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The National Tidy Town’s Award Results sponsored by SuperValue were announced today and from a County Tipperary and Thurles Town point of view, these results make very interesting reading indeed.
First allow me to congratulate Killarney in winning this year’s award for the Tidiest Town in Ireland and also scooping the first prize for Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town. Out of a possible total mark of 400, Killarney gained another 3 marks above last years score of 307, winning with an overall total of 310 marks.
While it is not my personal view you understand, many Tipperary people point out that with Killarney’s God given natural scenery and the endless amount of Tourism and other public Development funding, which floods into this area on a weekly basis, it is most surprising that they do not win every year.
 Liberty Square Thurles Tipperary Ah, but pay no heed to that kind of talk, it’s all just jealousy and sure Kerry people will understand these unkind remarks. You see, unlike Tipperary, Kerry have the ability to select political representation who have real proven ability, and who actually appear for work in Dail Eireann every day, thus succeeding in ‘Bringing home the bacon,’ on a weekly basis.
Our congratulations must also go to Lismore in Co Waterford, this years winners of the Tidiest Small Town Award.
County Tipperary Tidy Towns Results
In Category A, The Bronze Medal Awards with a prize fund of €400 goes to Tipperary’s former winners Birdhill, with 306 marks and to Terryglass, with a well deserved 299 marks. Terryglass is also Highly Commended.
Also Highly Commended is Clonmel in South Tipperary with a whopping 298 marks. Now here I find myself in somewhat of a quandary, because this same year, yes 2011, IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) branded this fair town as”Littered,” no not “Moderately Littered,” or a “Litter Blackspot,” just plain old “Littered.” Obviously one of these independent judges, and mind you I am not saying which, needs to visit a well known, tried and trusted dispensing optician.
Also deservedly Commended this year is the village of the Silvermines with 290 marks and Kilsheelan with their 293 marks.
Endeavour Awards, plus 5 crisp €100 notes apiece, goes to the Tipperary towns of Capparoe (223 marks) and not surprisingly Cashel (285 marks).
Again congratulations to the hard working Emly Tidy Towns Committee, here in Co. Tipperary who won the Sustainable Development Award and the Regional REPAK Award, latter with prize funding of €2,000.
Cloughjordan Tidy-Towns Committee, are also in the winning enclosure, taking the Climate Change Award and it’s prize fund, again of €1,000.
In Category E, Thurles was the only town in county Tipperary that did not bother to take part in this years Tidy Towns Competition. Rumor has it, (Only a rumor mind you, nothing confirmed as yet.) that the paper work got accidentally placed in the wrong envelope by our Local Town Councillors, so now you know why Queen Elizabeth II didn’t get her invitation on time, to visit her native town earlier this year, she was sent the Tidy Towns application form in error.
Ah, sure not to worry, these little accidents do happen, t’was an honest mistake and sure it happens to me self all the time, especially when I go to paying my utility bills. As the wife said last week, in the harshest possible descriptive adjectives available in the English vernacular, “You” said she in a loud voice, “Are idiotic, incompetent, ineffectual, bungling and totally unfit to be in charge.” That was me of course she is was referring too and not Thurles Town Councillors, you understand.
Heavens forbid that me missus should insult any of those fine body of men and women, who work so tirelessly, on a daily basis, giving leadership, while carrying out the wishes of their future electorate.
 While most of Ireland has received a clean bill of health in the first round of the latest survey by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), Dublin has been slammed for its worst result in years. Large parts of our Capital City, including the approach roads from Dublin Airport as well as the North inner city, were found to be heavily littered, branding Dublin City as a “Litter Black-spot.”
The league table of just 53 areas across the country showed two thirds of towns and cities to be clean to European norms, among them the cities of Waterford, Galway and for the first time, Cork. Also for the first time since the League began, Killarney Co Kerry took the coveted accolade of cleanest town, with the An Taisce examiners calling it “A superb result for our No.1 tourist town.”
The cleanliness rating for the country as whole was the highest since IBAL began its surveys ten years ago, with over 20 towns deemed to be cleaner than their European equivalents.
