A number of other towns and villages across the county also received significant accolades in this year’s Tidy Town’s competition.
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Letterkenny in Co Donegal is Ireland’s Tidiest Town for 2015.
Raharney, however, recorded the largest jump, winning itself an additional 11 points, to bring it to 276 points, and seventh place out of the 31 Westmeath towns and villages entered in the competition.
Belmullet and Westport both won gold awards, Castlebar was awarded a silver award, while Ballina won bronze at the ceremony in Dublin.
The competition also introduced two new awards this year, the Community Diversity Award and the Youth Award.
“The enthusiasm of all those involved in the Tidy Towns effort results in the attractive, well-cared for towns and village we see throughout the country”, said Mr Kelly. “Their relentless commitment to working for the good of their local community is what makes this competition the success it is today” he added.
He was joined by Martin Kelleher, Managing Director of SuperValu, the competition’s main sponsor for the 24th year.
Letterkenny has been awarded the title of Ireland’s tidiest town after 50 years of competing for the prize.
“This is a fantastic achievement for Letterkenny; a really worthy victor”.
“It is recognition of a town that embraces all aspects of the SuperValu tidy towns competition, builds strong community links and has grown each year in the competition”.
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The national initiative was launched by Bord Fáilte, the Irish Tourist Board (now Fáilte Ireland), in 1958 as part of the “Tostal”, a nationwide festival celebrating all things Irish. TidyTowns rapidly developed its own identity and has gone on to become Ireland’s most popular, local environmental initiative.
