Limerick village shows its true colours for Pride of Place
Pride of Place: Mary OGrady, Carole Cleary, Noreen ODonovan and John Lonergan of Knockainey Community Council preparing for the Pride of Place judging
FIVE communities across County Limerick are putting the finishing touches to a host of displays, exhibitions and events which they hope will delight the judges of this year’s Pride of Place competition when they visit next week.
Over three days, the judging panel of the all-island competition will inspect the work in each of the communities – Lough Gur, Castleconnell, Knockainey, Kilmallock and Foynes as they bid to take national glory in their respective category. Each area was nominated by Limerick County Council and will be up against other communities of similar size, or of similar projects, from other counties.
Judging will begin on Wednesday in Castleconnell (Category 4 – population 1000-2000) and in Lough Gur (Single Issue – Cultural Tourism).
Next it’s the turn of Knockainey.“There has been a huge amount of working going on over the last week or two in preparation,” explained Mary O’Grady, chairperson of Knockainey Community Council.
To coincide with the visit of the judges, the village - which has been entered in Category 3 (Population 500 to 1000) - will host a mini village fair.
“We are having a community breakfast party which is kicking off at 9.30. There will be breakfast for everyone who attends, bouncy castles, a mobile farm and face painting,” Ms O’Grady continued. “There will also be an art exhibition for local artists, and all the local clubs – there are 32 active clubs in Knockainey – will have their own display within the community centre,” she added.
The judges will spend two and a half hours in each place and during their visit to Knockainey they will also take in a 20-minute powerpoint presentation which will give them an insight into life in Knockainey.
From Knockainey the judges will make their way to Kilmallock to inspect Riverview Estate which will compete in Category 9 – Housing Estates. And finally, on Friday the judges will travel to Foynes to judge the St Senan’s Social Services (Single Issue – Active Elderly).
Limerick County Council has been confirmed as the host authority for this year’s awards event, which will be held at Thomond Park on November 3.
The five Limerick communities will be hoping to emulate the success of recent years, including 2011, which saw Cappamore Housing Estates Committee as the overall winner of the Housing Estates Category, and Adare as runners up in Category 3, catering for population centres of 500-1000 residents.
Meanwhile, the village of Knockainey, is just one of a number of projects in County Limerick which is receiving a fresh lick of paint as part of the Dulux Let’s Colour Project.
Locals have pulled together to do a revamp of their town including various streetscapes and walls which were badly in need of a new coat of paint. According to Debbie Carroll of the Knockainey Tidy Towns Committee, they were “not short of volunteers happy to pick up a paint brush to give the various streets a lick of paint”.
Other projects to receive help are Bruff Heritage Group; Caherconlish Playground and Castleconnell Scout Campsite.
To check for updates on completed projects and what other communities are doing and for details of the 2012 Dulux Let’s Colour Project, log onto www.facebook.com/duluxireland
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Limerick
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
