Sinead and her Oran
go to the beach, and they see the rubbish, and think how bad it is.
Sinead says this to Nuala, who says she would like to take bags with
her. I overhear this conversation and straight away I’m feeling “Why
should I collect another mess? I’m here for a walk and anyway it is not
my job to clean up messes.
But then I see the mess on the baech. The 3 of us get to work. But how are we goingb to get the bags we collect disposed of?
I can hear/see the discussion unfolding. We’re talking ourselves out of doing anything.
I
call the Milford County Council telephone number. I’m put through to
Dungloe. A nice man there explains he doesn’t normally deal with this
kind of thing, but he says he’ll take a note of it. (Typical civil
servant, I feel). But am I wrong! By the time we get back to the car
park, 2 hours later, the County Council lorry is wating for us. We’ve
collected 12 bags, but can only carry 2 very heavy bags over the
sand-hills. (There is no road for motor vehicles to Tramore Beach). And
the Council can’t help us get the rest.
But we are not defeated.
Having
read about a clean up on Tamore Beach previously I know that it is
possible to get the job done. So we go on a mission. Eamonn Trearty and
myself go to the Ozanam Centre, as he knows this is the place we talked
to someone who knew the ropes. They told us to get in touch with Sue
Alcorn.
Armed
with the number for Sue Alcorn we speak with her and explain our
conundrum/mission. Sue is most obliging and it is all sorted in about 5
minutes.
Our
Solas gang will return to Tramore Beach the next day, and Sue will
arrange for the bags to be collected at the gate of the beach. No need
for us to carry bags any distance.
So on Tuesday we get gloves and bags and fill 42 more bags of litter.
The
walk from the car-park to the beach is spectacular. The sight then on
walking onto the beach is indescribable. We have enjoyed the walk for
years and now will continue to enjoy it with the litter removed. It only
took 2 hours in total to do the collection. And as we did we discuss
the weird stuff we were finding. Mainly plastics and food wrappers, and
some weird gel filled tubes that are there in their thousands. What are
we swimming in ?
A
passerby comments on the thankless job we are doing. But, do you know
what? They didn’t really know the satisfaction we get doing our bit for
Mother Nature/Earth!
So
next time you see a can lying in your path, why not spare your brain
the negative thoughts and just pick up that can and bin it!
The beach at Tramore will need a few more dedicated hours of cleaning to collect the rest of the mess, but sin sceal eile
Suzi (10-02-14)
