By Paddy Clancy

GO west for order and tidiness in Ireland. That’s the message from the annual Tidy Towns contest which this week was won by Westport, Co. Mayo.

The town’s one-point victory over Aughrim, Co. Wicklow, sparked a massive celebration along the western seaboard not just because the prize — and the inevitable boost it brings to tourism in a winning town — was scooped west of the Shannon.

The west was on song because several other major prizes in the 700-town contest also went west.

Birdhill, Co. Tipperary, just a few miles from Limerick city, was judged to be Ireland’s tidiest village. The country’s tidiest large urban centre was Ennis, Co. Clare, and Galway city’s Eyre Square took the National City Neighborhoods award.

Assessing Westport, the judges said the town had developed further since its high showing last year. Community spirit had been galvanized and the support of many agencies enlisted.

There was also praise for “the meticulous maintenance of streetscape and landscape projects which continue to raise standards.”

Westport citizens were jubilant. Town Council chairperson Tereasa McGuire said, “We have structures in place where networks of people went out and cleaned. We even got the schools drawn in. People with no involvement in the Tidy Towns project quite willingly went around picking up rubbish and putting it in the nearest bin.”

Batt O’Keeffe, minister of state at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, said at the awards ceremony, “West-port’s winning of the competition shows what real people can achieve, and is a testament to those people and their communities.”

It’s only the second year the town has won the overall title in the 49 years since the competition began in 1958.