Banagher, one of the most picturesque villages on the Shannon, will pull out of the Tidy Towns Competition this year in protest over Government inaction on the national litter problem - unless radical action is taken.
The protest will take the form of a one-year token withdrawal from the competition, in which Banagher has performed very well over the past 10 years.
Mr Malcolm Ross-MacDonald, honorary secretary of the Banagher Tidy Towns Committee, said that over the past two decades governments have introduced impressive anti-litter laws.
"Unfortunately," he said, "they have not enforced them and, as a result, it seems to me that some group, somewhere, must take a stand to help focus attention on what is happening.
"Twenty-five years ago, when I came to live in Ireland, a lot of laws were not being enforced. Take, for instance, the anti-drink driving laws, which were being flouted all the time. Now there is no question of anyone flouting these laws and they are being enforced. " Why can this not happen with the litter laws, which have been developed over the same period?" he wants to know.
"We keep getting colourful leaflets and brochures advising us about litter and how to control it but there is litter everywhere and the laws are not being enforced at all. The only people who are trying to do anything are the local council, and I must say Offaly County Council is doing a tremendous job to cope with the situation.
"We have decided in Banagher that, as this is a national, not a local problem, we will make our own statement by a token withdrawal from the competition," he adds.
Mr Ross-MacDonald, who has been honorary secretary of the local Tidy Towns Committee for the past 10 years, says he does not see anything strange about boycotting the competition as a protest. "We would prefer not to do this and we will continue to work to improve the town and make it even tidier, but if it makes someone in authority sit up and think, then it will have been worthwhile." The next part of the campaign will be to write to national newspapers to highlight what Banagher is doing and see if other towns will join in.
"If other towns join us, then perhaps something positive may happen," he said.