REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT TALLANSTOWN 2010 TIDY TOWNS CELEBRATION DAY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT TALLANSTOWN 2010 TIDY TOWNS CELEBRATION DAY SATURDAY, 7TH MAY, 2011
Dia dhibh a chairde agus comgháirdeas.
I am delighted to be with you today to celebrate Tallanstown’s fantastic achievement in becoming Ireland’s tidiest town in 2010. I thank you for inviting me to share in your celebrations - although I’m sure today is not the first occasion that your win has been celebrated since that happy day last September when you heard that magical announcement in the Helix Theatre in Dublin!
Although County Louth may in spatial terms be the smallest county in Ireland, it has a massive heart. In 2010 Tallanstown showed just how wonderful ‘small’ can be when for the first time in the long history of the competition you brought home the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Town to County Louth. As they say in this part of the country, you have every reason to feel ‘Louth and Proud”!
Today we celebrate your community, your hard work and your dedication. The commemorative plaque to be unveiled will stand proudly in your village as a recognition and reminder of your achievement and also as an inspiration to those who follow; to encourage them to keep on maintaining and developing the exceptional standards that you have set.
Tallanstown has entered the TidyTowns competition for many years and your record has been one of sustained and consistent progress. Through hard work and perseverance, you advanced steadily through the ranks until you secured a bronze medal in 2005, a silver medal in 2006 and then gold medals each year since 2007. From my involvement with TidyTowns over the years, I know how challenging the competition’s standards are and how difficult it is to separate towns and villages at the top end of the competition. That you have achieved the award of Ireland’s Tidiest Town is testament to the massive and sustained effort put in by your small, united and vibrant community, a lot of it by volunteers whom we celebrate and encourage in a special way this year, the European Year of Volunteering.
Your victory was grounded in the effort of everyone who lives and works in this place. It would not have been possible without the massive support of the entire village and not just for an hour or a day but consistently day in and day out for years. I hope you will join me in congratulating the people who have given their time and resources in working towards this great success. Residents, the school, local businesses, FÁS workers, Louth County Council, (especially Mary Murtagh who has done tireless work for the County Louth TidyTowns movement over the years), and all other public agencies; you should all be very proud of your contributions to this magnificent outcome. I would like to acknowledge also the enabling role of the sponsors for their continued support and generosity.
Tallanstown is, of course, no stranger to that life enhancing sense of community responsibility and endeavour. As many of you know, Sir Vere Foster was a renowned philanthropist whose family seat, Glyde Court, was situated nearby. His concern for others was inspired by the suffering he witnessed during the Famine. He campaigned for improvements to shipping conditions for those forced to leave the country and also did much for the improvement of local education, providing free furniture to national schools throughout the country. It is therefore very appropriate that Sir Vere Foster is commemorated here in sculpture as his spirit of selfless commitment to the welfare of others is clearly part of the collective values that motivates your village community today.
That same selflessness is what has kept the TidyTowns competition going and growing for over fifty years so that it now involves more than 760 towns and villages. They say that what is learned in childhood is engraved in stone and the children of Tallanstown have watched the adult volunteers and made their own contribution especially through the junior litter warden scheme. Hopefully they will do what it takes to add more Tidy Town plaques to the one I am unveiling today.
I would like to acknowledge your TidyTowns Committee, people like Anne Sheridan who co-ordinates the three times a day litter-picks and Tom Neary who is responsible for your wonderful floral display. They are just two among the very many helpers and leaders who have brought success and recognition to Tallanstown. Between you all you have made Tallanstown a beautiful place to live and to visit.
It has been a great privilege for me to be associated with the TidyTowns movement during my two terms as President and I would like to thank all of the communities that have welcomed me to their Celebration Day. It has for me been a great pleasure and frankly a wonderful inspiration, to experience the pride and joy that has infused these occasions. Today is Tallanstown’s day, and I would like to thank you again for inviting me to share it with you. Enjoy the occasion, bask in your achievement. You have won and you have deserved your victory. As for tomorrow, I have no doubt that the hard work will continue. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir agus comhgháirdeas libh arís.