{"id":646692,"date":"2026-10-06T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/646692\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:52:10","slug":"ardmore-receives-irelands-greenest-places-award-from-eamon-ryan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/646692\/","title":{"rendered":"Ardmore receives Ireland\u2019s Greenest Places award from Eamon Ryan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ardmore, Co Waterford<\/a>, was honoured as the overall winner of Ireland\u2019s Greenest Places at a ceremony in Dublin on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

In the second year of the competition, run by The Irish Times in association with Electric Ireland, the seaside fishing village beat competition from about 90 other entries. With a population of just 500, its collaborative ethos was key.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a small community,\u201d said Henry Murphy, who accepted the award on behalf of Ardmore. \u201cThere\u2019s relationships there. The Tidy Towns, the GAA club, the schools \u2013 we\u2019re all interlinked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education is central to Ardmore\u2019s operations \u2013 building a succession plan for their environmental work by teaching local children what they do. They offer a blueprint for any town or village around the country looking to improve its climate action. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s making that initial start really,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThere\u2019s one or two of us in the village are probably guilty of being addicted to applying for grants at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Greenest Places judge and former Irish Times environment editor Kevin O\u2019Sullivan said the victory was well deserved and \u201cthe clear verdict of all the judges\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that long-term perspective,\u201d added his fellow judge Eamon Ryan<\/a>, the former minister for the environment. \u201cIt takes time to change things, but if you don\u2019t start, [it doesn\u2019t happen].\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s Greenest Place 2027: the winners in all categoriesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The title of Ireland\u2019s Greenest Community went to Treasure the Tolka, a project devoted to cleaning and depolluting its titular river. <\/p>\n

Cloughjordan Community Development Association (CCDA) was crowned Ireland\u2019s Greenest Town. <\/p>\n

Rosewood Estate in Ballincollig, Co Cork, won Ireland\u2019s Greenest Suburb. <\/p>\n

Paul Johnston accepted the award of Ireland\u2019s Net Zero Hero on behalf of his wife, Jacinta Barrins. <\/p>\n

Treasure the Tolka, a group founded eight years ago by GP Toby O\u2019Mahony Adams, meets regularly on Saturdays, often in packs of 20. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people appreciate the river and how important it is, but don\u2019t feel that they can do anything about it because it\u2019s behind a barrier,\u201d O\u2019Mahony Adams said. \u201cTreasure the Tolka has overcome some of those barriers with ladders and with gumption.\u201d <\/p>\n

Amid a wide range of green initiatives, Cloughjordan Community Development Association (CCDA) managed to convince 52 landowners to assist in its flagship project, the rewetting of Scohaboy Bog. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really [about] getting people on board,\u201d said Gear\u00f3id \u00d3 Foighil, accepting the prize for the CCDA. \u201cWhat\u2019s brilliant about this award is this is for all of wider Cloughjordan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosewood Estate is \u201can older estate\u201d with a \u201cgreat sense of community\u201d, according to Dan O\u2019Riordan.<\/p>\n

Five years ago, the Rosewood residents\u2019 association set about tackling a two-acre field that had been \u201cunloved, overgrown, ignored\u201d for years. It began by planting a variety of trees, developing the site over time into the thriving wildflower meadow and amenity it is today.<\/p>\n

Paul Johnston said his wife Jacinta Barrins\u2019s environmental work revolved around empowering older adults to take meaningful climate action. It was that project \u2013 her climate course for over-55s \u2013 that kept Barrins from attending the event herself. <\/p>\n

\u201cQuite often, the older cohort is a group that really argues. Why should I bother with climate change?\u201d Johnston said. \u201cWhat motivates her is to try and explain to them why they should be bothered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jillian Saunders, group sponsorship and PR manager at the ESB, said the energy provider was pleased to be involved with Ireland\u2019s Greenest Places for a second year, and thanked the winners for attending the ceremony and sharing their stories. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ardmore, Co Waterford, was honoured as the overall winner of Ireland\u2019s Greenest Places at a ceremony in Dublin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8935,61,60,16087,43,6513],"class_list":["post-646692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-eamon-ryan","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irelands-greenest-places","tag-news","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646692","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=646692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}