Results for Tipperary, however, demonstrate mixed fortunes, in this IBAL Anti Litter League’s 1st Round Results for 2011, with the towns of Tipperary and Clonmel branded as “Littered.”
Congratulations however to the town of Nenagh, branded as “Littered,” in 2009, it has now greatly risen in the ranks and is now listed as “Clean to European Norms.”
Thurles Town did not come under the scrutiny of IBAL in their latest findings, however it was found “Clean to European Norms,” both in 2009 and 2010.
Source Of Irish Litter
Surprisingly Sweet wrappers were found to be the most prevalent source of national litter at 61%, not surprisingly Fast Food wrappers at 51%, Cigarette butts 45%, Plastic Bottles 36%, Chewing gum 34%, Plastic Bags 29%, Cans 26%, Glass Bottles 18%, Coffee Cups 14%, Dog fouling 11%, ATM dockets 10%, Bus / Train tickets 8%, Promotional flyer’s 8%.
Graffiti does not get a mention, however, IBAL has warned that the rise in vacant and derelict properties is contributing greatly to increases in litter and unsightliness in certain areas of the country.
 Sinister element of Irish rural culture revealed. The illegal poisoning of wildlife is still a very sinister element of our rural culture, which I regret, shows no sign of disappearing in this country.
My remark is borne out by the deliberate killing of two Buzzard chicks discovered by BirdWatch Ireland volunteers, near Roscrea in Co. Tipperary earlier this month. The bodies of the birds were found close to three poisoned, hand reared and tethered pigeons, used as bait to attract the birds to their untimely death.
BirdWatch Ireland state that this incident was particularly abhorrent, particularly since Buzzards are a farmers friend, only eating rabbits, crows, magpies, fresh road kill, rats and mice and are no threat to farm animals. Buzzards will however, like other meat eating creatures, feast on a larger animal carcase, which it finds already dead.
The Buzzards’ nest near Roscrea was being monitored by two volunteers from BirdWatch Ireland’s Raptor Conservation Project since early spring and the live pigeon bait was found tethered to the ground heavily coated with the banned poisonous insecticide Black Carbofuran. The pigeons had their wings clipped to prevent any chance of escape. A day after the dead buzzards were found another live, poison coated pigeon was discovered tethered close the same area.
The Buzzard species is protected by law and is indigenous to Ireland. The species were absent in Ireland from the late 19th century until 1933, when a pair of birds bred in Co Antrim. The species has spread slowly down from the north and are now established in almost every county in Ireland.
An investigation has now been launched and anyone with information is asked to contact the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Tel: 057 91 37811 or Birr Garda station Tel: 057 91 69710.
Note: This crime is especially irresponsible, as had a local child discovered these stricken pigeons and tried to help them, they could very easily have suffered a similar fate to the unfortunate Buzzards.
 Thurles: 6.00am following a Nenagh Debutants Ball earlier this week. In a letter to the Tipperary Star newspaper this week, local Thurles resident, Mary MacMahon, confirms what this website highlighted on March 2nd and August 3rd last, condemning the lack of respect for Thurles town, it’s business people and it’s residents.
Mary’s photograph, showed toilet rolls strewn around the car park area, further highlighting this serious and recurring latest problem.
People shouting and screaming, urinating in doorways, the endless blasting of car horns, motorists racing up and down the streets or performing hand brake turns in Lidl car-park, the endless rubbish dumped from fast food outlets together with broken glasses and bottles dumped onto our streets or into private gardens, all now contributing to a new phenomenon and an observable fact, to those who love our town.
Name And Shame
(Please click on all images for larger pictures.)
Our picture above, show the state of Thurles streets following a recent visit by outside students from Nenagh celebrating their Leaving Cert results. It seems that in the course of their 11 years of publicly funded education, no one explained that Third Level Grant aid is not provided personally by County Councillors and Government Ministers, as they would have us believe, but by taxpaying business people, whom they grievously offended this week, by interfering with their personal property.
Supermac’s in Liberty Square, through their nightly trading, indirectly add much to Thurles town’s litter problems on our main street. Indeed early morning walkers inform us that the footpath outside this food retail outlet, resembles sticky ‘flypaper,’ with ignored, discarded chips, and chicken nuggets, trodden into and carpeting the sidewalk.
