The water’s fine, the surroundings are clean, access is easy and the signs make sense – if that’s your local beach then chances are it got a blue flag to prove it.
The annual Blue Flag awards were announced on Friday and the beaches that can tick all the important boxes now get to fly the physical version for the coming season.
In total, 85 beaches, nine marinas and, for the first time, an eco-tourism boat operator, were awarded blue flags.
Green Coast awards were also awarded to 73 beaches, recognising stretches of coastline where conservation efforts are a high priority.
Twelve beaches earned both awards: Balcarrick, Donabate in Fingal; Salthill, Silver Strand and An Trá, Inis Oírr in Galway; Inchydoney Beach East in Cork; Baile an Sceilg (Ballinskelligs) in Kerry; Bettystown in Meath; Enniscrone and Rosses Point in Sligo and Bunmahon, Tramore, and Clonea in Waterford.
The schemes are a European Union initiative begun in the 1980s to try to encourage local authorities, in partnership with communities and local organisations, to make the best of their beaches.
An Taisce runs the schemes in Ireland and oversaw a steady rise in the number of beaches and marinas making the grade although numbers have levelled off in recent years.
Most of the awardees work hard to hold on to their flag year after year while those who have lost them strive to regain them.
Duncannon, Co Wexford and Bunmahon in Co Waterford regained flags for the first time in 19 years and 14 years respectively after water quality issues improved.
Skellig Bounty, operated by Aqua Terra Boat Tours on Valentia Island in Co Kerry, is the first tourism boat to be awarded a Blue Flag.
All counties with a coastline, excluding Limerick and Leitrim, received at least one Blue Flag, as did landlocked Westmeath, which can fly a flag at Quigleys Marina, Killinure Point.
Six beaches that were awarded the Blue Flag in 2025 have not been awarded it this year.
These are: Lahinch in Co Clare; Fountainstown in Cork; Portsalon in Donegal; Ardmore Beach and Counsellors’ Strand, Dunmore East in Waterford; and Ballymoney, North Beach in Wexford.
They lost out after their previously “excellent” rankings for water quality slipped to a “good” ranking.