This article is from page 59 of the 2012-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 59 JPG
THE community spirit of the Clare Tidy Towns effort was celebrated on Thursday night by the county’s flagship centre in the national competition over the last number of years.
Ennis was presented with seven different awards on the night, with the chairperson of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committee, Áine Purcell hailing what she called “a back to basics” approach as being the major contributory factor for the county capital’s achievements.
“In Ennis this year what we decided to do was go back to basics,” Ms Purcell revealed when accepting the award for Ennis as Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre. “We led by example. I know Tuamgraney do it, I know Mountshannon do it, I know Kilrush do it – I know all of you do it.
We asked people. People like to be asked. Everyone likes to be part of a community so we asked people.
“We didn’t make any emails, we didn’t make any phone calls, we didn’t write any letters – all 22 of us just went around and asked people. It paid off very well in that there’s a tradition that we’re very proud of, but it paid off more importantly in that it brought everyone together as a community,” he added.
Ennis’ other honours were as in the Gum Litter Taskfore competition, where the town was named both the large urban centre and national winner, the Tourism Town Award, the County Award, as well as a Gold Medal and the Shannon Region award winner.
“One of the highlights for me personally,” continued Ms Purcell, “was after we won the award as Ireland’s largest urban centre, someone said to me in the street ‘didn’t we do well in Dublin’.
“That was powerful because there was a sense of ownership in that because it was the community coming together.
“We are very, very fortunate in Ennis in that we have a very positive and great working relationship with our town council. Any positive relationship that you can foster is brilliant. SuperValu are to complimented for promoting Tidy Towns and promoting bringing communities together,” she added.