Galway City received a Gold Medal at the Supervalu TidyTowns National Competition 2025 on Friday 24 October at Croke Park in Dublin – demonstrating a marked improvement on previous year’s scores and recognising the tireless work of Galway City’s TidyTowns Committee, volunteers, city centre businesses, and Galway City Council Litter Management crews, Biodiversity Officer and Environment staff.
The overall winner of Tidiest Town 2025 was Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim, with 400 points. Galway City Centre came close with 376 points awarded in 2025. This is the first gold medal for Galway City Centre in the Tidy Towns National Competition, having previously achieved three bronze medals and four silver medals in the competition.
Mayor of the City of Galway, Cllr Mike Cubbard said; “It’s great to see Galway City recognised at the TidyTowns National Competition this year with a gold medal. Our crews are out on the streets from 5am every morning, getting the city ready for a new day – with power washing, bin collection and biodiversity and environmental education initiatives on-going throughout the year. Galway City Council is proud to partner with proactive businesses and volunteers in Galway City TidyTowns to make the submission on behalf of our city, and it’s great to see this work recognised at the national level”.
Chair of the Galway City Centre Tidy Towns Committee, Cllr. Níall McNelis said; “I am delighted to see the hard work of the TidyTowns Committee, local businesses and Galway City Council be reflected in this year’s scores. This year’s TidyTown’s submission captured the creativity in our public spaces and the work that’s been done on biodiversity in our parks. I look forward to seeing our scores rise again in next year’s competition as the hard work of TidyTown’s Committee and everyone involved continues.”
The TidyTowns competition is a national competition organised by the Department of Rural and Community Development. Galway City Council continues to support the great work of the Tidy Towns committee - the competition embodies positive community engagement, with businesses, residents, community groups, schools, colleges and environmental groups collaborating to care for Galway City.
This year, 929 towns were competing for the prestigious awards demonstrating the continuing huge national interest in the SuperValu TidyTowns competition, which has been running since 1958. This is the highest number of entries ever received in the competition’s history.