Limerick Tidy Towns’ monthly award for July has gone to Salon 35, a beautifully maintained basement property at 35 Cecil Street. Pictured outside the premises being presented with the award by Maura is June Fitzgerald, the owner of Salon 35.

Each year we like to include a basement property as one of our monthly winners to show just what huge potential these premises offer when properly redeveloped and maintained, and Salon 35 is a perfect such example. It is quite clear that June and her staff take enormous pride in the appearance of their basement, from the signage at street level to the traditional iron stairway, floral displays and spotless paintwork below, all of which welcome clients into a bright modern salon. Although, we have made huge strides in cleaning many of the badly littered basements in Georgian Limerick, if other basement owners took as much pride in their properties as June does, our job would be made so much easier, and Limerick as a whole would benefit greatly from not having unsightly littered and derelict basements. Even June’s lovely reaction to the news that her hard work was being recognised by the Tidy Towns Committee was proof of how much it meant to her, and indeed she also expressed how much she would love if all basement owners followed suit.