition.
The village, whose Tidy Towns Committee is chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Mr Sean Flemming, also emerged as the winner of the Midlands East Regional Award, Tidiest Village and the County Award for Co Laois.
Other winners in the competition included Lismore, Co Waterford, which was conferred with the title Ireland's Tidiest Small Town, and Ennis, Co Clare, which was dubbed Ireland's Tidiest Large Town.
This is the second year in a row that Castletown has won the title of Tidiest Village.
It was defeated by just one point for the overall award of National Tidy Towns Winner by Westport, Co Mayo, last year.
Yesterday, however, it was the turn of Castletown to defeat Lismore, Co Waterford - officially a "small town" for the competition purposes - for the overall title.
It was the first time since the competition began in 1957 that the national winner came from Co Laois.
For the Castletown Tidy Towns team yesterday's result was the culmination of 17 years' effort, according to Mr Flemming.
Speaking immediately after the announcement of the winners, he said Castletown was a rural village on the N7 which benefited from the Nore, with its old mill, and a number of mature horse chestnut trees and listed houses.
The committee had deliberately decided not to "over-prettify".
The committee had wanted to enhance the natural and existing built environment of the village.
It also decided to develop a nature trail and walk, as well as paying particular attention to the area around the river which was used by visitors for swimming and as a picnic ground for tourists.
While there was great respect for the Tidy Towns work locally, Mr Flemming said regular rostered clean-ups had to be held each week after visitors left.
Another problem which the village had to contend with, according to the committee vice-chairman, Mr Jack Bergin, was its position on the N7 main route between Dublin and Limerick.
This factor saw through-traffic dumping the wrappers of take-away meals bought elsewhere out of car windows as they passed through the village.
Mr Bergin also paid tribute to the local Roman Catholic parish priest, Father Edward Rathigan, whom, he said, had started off the Tidy Towns effort in 1984.
The committee is now looking forward to the GAA county hurling final next weekend, from which Castletown is hoping for cause for a double celebration.
Presenting the awards in St Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle, the Minister for State at the Department of the Environment Mr Pat "The Cope" Gallagher, said the competition had developed into "one of the most successful voluntary movements in the history of the State".
Quoting the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill, to the effect that all politics was local, he praised the community endeavour behind the competition.
"The Green agenda is local and Tidy Towns people know that better than most; they have been practising it long before the term "sustainable development" became part of the vocabulary of our age."
He also referred to the success of the plastic bag tax which, he said, was "surely the bane of every committee's life".
He also revealed that the department was anticipating a drop in the number of bags in the order of one billion this year alone.
The managing director of the competition's sponsors Supervalu, Mr Michael Nason, said involvement with Tidy Towns "has given us a real appreciation of the responsibility we all share to preserve our environment".