 Tesco's Emmett Street entrance every night. We also have reports that Tesco are following the old medieval tradition of emptying their dirty cleaning water, each evening, unto Emmett Street, at the rear of their Liberty Square premises, thus further enhancing their already graffiti ridden exterior walls and their publicaly displayed cardboard recycling station. This germ filled water then enters directly into the river Suir or is distributed around the town on the wheels of motorised vehicles, thus confirming Tesco’s stated watch words, “Everything you will find in the supermarket and much more.” (Possibly should have said nothing as they will now probably dump this germ filled liquid, directly into the river.)
Question: Where are the C.C. TV cameras, to which we all contributed through local Thurles Chamber fundraising events over the last number of years, and which have also been promised annually year after year by Thurles Town Council ?
True for my wise old grandmother, “Sure idle hands eventually become the Devil’s workshop.” If you want to judge the cleanliness of an establishment, said she, check their toilet facilities. “If their public toilet is filthy, can you just imagine what their private kitchen must look like.”
We have needed changes to our law for a long time now, so is it not time for Minister Alan Joseph Shatter to introduce Community Service, under the supervision of Probation Officers and also to introduce a law making parents responsible for young offenders actions? Remember just one prisoner in our jails currently costs Irish taxpayer, on average, €70,000 each per year. Spending cuts to be made here Minister, and like you state on your website, we also “Look Forward With Hope.”
Readers why not give us your views by commenting hereunder? We would love to hear from you.
 Graffiti Idiots Blight Thurles I am aware that the word ‘Idiot,’ is an offensive term in a now modern politically correct country like ours. It used to refer to someone with an IQ of about 25 or under and with a mental age of less than 3 years, so until today this word has rarely passes my lips.
However a quick stroll around the town of Thurles today has been truly a series of eye-openers.
That blight called ‘Graffiti Vandalism,’ which Thurles people previously would associate with large inner city housing estates, has suddenly struck our beautiful Thurles and it shows no signs of abating or indeed the vandals responsible being detected and the eyesore removed.
This destruction of our local environment, using spray paint, can in no way be interpreted as Art, this is raw vandalism at its worst.
Several ugly bits of graffiti have sprung up, most noticeably down by the usually picturesque River Suir walk, as can be seen in the picture on the left. These vandals have also been busy along Mitchel Street, Rossa Street, Friar Street, to name but a few areas of the town.
What shop sold this spray paint and to whom? It surely is unlikely that adults purchased it for their children or is it?
Perhaps when local Town Councillors return following their ‘Summer Recess,’ they might ask our local police station to investigate. Maybe our sleeping Tidy Towns Committee, if latter still exists, or our local Chamber of Commerce might also take an interest, thus preventing Thurles from looking like a Ghetto. Thurles Town is not yet at least a poverty-stricken urban area with severe social, economic, and legal pressures.
It has to be said, though, that this graffiti idiot or idiots are not very mentally bright, as some of them seem to have incorporated their names or nicknames into parts of their wanton vandalism displayed on numerous walls. Thankfully, this should make the job of police, tracking down these idiots, a bit easier, well that is if anyone locally really cares anymore. When apprehended, a hefty fine should be imposed on these people or their parents, and those administering justice should also insist that all traces of their stupidity be erased solely by the offender, and under close supervision. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to fork out any more money than is necessary, to remove this blight on our lovely landscape.
As I continued strolling around, it also stuck me that litter really is once again becoming a major problem in Thurles. I saw empty cans and other trash, literally a few feet from Town Council dustbins. It beggars believe that people would choose to litter, when a suitable bin is provided close by. Perhaps these litter bins should be re-painted a brighter colour, as seemingly some people are oblivious to their very existence.
As I walked on, I saw several shopping trolleys dumped in the river, as well as Garda traffic cones and other various other bits of rubbish.
Of course I understand that the majority of Thurles people are litter-conscious and do use the litter bins properly, but it is always the mindless few idiots that ruin the environment for the rest of us.
What do you think? Should the litter bins be re-painted to stand out more? Is the litter problem in Thurles getting worse? Please do comment.
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