Ballinahown in Co Westmeath has been named the overall winner of the 2026 SuperValu TidyTowns Competition.
The tidiest large town award went to Buncrana, Co Donegal with the small town award going to Abbeyleix, Co Laois. The award for tidiest village was also won by Ballinahown.
Tralee in Co Kerry won the tidiest large urban centre award while the Gaeltacht Award went to Carraig Airt,Co. Donegal. The Young Persons in TidyTowns award was won by Dromiskin, Co. Louth.
The award ceremony took place in Croke Park on Friday and was hosted by RTÉ Sports presenter Marty Morrissey, with Minister for Rural and Community Development Dara Calleary handing out awards to winners across several categories.
All told 936 towns were competing, the highest number of entries ever received in the competition’s history which stretches back to the late 1950s.
“I offer my heartiest congratulations to Balliahown and its TidyTowns volunteers for becoming Ireland’s Tidiest Town for 2026,” Calleary said. “This is a wonderful achievement and a special moment of immense pride for Ballinahown and indeed the wider county of Westmeath.”
He noted how the town had consistently entered the competition over the last 40 years and won Ireland’s Tidiest Village in 2024, – a title it also won this year.
“Ballinahown have finally achieved their goal of winning the competition outright. This achievement today continues to showcase all that is good about resilience, innovation, sustainability, community spirit and volunteerism.”
The minister said the win was “even more impressive given the fantastic results the village has achieved over the last three years with a population of just 160 people. This dedication is at the core of what the competition is all about.”
Calleary hailed the vital role of volunteers across the country “who are working so hard all year round to ensure our communities are vibrant, sustainable places to live, work and visit. The passion and dedication of these volunteers is the embodiment of everything that is good in our communities.”
SuperValu has sponsored the competition for 35 years and the chief marketing officer at the chain’s owner Musgraves, Margaret Barron, said the winning town was “a shining example of what can be achieved when communities come together with a shared sense of pride and a commitment to making a lasting, positive difference to their local area”
There were more than 600 volunteers from across the country present at the ceremony.
About 30,000 volunteers took part in hundreds of Tidy Towns projects through the year so far, representing close to €40 million in economic value.
More than 220 prizes were awarded, with about €270,000 in main awards and €70,000 in special prizes given out.
The national TidyTowns initiative was launched in 1958 by Bord Fáilte, which has since been renamed Fáilte Ireland.
It was born out of a national “spring clean campaign” that ran between 1953 and 1957.