Longlist of Ireland's Greenest Places 2025 announced: Mayo and Dublin lead with six nominees each
James Cox
What do Taplin’s Fields in Dublin’s Liberties, Inishturk in Co Mayo, the Three Sisters Gardening Community in West Belfast and Quin in Co Clare have in common?
They have all made the longlist of Ireland’s Greenest Places 2025 competition and are therefore among the contenders for the overall title which will be announced next month.
Other places to make the long list include Harper’s Island in Cork, Rathcroghan in Roscommon, Castlegregory/Maharees in Kerry, Derrybeg in Kildare and Ambrosetown in Wexford.
‘Ireland’s Greenest Places 2025’, an initiative, which is being run by The Irish Times in association with Electric Ireland, began in late May when members of the public were invited to nominate a special place or project which they believe contributes to a genuinely greener environment.
Over the last couple of months, over 120 nominations were received from across the island and the judging panel has now whittled that number down to 26.
The chair of the judging panel, Irish Times Features Editor Mary Minihan said they had been hugely impressed by the quality and diversity of the environmental projects being undertaken around the country.
“It was extremely difficult for us to come up with the long list and we spent many hours reviewing and debating the entries. But that is a real compliment to the excellent quality of the work being done in the projects and the places which were nominated. Congratulations to the 26 projects who made it on the long list but also to everyone who entered and is doing such valuable work.
“Each place was judged on specific criteria including its beneficial environmental impact, level of ongoing collective engagement by the community and evidence of behavioural change by people. What was really pleasing to see is that the greening of so many places across Ireland has flipped from the cosmetic to delivering substantial environmental dividends.”
The longlist includes 3 suburbs, 5 villages, 5 towns and 13 communities. Mayo and Dublin lead the way with a total of six nominations across the four different categories, with Kerry next on 3. Clare has two with nine other counties on one.
The panel of five judges includes Eamon Ryan, former leader of the Green Party, who said the Ireland’s Greenest Places initiative shows just how much community-led- environmentalism has deepened and spread in recent years.
“At a time when people are anxious about climate change and biodiversity loss, it helps to think global but act local. The long-listed entries show the variety of what is taking place around Ireland. People in every community seem to be looking to see what they can do by promoting pollinators, planting trees or establishing sustainable energy or transport solutions.
“Gone are the arguments that local people shouldn’t be doing these things because it is the State’s responsibility. Everyone can now see the returns that can come when you work from the bottom up as well as the top down.”
The shortlist for Ireland’s Greenest Places 2025 will be announced at the end of the month with the category winners and overall winner announced a fortnight later.
