WESTPORT WILL celebrate winning The Irish Times Best Place to Live in Ireland award in a community event at Westport House, Co Mayo tomorrow.
All residents of the town have been invited to the event, which will showcase a large number of community groups in Westport and will include live music, children’s entertainment, sporting activities and food stalls.
There will also be a panel discussion on the role of community in modern Ireland chaired by journalist Kathy Sheridan, who reported on the competition.
The competition began in March. The newspaper invited people to nominate the place they lived as the Best Place to Live in Ireland and to write a short pitch, explaining its appeal.
All kinds of habitats were eligible: a town or city suburb, a village or remote rural spot, a tiny community halfway up a mountain, a street, a road or a housing estate. From early April until late May, the competition attracted 563 entries from all 32 counties.
The judges were Dr Maureen Gaffney, adjunct professor of psychology and society at University College Dublin; Paul Keogh, founding partner of Paul Keogh Architects and former president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland; Gerard O'Neill, chairman of Amárach Research and a founder of Hireland.ie; Irish Times Environment Editor Frank McDonald and Irish Times journalist Edel Morgan.
Westport was announced as the winner on June 25th. Ms Gaffney described it as “a place of such quiet civilisation, a little gem of a town, glowing with colour – and not a single piece of litter”.
In his pitch to nominate the town, local citizen John O’Callaghan wrote: “Westport has this profound attraction that makes me want to return there again and again and live there.
“Why? Because Westport has it all. Lovely people, lots to do, excellent employment, fantastic amenities, gorgeous scenery, a thriving arts and cultural scene, great sports and leisure facilities, a palpable community spirit, a choice of good restaurants, fine schools, a caring social services centre, an active retirement group, flourishing overseas partnerships and more.”
Irish Times editor Kevin O’Sullivan and managing director Liam Kavanagh will present awards to town officials and to John O’Callaghan.
To see the video of Westport, enter "Westport Irish Times" at YouTube.com. You can read all 563 entries for the competition at irishtimes.com/bestplace.
