MTT Awards Night 2025
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Full House for Monaghan Tidy Towns Annual Awards Night
Monaghan Tidy Towns held their annual awards presentation evening in the Westenra Hotel last week to celebrate a wide range of businesses and individuals from across the town, all of whom have been making an important contribution to the TidyTowns effort. Monaghan Tidy Towns’ Chairperson, Emer Brennan detailed the towns success in 2025, “We are delighted to have retained our gold medal award and added another 15 points to our TidyTowns score as well as a county award. We have also retained a Top 5 placing in the Irish Business Against Litter League (IBAL) for two years now. The Committee is very grateful to everyone who has done their bit to keep the town looking well. These awards have been one of the foundation stones for continued improvement for over 15 years now. The committee would like to thank everyone who has made a contribution to the growing success of Monaghan Town in the TidyTowns National Competition. The TidyTowns effort takes into account much more than the work of the committee and volunteers, it encompasses the work of the community in keeping their own businesses, homes and gardens well-presented and nature friendly, the work of schools on their Green Flags, the work of council ground staff and support staff, particularly horticulturalist Michael Carroll, Carol Lambe and Biodiversity Officer Patricia Mc Creesh, not to mention the involvement of so many other interconnected voluntary organisations in the town.” “We are especially grateful for our council horticulturalist Michael Carroll who has brought great innovation to landscaping and of course council ground-staff for their hard work. There’s also the Climate Action Officers, the Heritage Officer and the Environment Section providing support. We also really appreciate the support of St Joseph’s CE Scheme, The Men’s Group, the Men’s Shed and all our volunteers and resident’s groups. All this combined with the excellent presentation of businesses in the town is making a big difference to our Tidy Towns results and has been invaluable in helping towards our ambition to retain gold medal status. Special mention was made of local businesses who had joined volunteers as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) days (AIB, MDE, SEUPB) and who had sponsored projects such as Energia, Farrans and particularly Flemings Supervalu who have sponsored landscaping projects on the North Road beside the Model school and at the Pound Hill, both of which have added greatly to the towns’ appearance. Gordon Fleming was on hand to present some of the awards on the night. The Chairperson continued “This year our independent judges were provided by Maynooth Tidy Towns who came to visit us in Monaghan. One of the great benefits of Tidy Towns is the networking that exists between groups both within the county and we will be arranging a return visit to Maynooth in due course,” she said. Before announcing the award winners, the importance of appropriate paint colours for shop fronts was underlined as well as the need for planning permission for new shop fronts. It was pointed out that many people do not realise that planning must be sought for changes to shop fronts. Inappropriate shop fronts affect the whole street and the town. Businesses were also asked to avoid plastic flowers in window boxes and hanging baskets. The award winners were as follows: Best Shop Front was Wilsons, Church Square. The judges loved the colour scheme in deep green with red awning and clean lines with the stylish wooden façade to Market Street. The pavement outside was immaculate, demonstrating civic spirit and responsibility, with attractive shop window arrangement. Best for Floral Display was Dinkins, Church Square, with an abundant and colourful array of window boxes providing a prominent and attractive dimension to the town centre. Best Pub, as always, was very competitive, and here the judges decided on Tír nan Og, Park Street, for its attractive colour combinations adorned with a stunning array of red geraniums in first floor window boxes. Best Business Front, the judges were extremely impressed with the exemplary, stylish and spotless exterior and car parks of Hanley Energy. Best Service Station for 2025 was Applegreen on the Clones Road. Applegreen had received multiple nominations and was admired for attractive summer flower boxes, fresh car parking and particularly attractive seasonal décor and window painting. Sam’s Bridge/Maxol at Cool Shannagh, multiple award winners, where attention to litter is always first class and an excellent example to all were presented with the special Hall of Fame award for excellence over several years. Best Window Display went to Boyles in the Diamond; judges were highly impressed with their “classy” autumnal display on show at the time. The Hospitality category includes hotels, restaurants and B&Bs and saw the award return to The Hive, admired for its tasteful colour scheme in hues of green but also for its more original window boxes featuring grasses and greenery completed with tasteful rudbeckia in planters by the door. In the Green Estate category, Beechgrove Lawns stepped up to take the prize, one of the estates featuring in the Pocket Forests Climate Action project, Beechgrove Residents have been very active in 2025. Mullaghmatt-Cortolvin were honoured with a Hall of Fame Award for the lead they have been taking in biodiversity and sustainability actions. Mullaghmatt Cortolvin has its own biodiversity plan and has accessed funding to implement it. The small estates award was taken by Cathedral Walk, which the judges described as very attractive and well kept. The Best Garden Awards nominees included Bernie Lappin, Danuta kunydlawska, Violet Mc Cabe, Majella Keenan, Monica Treanor, Thomas Costin, Michele Coogan, Agneiszska Sikora, Susan Raftery, Doreen Leonard and Inita Circule. The “Kerb Appeal” category was won by Fiona Mc Cleary, Manor Wood. The winner for Large Garden was Brian Byrne, St Macartan’s Tce., with Elaine Hyde, Westenra Tce., taking the award for small garden and the overall garden award of the Coogan Cup. This year’s Community Heroes Awards went to Justine Erskine, Rehab, Michael O’Hare, and Mise Day Services for their work in keeping the Diamond Car Park, in particular, litter free. The Men’s Group and the Mens Shed were honoured for their fantastic support The final award of the evening was a special new cup sponsored by Kevin Redmond, Andy’s Bar and Restaurant, in honour of the late Joe Connolly and the community spirit and example Joe had provided in the town for so many years. The cup was presented by Kevin and members of Joe’s family to Kenin McGuire for his unstinting hard work, dedication and creativity in supporting so many Tidy Towns biodiversity and circular economy projects. Cathaoirleach Councillor Seamus Treanor completed proceedings with an address to all present. The Tidy Towns Committee would like to thank all those who attended to support the award winners on the night. Special thanks to Phil Collins and Roseanna Myles for all their support with the organisation of the garden awards and to Maynooth Tidy Towns for their insightful judging of the other categories. |
Shop Front - Wilsons
Best Pub - Tir na nOg
Hospitality - The Hive
Floral Display winner - Dinkins Restaurant
Colour Scheme and shopfront example - Gillsnders, Market St.
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