Two Tipperary projects shortlisted for environmental accolade

The shortlist for Ireland’s Greenest Places 2026 has been announced and two of the eleven nominees which have made it through to the final of the competition are from Tipperary.

They are The Circular Square in Clonmel which has been nominated in Ireland’s Greenest Community category, and Cloughjordan Community Development Association in the Greenest Town or Village category.

It’s Tipp v Waterford in the final of the Greenest Town or Village category, with Cloughjordan CDA going head-to-head with Ardmore.

The Circular Square will be up against three others in the Greenest Community category: Enniscorthy Community Allotments in Wexford, Siopa Glas in Ballon, Co Carlow and Treasure the Tolka in Dublin.

Cloughjordan Community Development Association

Few places in Ireland boast an environmental legacy on par with Cloughjordan, the Tipperary town that holds the country’s first ecovillage, which featured on last year’s long list.

The submission from Gearóid Ó Foighil was not for the ecovillage itself, but for the Cloughjordan Community Development Association (CCDA), which he describes as “the social and community development vehicle for Cloughjordan”.

The association collaborates with heritage and Tidy Towns groups, and has partnered with Coillte, the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS), and the raised bog restoration programme at Scohaboy which is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). As Ó Foighil says “it’s a case of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

The Circular Square, Clonmel

According to Louise Lalor’s submission, the Circular Square is “Clonmel’s repair and reuse community hub”. She is one of a handful of volunteers at the centre of the not-for-profit community space, which houses a toy library, a clothes swap, a repair cafe and a couple of repair services.

The Circular Square has been running for about 12 years, facilitating sustainable practices of borrowing, fixing and swapping used items, and teaching its attendees new skills.

“As a group of reuse, repair, and rewear enthusiasts, we want to make it easy for people to repair, borrow, swap and learn new skills. We host a Repair Café, two textile creative repair clubs, a general repair club and a bike repair club, clothes swaps, and a very popular toy library. The core aspirations of bringing several important circular activities under one roof while catering for the community it is based in, makes us unique in Ireland.”

This is the second year of ‘Ireland’s Greenest Places 2026’, an initiative which is being run by The Irish Times in association with Electric Ireland. It began in late May when members of the public were invited to nominate a special place, person or project which they believe contributes to a genuinely greener environment.

The category winners and overall winner of Ireland’s Greenest Places 2026 will be announced on the weekend of the 2nd /3rd of October.

Over the last couple of months, close to 90 nominations were received from across the island and after reducing that number to a longlist of over 20 the judging panel has now confirmed the 11 finalists.

Awards will be made to Ireland’s Greenest Community, Greenest Suburb, Greenest Town or Village, Overall Winner, and a new category for individuals this year, Ireland’s Net Zero Hero.

That award will go to someone who stands out for their exemplary work in driving a particular project or in inspiring others to act, in coordinating community efforts. Three people have been shortlisted in that category.

Eamon Ryan, a former minister for the environment and leader of the Green Party, is one of the judges. He said they had been inspired by the quality and diversity of the environmental projects being undertaken around the country.

“It was extremely difficult in the first instance for us to come up with the long list and more difficult again to come up with the shortlist. Congratulations to the 11 places, projects and people who have made it onto the shortlist but also to everyone who entered and is doing such valuable work all over the country.”

“Many of the locations have benefitted from truly transformative action, changing both physically and culturally as a result of collaborative green projects. And the new Net Zero Category has highlighted the role being played by climate action leaders across our communities. It is wonderful to see their work being recognised through this initiative.”

Judging in each category was based on specific criteria including its beneficial environmental impact, level of ongoing collective engagement by the community and evidence of behavioural change by people.