A new competition to find the best place to live in Ireland has announced a long list of 25 villages, towns, cities and districts with the winner to be announced at the end of June.
The Irish Times newspaper is running the competition to find Ireland’s best location with the judging panel headed by the paper’s environment correspondent Frank McDonald.
The current list of 25 candidates will be narrowed down to category winners and an overall champion.
The long list includes five villages, 10 towns of varying sizes, four regional cities, one rural district and five suburbs or urban villages.
The paper has announced the contenders as follows:
The villages are: Ardara, Co Donegal; Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary; Eyeries, Co Cork; Fourmilehouse, Co Roscommon, and Portballintrae, Co Antrim.
The towns are: Skerries, Co Dublin; Clonakilty, Co Cork; Killarney, Co Kerry; Westport, Co Mayo; Greystones, Co Wicklow; Birr, Co Offaly; Carrick-on- Shannon, Co Leitrim; Abbeyleix, Co Laois, and Athlone, Co Westmeath and Sligo town.
There are five Dublin suburbs: Rathmines, the Glenbeigh Road area in Cabra, Clondalkin, Sandymount and Ranelagh. The four cities are: Cork, Derry, Galway and Waterford.
The Dingle peninsula also features on the list of the final 25.
For the Best Place To Live award, the Irish Times invited people to nominate the place they lived and explain its appeal.
The rules ensured all kinds of habitats were eligible: a town or city suburb, a village or remote rural spot, a tiny community halfway up a mountain, a street, a road or a housing estate.
The competition attracted 563 entries from the public, across 32 counties.
The judges are: Dr Maureen Gaffney, adjunct professor of psychology and society at University College Dublin; Paul Keogh, founding partner of Paul Keogh Architects and former president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland; Gerard O’Neill, chairman of Amárach Research and a co-founder of Hireland.ie; Irish Times environment editor Frank McDonald and Irish Times journalist Edel Morgan.
A team of researchers will now visit all 25 nominated areas.
The paper says the winning place will receive a location-appropriate plaque or sign noting the accolade.
The winner also be profiled in the paper and will be the subject of a short film commissioned by The Irish Times.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.ciaradexy | Jun 16, 2012, 09:27 AM EDT
lads, this is based on people nominating the place they live in as a great place to live. It wasnt voted for by tourists. Michaelidaho, the reason there has been little outflow of native Americans is because the white man killed so many and now they pretty much live separated from the rest of the population which is a result of immigration.
michaelidaho | Jun 15, 2012, 09:34 PM EDT
Bythebay, I was making an observation of the changes in Ireland since my previous visit to Ireland. I was NOT offering my opinion on the value of multiculturalism. It was interesting your remark on the similiarities between the U.S.A. and Ireland in terms of multiculturalism. However, there is a major difference between the two countries in this regard. In the United States, immigrants have been coming to the country in droves since its inception, and there has been little outflow of native born U.S. citizens. The opposite is the case with Ireland. It has only been since the late 1990s that significant numbers of multicultural immigrants have entered the country. Moreover, there is now a significant outflow of Irish born citizens, especially the younger generation, whilst the recent multicultural immigrants have largely remained. It is quite obvious that the current state of multiculturalism and immigration in Ireland is quite different from the U.S.A. I will leave the Idaho comment for another day.
ciaradexy | Jun 15, 2012, 01:02 PM EDT
Bear, youre still American regardless of where your ancestors are from. You will NEVER be considered Irish in Ireland.
Bythebay | Jun 14, 2012, 03:40 PM EDT
michaelidaho, the US is full of foreigners since it is a nation of immigrants. Ireland is a multi-cultural country, if those of you in the US do not care for multiculturalism or immigrants then of course you can stay in the US in your own nation of immigrants. You're probably best suited in Idaho where you probably haven't had immigrants in decades.
michaelidaho | Jun 14, 2012, 11:29 AM EDT
@GeorgeDillon, Yep. I was in Athlone a month ago. It is now like many medium sized towns in Ireland -- empty housing estates, full of foreigners and hardly any Irish people in their 20s and 30s. The smaller towns in Ireland are worse -- empty housing estates, empty storefronts, empty pubs, a varying numbers of foreigners, and little business in the towns. I drove from East Mayo to Leitrim and it seemed like the country was deserted. Much worse than the 1970s or 1980s. In one town, I went to three pubs looking for an evening meal between 6:00-7:00 PM. In each pub, the bartender was just sitting and watching television, there were no patrons and was told no dinner was served after 3:00 PM. I finally got a meal at the town hotel and the few people there were mostly French tourists. The owner of the hotel was actually from England. Not to understate the obvious, but Ireland has changed a great deal since my last visit in 1996, at least in the rural areas in the West and Midlands.
