![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/001d7724-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLahinch Beach in Co Clare is among the beaches to have lost the blue flag status<\/p>\n
The Blue Flag, one of the world’s most recognised environmental awards, has been awarded to 85 beaches and nine marinas in Ireland.<\/p>\n
The awards are designed to raise environmental awareness and promote good environmental management of beaches, marinas and eco-tourism boats.<\/p>\n
The Skellig Bounty Tourism Boat in Co Kerry received an award for the first time in Irish Blue Flag history.<\/p>\n
Duncannon Beach in Co Wexford has been awarded a Blue Flag for the first time in 19 years.<\/p>\n
Bunmahon beach in Co Waterford has been awarded a Blue Flag for the first time since 2012.<\/p>\n
An Taisce, which is responsible for the operation of the Blue Flag programme, said Duncannon and Bunmahon beaches were given the awards in part due to a significant improvement of in-season bathing water quality.<\/p>\n
Watch: Duncannon residents ‘delighted’ beach awarded blue flag for first time in 19 years<\/p>\n
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Kerry has been awarded with the most Blue Flags, with a total of 16 flags given to the county.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, six beaches that were awarded the status last year have not retained it this season.<\/p>\n
They are: Lahinch, in Co Clare; Fountainstown, in Co Cork; Portsalon in Co Donegal; Ardmore Beach and Counsellors’ Strand, Dunmore East, in Co Waterford; and Ballymoney, North Beach, in Wexford.<\/p>\n
The Blue Flag requires beaches to receive an ‘excellent\u2019 classification in water quality.<\/p>\n
Each of the beaches to lose their Blue Flag status had a water quality of ‘good’ – the second highest classification.<\/p>\n
Globally, 53 countries operate the Blue Flag programme and more than 5,200 beaches, marinas and tourism boats will be awarded the Blue Flag this year.<\/p>\n
\nLahinch Beach in Co Clare is among the beaches to have lost the blue flag status<\/p>\n
An Taisce is also responsible for the awarding of the separate Green Coast Awards, which recognises beaches for their clean environment, excellent water quality and natural beauty.<\/p>\n
Voluntary ‘Clean Coasts’ groups participate in community clean-ups and help manage the beaches along with local authorities.<\/p>\n
The main purpose of the Green Coast Award programme is to foster partnerships within communities in an effort to protect and enhance local coastal environs.<\/p>\n
A total of 73 beaches are being presented with the Green Coast Award today, the highest number to date.<\/p>\n
Cork received the most Green Coast Awards this year, with a total of 13 beaches being awarded.<\/p>\n
Cork has also achieved the highest combined number of award flags with an overall total of 25.<\/p>\n
Wexford and Waterford have been awarded the second most with 10 Green Coast Award beaches each.<\/p>\n
Waterford has the most first-time Green Coast Award beaches in 2026 at four.<\/p>\n
Cliff stabilisation works at Grange Beach in Co Wexford have been required at two locations, resulting in temporary restrictions on public access.<\/p>\n
Grange has been designated as a Green Coast Award site for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
However, the award flag cannot be flown at the beach until all works are completed and the beach has been reopened to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Flag, one of the world’s most recognised environmental awards, has been awarded to 85 beaches and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-450369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}