Irish Towns Guide

IBAL – The Irish Business Against Litter – have released their latest results on the litter in  50 towns and cities in Ireland.

Wexford came out as the cleanest place out of the 50 places in the survey – with Tallaght coming out as the worst Litter Blackspot.
Of course – there could be towns cleaner than Wexford and just as dirty as Tallaght – but only towns with populations over 6000 are included.

Here is the full table of rankings  released in August 2010

1 Wexford Clean to European Norms

2 Longford Clean to European Norms

3 Blanchardstown Clean to European Norms

4 Drogheda Clean to European Norms

5 Carlow Clean to European Norms

6 Trim Clean to European Norms

7 Killarney Clean to European Norms

8 Clonmel Clean to European Norms

9 Ballincollig Clean to European Norms

10 Lucan Clean to European Norms

11 Sligo Clean to European Norms

12 Ennis Clean to European Norms

13 Fermoy Clean to European Norms

14 Dungarvan Clean to European Norms

15 Letterkenny Clean to European Norms

16 Kildare Clean to European Norms

17 Waterford City Clean to European Norms

18 Cavan Clean to European Norms

19 Dun Laoghaire Clean to European Norms

20 Dundalk Clean to European Norms

21 Bray Clean to European Norms

22 Kilkenny Clean to European Norms

23 Tullamore Clean to European Norms

24 Tralee Clean to European Norms

25 Ballinasloe Clean to European Norms

26 Arklow Clean to European Norms

27 Mallow Clean to European Norms

28 Galway City Moderately Littered

29 Dublin City Moderately Littered

30 Newcastlewest Moderately Littered

31 Enniscorthy Moderately Littered

32 Swords Moderately Littered

33 Tramore Moderately Littered

34 Roscommon Moderately Littered

35 Mullingar Moderately Littered

36 Cork City Moderately Littered

37 Youghal Moderately Littered

38 Cobh Moderately Littered

39 Navan Moderately Littered

40 Tuam Moderately Littered

41 Wicklow Moderately Littered

42 Ballina Moderately Littered

43 Nenagh Moderately Littered

44 Newbridge Littered

45 Castlebar Littered

46 New Ross Littered

47 Monaghan Littered

48 Athlone Littered

49 Limerick City Littered

50 Midleton Seriously Littered

51 Naas Seriously Littered

52 Portlaoise Litter Blackspot

53 Tallaght Litter Blackspot

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Yet another litter survey by  IBAL  . The 2009 results were released today (Jan 4th 2010)  The  litter survey covers 60 towns with  over 6,000 population . Sites are graded by An Taisce according to international standards.

The cleanest town was Bray – whilst the two dirtiest were Limerick and Wicklow.

IBAL Anti Litter League Final Results 2009

1 Bray

2 Cavan

3 Drogheda

4 Clonmel

5 Longford

6 Wexford

7 Carlow

8 Sligo

9 Celbridge

10 Blanchardstown

11 Ballincollig

12 Dundalk

13 Mullingar

14 Trim

15 Portlaoise

16 Navan

17 Roscommon

18 Dún Laoghaire

19 Tramore

20 Shannon

21 Killarney

22 Leixlip

23 Dungarvan

24 Ballina

25 Castlebar

26 Kilkenny

27 Fermoy

28 Swords

29 Balbriggan

30 Newbridge

31 Newcastlewest

32 Midleton

33 Ashbourne

34 Thurles

35 Enniscorthy

36 Youghal

37 Monaghan

38 Lucan

39 Cobh

Moderately Littered

40 Waterford City

41 Buncrana

42 Tullamore

43 Arklow

44 Gorey

45 Galway

46 Ennis

47 Tuam

48 Tralee

49 New Ross

Littered

50 Cork City

51 Dublin City

52 Naas

53 Nenagh

Seriously Littered

54 Ballinasloe

55 Tallaght

56 Letterkenny

57 Athlone

58 Mallow

Litter Blackspots

59 Wicklow

60 Limerick City

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According to the Sunday Times league table of the top secondary schools in Ireland 2008 – these are the top 20 schools in Connacht. The positions are based on entry to third level institutions only – so may not be a very accurate assessment of a school. (Pupils may have taken Grinds elsewhere). In the absence of any government assessment  of school performance in Ireland – it is all we have to go on and is better than nothing at all.  There are no published figures or exam results for schools in Ireland – mainly because teachers are against it. Maybe if we saw exam results some  teachers might not stay in their jobs .
(M=Mixed, B=Boys, G= Girls)
The figure shown next to each school is thepercentage of Leaving Cert pupils entering third level in Ireland.

