The Award ceremony for Galway City Council’s ‘Spaces for Biodiversity’ Competition was held on Monday 15 December at the Connaught Hotel. The competition is organised by Galway City Council to recognise and celebrate the efforts of residents throughout the city in putting biodiversity first in their gardens, estates, and public areas. Cllr. Helen Ogbu was in attendance to present the prizes.
The competition has evolved over the years, with last year seeing a pivot towards raising awareness and appreciation of both the ecological and well-being benefits of embracing biodiversity. This year’s competition really captured the imagination with some outstanding examples of the people of Galway managing their own gardens to encourage biodiversity and enhance the potential of these areas to act as ecological corridors for the wider city.
St. Patrick’s Primary School took the award for schools’ category with the judge noting how the school has transformed their urban school grounds into a thriving pollinator habitat. The attendees were also treated to the fantastic school choir who got everyone in the festive spirit with a medley of Christmas carols.
The competition coordinator, Galway City Council’s Environmental Awareness Officer Fergal Cushen, commented, “The competition recognises and promotes the work of individuals and communities to enhance biodiversity across the city. We cannot underestimate the value of gardens in providing niches for nature, particularly in our urban spaces. Each entry is a testament to what is possible is transforming our private spaces into havens for nature.”
Cllr. Helen Ogbu commented, “It is a great honour to present the winners with these certificates and each recipient has shown enormous pride and respect for both the natural environment and the city of Galway. Across all the entries, gardeners showed they are keen to maintain and enhance biodiversity within our city and a willingness to adapt their own areas to the benefit of biodiversity.”
All the entries demonstrated spaces for diverse habitats through a variety of pollinator and bird friendly plants, wildlife ponds, fruit and vegetable patches and plenty of hiding spots for small animals and insects.
Merlin Woods Community Garden was a well-deserved winner in the ‘Community Group Project’ category and was noted as being an exceptional model of grassroots biodiversity and community stewardship.
Galway City Council are also very grateful to Dangan Nurseries, who once again kindly sponsored the awards and provided vouchers to some of the lucky winners.
For further information on the competition visit https://www.GalwayCity.ie/Spaces-For-Biodiversity
Galway City Council Spaces for Biodiversity 2025 List of Winners
Private Residential Spaces
Ballybane: 1st Mary Delany
Headford Road: 1st Sean Hynes
Knocknacarra: 1st Aideen Ward
Rahoon: 1st Alan Sixsmith
Renmore: 1st Tony Kelly
Salthill: 1st Mary Hodkinson/ Ciaran Ryan (Overall Winner)
Shantalla: 1st Hannah Kelly
Corrib Park/Newcastle: 1st Conor Grennan
Overall Category winners:
Best Front Garden Overall: Mary Hodkinson/ Ciaran Ryan
Best Window Boxes: Niamh Hegarty
Less than 50 Houses: Lakewood Park, Dyke Rd.
50-200 Houses: Wellpark Grove
Winner: St. Patrick’s Primary School
Community group project:
Winner: Ard Gardening Group – Merlin Woods Community Garden