As villages all over Ballyhoura Country are preened to perfection for the arrival of another Tidy Towns season, Tidy Towns representatives from across Ballyhoura Country gathered to celebrate the achievements of the past year at the 22nd Annual Ballyhoura Country Tidy Towns’ awards recently.
This year the event was held in the beautifully refurbished Church of Ireland Church in Bruff, County Limerick. The town only a week before played host to Caroline Kennedy and family and looked every inch a Tidy Town for the awards evening.
Donal Thurlow of the Sean Wall group gave a warm greeting to all the Ballyhoura Tidy Towns groups and spoke about the Church of Ireland Building and its refurbishment by the committee. Frank Hanley, one of the adjudicators of the National Tidy Towns Competition gave a presentation on the competition and the dos and don’ts for groups involved.
Amanda Slattery, Ballyhoura Development and Frank Hanley presented the awards based on an improvement in marks from 2011 to 2012. The awards cover all 10 categories from the National competition with an amalgamation of categories for the purpose of the Ballyhoura Country Awards and again adjudication reports from 2012 showed much improvement across all communities participating in the National Competition from the Ballyhoura Region. Tourism and Heritage Officer, Amanda Slattery recognised the improvement in marks of a great number of communities this year, reflecting the amount of hard work and dedication of all of the Tidy Towns’ committees and communities across the region. In 2006, 16 groups were involved in the Tidy Towns competition from the region and 2013 again has seen a rise in entrants with close on 40 entrants in the National Competition from the Ballyhoura region.
Ballyhoura Development would like to recognise the support and help of Bruff Tidy Towns, Sean Wall committee, Bruff Community Council and The Bakehouse who hosted the evening so superbly and also Moss Fitzgerald who photographed all the winners on the evening. Bruff Tidy Towns on a beautiful evening led all groups on an informative walk taking in such projects as the new Morning Star Park, the bedding areas, award winning garden, Mural on Bruff Main Street and the newly renamed Thomas Fitzgerald Centre (Courthouse) Bruff.
The winning committees are as follows:
Categories
Overall Development:
Castleconnell Tidy Towns
Anglesboro Tidy Towns
Built Environment, Landscaping & Wildlife:
Knockainey Tidy Towns
Bruff Tidy Towns
Litter Control, Waste Minimisation, Tidiness & Residential Areas:
Kilmallock Tidy Towns
Kildorrery Tidy Towns