For the third year in succession, the west Cork town of Clonakilty has won a major international environmental competition. In 1999 the town won the Tidy Towns competition, last year it won the Gold Award in the International Entente Florale competition for a town of its size, and last night it was celebrating the Gold Award in the Nations in Bloom competition, which it won earlier in the week in the southern China town of Shenzhen.
Members of the Clonakilty Tidy Towns Committee, who organised its participation in the event returned last night, having beaten off competition from 50 countries.
Clonakilty was one of 21 towns selected to go through to the finals and was then voted the winner for towns with a population of less than 10,000 people. Mr SΘamus O'Brien, a member of the organising committee, said the award was a great honour and meant Clonakilty was "on a bit of a roll. All we can do now is maintain our standards and try to win the Tidy Towns competition again," he added.