Even the weather and the seals oblige as Skerries faces Euro-judgment day

IT was a very important visit, so vital that everything was planned down to the last detail. The route was walked and timed to see how long it would take from each stop off point. Organisers carried mobile phones to let each other know when the dignitaries were moving from each location.

The flowers had all been planted and watered, the town was sparkling. Derelict buildings had been transformed. Gardens were tended, hanging baskets were blooming, and window boxes brightened the streets.

It was the judging of the Europe wide Entente Florale competition and this year the seaside town of Skerries, Co Dublin, was the large town chosen to represent Ireland in the event. In previous days the 11 international judges had been to Rathvilly, Co Carlow, to judge the Irish small village entry.

Entente Florale is like an international tidy towns competition, with the emphasis on enhancing the environment through flowers.

In Skerries on judgment day late last week the town was buzzing. The atmosphere was carnival like even at 6.30 a.m., when there was a last minute clean up.

People were out hosing gardens, painting shop fronts, picking up litter. Tension turned to expectation and afterwards great relief that everything had gone so well.

For Ms Anne Doyle, Ms Maeve McGann and the eight other women on the Skerries tidy town committee it has been non stop since the day last October when the Department of the Environment let them know the town was Ireland's entry in the competition.

This was because of their standing in the Tidy Towns Contest, having won the large town award in 1994 and the county award two years running.

They worked at getting sponsorship, preparing a programme for the judges, planting flowers, cleaning up derelict sites. Roofless houses were painted, including blocked up windows, which were decorated to look like windows with garden boxes.

The results will be announced on September 9th, and the awards ceremony will be five days later.

The Irish entry has a special feature. "So much work here is done voluntarily compared to the other European countries where the councils do most of it," said Anne Doyle. The judges were definitely impressed with the community involvement.

The committee was impressed with the work of Fingal council, which planted 25,000 flowers. The council was also involved with FAS in the refurbishment of a windmill and water mill.

Travelling through the town by pony and trap and Clydesdale horses, the judges stopped at the Garda station where Garda Denis Forde had created a massive floral display.

On the day the weather was brilliant and even the seals obliged. When the cavalcade rounded the head at Red Island where the Artane Boys' Band entertained the visitors, over a dozen seals were frolicking in the water.

When one of the judges joked that the seals must have been pulled by strings, one of the committee members quipped. "All we have to do is clap our hands and up they come." And just as she clapped three heads popped out of the water.