Buncrana tidies up as Donegal’s top town

By Paul McElwee

BUNCRANA folk were celebrating this week after the town scooped the accolade of being Donegal’s tidiest town for the third year in a row.

The news emerged as the annual Tidy Town’s competition, sponsored by SuperValu, announced their winners at Friday’s ceremony in Croke Park, which was live-streamed to countless watchers hoping their town would emerge victorious.

The national title was won by Ballincollig in Cork.

As well as becoming Donegal’s tidiest town, Buncrana also came away with a Gold Award, scoring a healthy 383 points from judges whilst also picking up a highly commended certificate for the Local Authority Pollinator Award.

Competition was fierce in the county with just one point separating Buncrana from Letterkenny, also winning a Gold Award.

Silver medals went to Raphoe and Moville and bronze medals were awarded to Malin, Glenties and Carraig Airt.

Finally, Donegal Town was victorious by winning the Endeavour Award, a prize awarded to the town in every county which made the biggest percentage improvement on their previous year’s score.

Donegal Town Community Chamber congratulated the town’s committee for their 22 point increase, saying, “This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the committee and the wider community. We would like to thank Donegal County Council, local agencies, schools, sports clubs, and businesses for their ongoing support and contributions to these projects.”

The Buncrana Tidy Town’s team spoke of their happiness at the achievement with a spokesperson saying, ““It feels amazing to represent our fantastic community and citizens and bring home the gold. Thank you to everyone who helped, donated, championed and supported us throughout the year, we couldn’t have done it without you.”

In a magnanimous gesture, the team also took time to congratulate the people of Letterkenny and all the other gold medal winners on the evening as well the teams from regional winners Westport and Ballincollig, who were national champions.

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