Letterkenny in County Donegal is officially the cleanest and tidiest town in Ireland.
The town was named overall winner of this year’s Irish Tidy Towns competition yesterday, beating 860 other towns and villages to the title.
Established in 1958, the annual Tidy Towns awards draw huge interest across Ireland. The competition was set up by the then Bord Fáilte to encourage communities to to make their towns more pleasant places to work, visit and live in. The first overall winner of the award was Glenties in Donegal while Malin in Inishowen is also a past winner.
Huge crowds turned out last night to welcome the Letterkenny Tidy Towns committee home after they were presented with their award by the Republic’s Environment Minister, Alan Kelly at the Helix at Dublin City University.
Chairwoman of Letterkenny Tidy Towns committee, Ann McGowan said the town had been trying to win the overall award for more than 50 years.
"Our aim was always to enhance the appearance of the town in a planned and coordinated way, making it a more attractive place in which to live, work and do business," she said.
Other category winners announced yesterday included Clonegal, Co Carlow (tidiest village); Listowel, Co Kerry (tidiest small town) and Westport, Co Mayo (tidiest large town).
