Killarney, Co Kerry, has beaten competition both North and South to be named Ireland's best-kept town for 2007 at an awards ceremony in Dublin Castle yesterday.
Southern towns and villages won three of the four awards in the North/South competition, which was established in 1995 to raise the profiles of the tidy towns competition and Northern Ireland's best-kept towns competition.
In addition to the overall award, Killarney won the best-kept large town category; Letterkenny, Co Donegal, won the best-kept large urban centre award; Tallanstown, Co Louth, won best-kept village; while Broughshane, Co Antrim, the only northern winner in the competition, received the best-kept small town award.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who presented the awards, said he was impressed by the hard work and great enthusiasm of all the competitors, particularly in an age where people had less spare time.
"Overall, there is more pressure on personal and family time, and less time for other activities. As a result, there are often fewer of us available to participate in the kind of community effort that the Tidy Towns and Best Kept movement represent."
However, it was a pity there were no Dublin towns participating in this year's competition, he said.
"All the towns involved made a major effort, but I would like to see more towns in Dublin and more Dublin villages participating. In the past they have won and I would like to see that again."
Yvonne Quill, chairwoman of the annual Killarney competition, Killarney Looking Good, said that the town had undergone a complete transformation over the last 20 years.
"Killarney was once declared by the Tidy Towns, back in the 1980s, a honky-tonk town full of litter and plastic signs. It's taken a lot of hard work to get where we are today but now Killarney is not just looking good, it's looking great."
Richard Barry, chairman of the Tallanstown Tidy Towns committee, said it was a great achievement for a small village to be recognised by the Best Kept competition.
"It means a lot to us and it's good preparation for the national tidy towns competition later in the year, we're really aiming for that," said Mr Barry.