1 Scoil Damhnait, Achill, Co Mayo M 7 84.6
2 Seamount College, Kinvara, Co Galway G 76.2
3 * Marian College, Mohill, Co Leitrim M 75.0
4 Mount St Michael, Claremorris, Co Mayo G 74.5
5 Jesus & Mary Secondary School,Salthill, Galway G 70.4
6 Colaiste Iognaid SJ, Sea Rd, Galway M 70.0
7 Ursuline College, Sligo G 69.6
8 Colaiste na Coiribe, Tuam Road, Galway M 67.7
9 Presentation College, Athenry, Co Galway M 63.8
10 Scoil Muire gan Smal, Roscommon G 61.7
11 Holy Rosary College, Mountbellew, Co Galway M 60.5
12 Dominican College, Taylor’s Hill, Galway G 60.3
13 Scoil Mhuire, Ballinasloe, Co Galway G 60.0
14 St Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, Co Mayo G 58.7
15 St Joseph’s College, Nun’s Island, Galway B 58.3
16 St Gerald’s College, Castlebar, Co Mayo B 57.5
17 Colaiste Cholmain, Claremorris, Co Mayo B 54.9
18 Colaiste Cholmcille, Inverin, Co Galway M 53.1
19 Sligo Grammar School, The Mall, Sligo M 52.8
20 Presentation College, Tuam, Co Galway G 52.7

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Tallaght is the dirtiest town in Ireland – that’s according to “Irish Business Against Litter “  They are an alliance of companies who say they share a sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity  is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment. As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors all towns of population 6,000 and over, independently in accordance with international grading standards.

The first round of results were published today and 3 towns came out as being Litter Blackspots. These towns were  Tullamore , Roscommon and worst of all was Tallaght .
The towns of Bray , Ballina,  Cobh,  Enniscorthy,  and Longford did not come out too well  either – they were all classed as Seriously Littered.

Slightly better – but still classed as Littered were the towns of Athy, Kilkenny ,Limerick City, Cork City, Ranelagh and  Mallow
Ennis came out top of the League out of  55 towns and cities in Ireland.

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Census 2006 figures released last week – show that Ballina in  Mayo  has 92.9% of it’s population that stated their religion was Roman Catholic. Of all the towns with more than 5000 population – Ballina was the town with the  highest percentage of Catholics.
The total percentage of Catholics in Ireland as a whole is 86.83%

Top Ten  towns for percentages of Catholic residents:
Ballina  92.9%
Carrick-on-Suir  92.82%
Buncrana  92.54%
Thurles 92.37%
Clonmel  91.99%
Tipperary  91.47%
Dunboyne  91.41%
Newcastle West 91.33%
Mallow  91.24%
New Ross 90.96%

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The streets of Letterkenny must be quiet in the mornings. Letterkenny has the lowest percentage of workers who leave home before 6.30am to go to work. Just 2.24% of working people in Letterkenny said that they leave the house that early . Census 2006  figures  from towns with more than 5000 people – show that  154 people out of 6883 in Letterkenny – said they have to leave the house before 6.30 in the morning.
At the other end of the scale we have Edenderry in Offaly where almost 1 in 5 workers (18.84%)  have to leave home before 6.30.
Other irish towns where  not many workers don’t get up before 6.30
Sligo  2.62%
Killarney  2.63%
Castlebar  2.9%
Passage West 3.24%
Ballina 3.26%
Westport  3.37%
Limerick City  3.59%
Cork City  3.63%
Carrigaline 3.73%
Dungarvan  3.74%
Galway City  3.78%

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According to census 2006 figures on the time that people leave the house to go to work – Westport has the highest percentage of workers who don’t leave the house until after 9.30 am. (Out of all towns with more than 5000 population)
298 workers in Westport out of 2013 (1.48%) said in the census that they left their house to go to work after  9.30am. Other towns with high percantages of  late risers include  Ballina Longford Birr
 Castlebar Athlone Galway City Sligo Killarney .
At the opposite end of the scale is Lusk – where only 0.38% of workers manage to get such a good lie in each weekday.

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The town of Longford has the highest unemployment rate in Ireland – of all towns over 1500 population.
Census figures show that the percentage of unemployed people in Longford is 11.14% – compared to a national figure of 5.89%. Longford has  almost double the average rate of unemployment.
Top Ten Towns for Worst Unemployment
Rathnew
Abbeyfeale
New Ross
Ballina (Mayo)
Carrick-on-Suir
Enniscorthy
Athy
Castlecomer-Donaguile
Cootehill
All these towns have rates of unemployment above 8.68%

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The 2006 census asked people if they were of Traveller background. In Tuam Co Galway -  7.81% of the town answered Yes – the highest percentage in Ireland. The town with the second highest concentration of Travellers is Longford at 4.63%. Other popular towns for travellers are:
Birr  – 4.15%
Ballinasloe   3.2%
Ballina   2.83%
Tullamore   2.81%
Newcastle West  2.46%
Monaghan  2.21 %
New Ross  2.15%
Castlebar  2.04%

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