Athboy as finalist in Ireland's Best Kept Towns 2023 awards

Hannah McNamara

This year's Ireland's Best Kept Towns awards saw Athboy as a finalist in the Best Small Town category.

The all island winners were announced at an awards ceremony in Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park, Dublin on the 20th June 2023.

Each category of the competition featured three nominees. The categories were as follows village, small town, large town and large urban centre.

Each location was inspected and marked against 'strict adjudication criteria' that included cleanliness, the outward appearance of buildings, the presentation of roads and public facilities and the natural environment.

The general impression of Athboy was:

"Athboy has retained its local character and exudes a pleasant ambience. The town is working towards being an Age Friendly centre and caters to some degree for Universal Accessibility also. The community is well catered for with recreational amenity facilities such as walkways, allotments, a playground, sports grounds and a wonderful Fairgreen all within walking distance of the core of the town and all very accessible."

Athboy Tidy Towns were "absolutely thrilled" to have been selected as a finalist in the Ireland's Best Kept Towns 2023 competition:

"We always strive to make improvements to the town of Athboy and it was wonderful that the efforts of Athboy in being a best kept town were recognised at a national level. It gives us even more motivation to continue to improve, protect and enhance our fabulous town of Athboy."

Ireland’s Best Kept Town is an all-island competition in which some of the best towns in the SuperValu TidyTowns competition compete against their counterparts in Northern Ireland’s Best Kept competition.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys T.D., congratulated the winners and nominees of the 2023 competition:

"I want to congratulate all of the winners and nominees in the all-island Best Kept Town competition. The all-island Best Kept Town Competition recognizes the great pride people have in their own communities, both in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Being nominated for these awards represents an achievement in itself, and is recognition of the efforts made by volunteers and local communities.”

To see who the other nominees and winners of this competition were click here.