The Galway Arts Festival and Castlegar village flew the flag for the city and county at All-Island IPB Pride of Place Competition, where they both received awards.
The Galway Arts Festival won top spot in the Cities Cultural Tourism category. The judges said the festival is “a ‘must see’ event in the arts world calendar. The commitment and number of volunteers was most impressive making a significant contribution to its success. There is a variety of events in many different venues throughout the city attracting very large attendances. The city becomes an international destination and the number of visitors and quality of the exhibitions speak of a high profile occasion with a building reputation”.
Castlegar took runner up prize in the ‘Community areas with populations less than 1,000’ category. This follows on from Castlegar’s recent entry in the national Tidy Towns competition.
Two other groups represented Galway city in the competition, COPE Galway in the previous prize-winners category and Oaklands, Salthill, in the Housing Estate category. All four groups were nominated by Galway City Council earlier in the year and were visited by judges in July.
At the event the winners were congratulated and presented with their awards by Jan O’Sullivan Minister of State at the Department of Environment; Christopher Moran chair of Co-operation Ireland; Tom Dowling, chair of the Pride of Place Committee; and Ronan Foley, IPB chief executive
