Famously beautiful midlands village to be upgraded for prestigious European competition

DISTRICT Senior Engineer Barry Murphy told the May meeting of Nenagh MD that the Council will improve local approach roads into Terryglass for the upcoming, prestigious Entente Florale Competition 2025.
Terryglass Improvements Association is representing Ireland in the Village Category (population under 5,000) of this year's competition.
The Entente Florale is a Europe wide competition for villages, towns, cities, communities and public bodies administered by the international organisation Association Européenne pour le Fleurissement et le Paysage (AEFP). Each country must choose its entrants from its national Tidy Towns (or similar) competition, and on this basis, thousands of communities in the 12 countries participate on a regular basis.
The results of the adjudication will be announced at a prize giving ceremony in September 2025 in Slovenia (final date and location to be confirmed).
Cllr Michael O'Meara welcomed the news. He pointed out however that the traffic “coming in from the Ballinderry side is going very fast. Please do some traffic calming there.”
Barry Murphy commented that many people's attitude to speeding is very frustrating. “A lot of people's attitude needs to change. A large number of people who think nothing of ignoring the speed limit signs. As well as attitude, the problem is also enforcement.
“The speed limit change in urban areas from 50kph to 30kph will be massively significant. They may need engineering changes to go with them. We may get guidelines from the government about this big speed limit reduction in September, but it has been put back a little bit already.”
Cllr Phyll Bugler pointed out that “A young child was knocked down at a flat pedestrian crossing yesterday. These flat pedestrian crossings are lethal.”
Cllr J.P. O'Meara pointed out that people in the nursing home on the old Birr Road, Nenagh Town, are finding the speeding very dangerous.
Cllr Seamus Morris pointed out that many people are driving badly and dangerously. “I was nearly cleaned out of it yesterday while delivering post. Someone came around a corner in a mad fashion. I don't know how I made it out of it. Speeding is a huge problem. Bad driver behaviour is a common problem. We need to put more road ramps in. And people are also looking at their screens as they are driving. You know, we can put in as many speed signs as we want, but a lot of people don't look at them; they don't pay heed to them.”
Cllr Michael O'Meara welcomed the proposed upgrading road and footpath scheme for Finnoe Road in Borrisokane.
Cllr John Carroll remarked that “the amount of reckless driving out there is unbelievable. Where you have a pedestrian crossing which is flush with the road you have a problem. There's bad driver behaviour at roundabouts. At some of the junctions there must be no indicators in the cars because you don't see them being used!”
Cllr Louise Morgan Walsh commented that people are taking a short cut throughout Yewston housing estate in Nenagh, which is problematic.
Cllr Fiona Bonfield, Cathaoirleach, pointed out that “our budgets are tight. We need more money from government to tackle these problems.”
Barry Murphy said the Finnoe Road improvement works in Borrisokane will be done over a two to three year period – “drainage this year, then surfacing and then footpaths.”
He pointed out that it costs about €50,000 to install a raised table on a road as a traffic calming measure.
Rosemary Joyce, Senior Executive Officer, told the meeting that the Council Executive has received 17 applications from people in Terryglass regarding improvement work in preparation for the Florale competition.