Bythebay | Jun 13, 2012, 12:32 PM EDT
Many of the Tidy Towns choices are also good places to visit, or live.
Bythebay | Jun 13, 2012, 10:54 AM EDT
RedBranch, Moate? That's an interesting choice. Have you been in Moate in the last 5 years? Michael Jackson liked it, he had a holiday home nearby and was given the luxury of anonymithy when there.
Bythebay | Jun 13, 2012, 10:50 AM EDT
IrelandNorth, massive problems there in winter with snow/ice. Not that easy to get into Dublin either.
Bythebay | Jun 13, 2012, 10:48 AM EDT
NYCsheridan, ghettoized Americans afraid and unable to mainstream.
IrelandNorth | Jun 13, 2012, 08:02 AM EDT
Roundwood, County Wicklow! (GoogleEarth it!) Not the highest place in all of Ireland - but the highest inhabited(!) place in all of Ireland. Not too far from which is Lough Dan, beside which must be one of the most well appointed houses in Ireland or elsewhere which I would love to own. (Lottery material!) Stunning views while hill walking in summer. Easily accessible from Dublin airport.
GeorgeDillon | Jun 12, 2012, 04:38 PM EDT
michaelidaho: So you noticed it too? Athlone, it's full of foreign migrants. It's got to have one of the highest percentages of foreign migrants in Ireland, 25% I'd say. Weird. Mostly Africans and Poles, from what I saw, but I know the Chinese are moving in in a big way. At least the Chinese will work or study, I've never heard of Chinese drawing welfare.
mowalker | Jun 12, 2012, 03:58 PM EDT
my vote would be for Westport.
hyattsville | Jun 12, 2012, 10:10 AM EDT
@bear022013 – your mind is a miniscule mess and not somewhere I’d like to visit never mind live. By your reasoning then the only people who deserve to live in the U.S. are Native American Indians yes?
RedBranch | Jun 12, 2012, 06:11 AM EDT
My vote's for Moate.
CelticQueenUSA | Jun 11, 2012, 11:49 PM EDT
Ardara is #1 in my places to be. Mom came from there!!!
michaelidaho | Jun 11, 2012, 09:48 PM EDT
Athlone ... for best place to live in Ireland. Are you serious? ... Maybe for diversity with all the Asians, Africans and East Europeans now populating a rather drab looking town. Carrick-on-Shannon is a nice town but the empty housing estates that block out the countryside vistas from the bridge are unfortunately now part of the landscape. Westport is an excellent choice and Birr is a very nice town that is often overlooked.
NYCsheridan | Jun 11, 2012, 08:49 PM EDT
Pounder, should we raise a pint at Terminal Bar then? ;)
Kendall | Jun 11, 2012, 06:44 PM EDT
How about Waterville Co. Kerry and Kilkenny for city/town. Sligo should not be on the list kind of a depressing area.
pilib04 | Jun 11, 2012, 12:28 PM EDT
What a lovely list. When I read the headline the first town that came to mind was Ard an Ratha (Ardara).
hyattsville | Jun 11, 2012, 11:57 AM EDT
Great to see Ardara getting recognition. Awesome wee town, with a community spirit second to none. Beautiful location and best pubs too… Nancy’s, Corner House, Teague’s etc.
christilcaugh | Jun 11, 2012, 11:32 AM EDT
I live Killarney! That would have to be my top choice. (Their book shop is fabulous!!)
VDDService | Jun 11, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT
Ardara, Donegal is my favorite!! Have stayed in Curraghmor cottage many times. The road to the right in the picture about 2 miles from the diamond. Favorite pub is Teagie's with Eileen, Ellen jean, John. & friends Richard & Clare, John, Anna, etc.
pounder | Jun 11, 2012, 10:51 AM EDT
Woodlawn/Yonkers.Commonly referred to as Bronkers.
tharkin | Jun 11, 2012, 10:32 AM EDT
Clondaklin...... for best suburb???? The local bars have (No Joke!) Military type curled barbed wire outside of them... Anyone who knows Ireland knows that West Donegal is a special place, stunning, Cold windy & wet like... But stunning!
mcdolan | Jun 11, 2012, 10:08 AM EDT
No contest -- go Carrick-on-Shannon!
TheOldPerfessor | Jun 11, 2012, 09:53 AM EDT
Castlegregory in Kerry is the town we have our eye on for retirement...