Meet the local heroes keeping our beaches clean

Throughout the country, Clean Coasts volunteers are doing incredible work to protect our beautiful beaches

Aisling, Nathan and David Lawlor help out at the clean up on Banna Beach.

If there's any silver lining to be found buried amongst all the turbulence of recent years, it's perhaps just how deeply our appreciation for our surroundings has grown as a result of the upheaval.

The lockdowns at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic restricted us to exploring no more than the few kilometres around our homes, subsequently causing many of us to fall in love with our native counties all over again. Meanwhile the more recent war in Ukraine, which has seen innocent families lose their homes and entire cities to violent bombings, has forced everyone watching the news to consider just how devastating it would be if our own home turf was similarly destroyed. With all this in mind, it'd be hard not to realise just how lucky we are in terms of what's on our doorstep here in Ireland.

Across the country, however, there are thousands of people who have long been aware of just how privileged we Irish are with our beautiful surroundings. Among them are the Clean Coasts volunteers nationwide who put endless time, energy and passion into protecting our local beaches, as well as the wildlife they contain.

Kerry woman Rachel Boyle set up Banna Coastcare in 2013, after realising just how much rubbish was being left on her local beach. “I moved back to Kerry about a decade ago, and I’ve always loved the beaches there but was shocked by how littered they had become,” she explains.

“The usual stuff we’re always finding on the beach, to this day, are plastic bottles, crisp packets, cigarette butts, sweet wrappers. Then of course you’d always have unusual finds — we’ve had toothbrushes, goggles, tracksuits, you name it! For me personally, one of my biggest bug bears would be the glass bottles and cans, because obviously they’re a threat to wildlife like all the other litter, but they’re a danger to people walking on the beach as well. I have young kids and dread the thought of them walking on broken glass in the sand, or even worse still, needles.” 

Rachel Boyle (pictured on left) with her fellow Banna Coastcare volunteers.

It was this same kind of careless treatment of his local beach in Cork that also inspired Prionsias Ó Tuama to found his own group and tackle the issue. “Clean Coasts Ballynamona started in 2015, I was living in Ballycotton at the time and walking the dogs on Ballynamona beach, every day twice a day. I was always noticing different things being washed up on the beach — nets, fish boxes,” he recalls. “I think the moment it really clicked for me was when I found a kid’s toy, a plastic elephant head. I picked it up, and I realised there was no end to the amount of other stuff that needed to be picked up too. I just started cleaning it up myself more regularly, then as a school teacher I was chatting to the kids in class, asking what beaches they go to, and trying to compare and contrast how bad the litter was. They offered to come help me clean up, thinking they were just coming along for a day out, but they were hooked on it after that first beach clean, and so was I!

“We ended up removing about 12 tonnes of debris from 1.2km of beach that year alone, back in 2015. By the end of that year, we had 20 community volunteers — fast forward to 2023 we have over 300 volunteers of all ages who come out regularly with us.” 

Proinsias Ó Tuama, founder of Clean Coasts Ballynamona, pictured receiving an award for his tireless community work.

Similarly, Rachel has seen a huge increase in the number of people reaching out to help Banna Coastcare. “I set up a Facebook page not long after I started the group, announcing the various Banna events and cleanups. I’ve found so many volunteers through that — over the years I’ve built up a lot of followers and the community groups in Banna, such as the caravan parks, regularly share our Facebook posts, so as well as a great team of regulars in Banna I often get volunteers from all over the country, even from abroad sometimes! It’s really fabulous in that way, I’ve had such a mixed group throughout the years. Some even come along every summer, if they see the posts and they’re visiting Kerry. It’s a very fluid group where anybody can come along as often or as little as they’d like.” 

Both Rachel and Proinsias have been blown away by the amount of enthusiasm people have for their beach cleans and other local biodiveristy projects, as well as people’s generosity in giving up their spare time to help out.

“Just to give you an example of how dedicated people are, I was looking back through old photos recently of our earlier beach cleans and there are pictures of mothers out volunteering with their babies in slings,” Rachel shares. “Today, those babies are about 12 years old and they’re still helping out, volunteering themselves! It’s wonderful to see, they have a huge interest in looking after the beach and they’ve also developed an interest in the dune restorations that we’re doing currently. They care so deeply about the beach, but a lot of volunteers also come along more for the social side of it. We try to keep the clean ups a really positive, fun experience. They’re very short, only about an hour long — we don’t ask for a lot, people still need to go about their weekend. Our group is very sociable, so it’s a great way to meet new people. Sometimes you make friends that you’d only ever see at the beach cleans, so it’s nice to catch up with them and get a bit of exercise and some fresh air in the beautiful scenery... all while you’re doing something good for the environment!” 

250 pupils and teachers from primary schools around East Cork got together as part of a Blue Flag Education in association with Clean Coasts Ballynamona. Pictured are 6th class pupils from Midleton Educate Together NS on Garryvoe beach.

“I do think there’s many different reasons as to why it sparks such a passion in people,” Proinsias adds. “Some of our volunteers would say it’s simply because they love the sea — they’d have an empathetic view about marine life being choked by plastic, including birdlife. Others are trying to show best civic example to their kids. It depends, Clean Coasts is many different hats to many different people. I suppose for us, in Clean Coasts Ballynamona, it’s been a nice introduction into further environmental work, because we went on to develop the East Cork Biodiversity Networking Programme out of it, where we’re now managing 34 acres of land for biodiversity purposes and we’ve helped implement biodiversity actions across 600 acres in total over the past three years — it’s all emanated from picking up those bits of plastic on Ballynamona beach way back in 2015.” 

This is just one example of the amazing ripple effect that positive local action can have, and it’s why both Rachel and Prionsias would encourage anyone interested to get involved.

“I can guarantee any event around the country where you’re getting out and getting involved with your community is good for the heart and the soul,” Rachel advises. “We’ve been going since 2013, doing three to four big cleanups a year, where we’d clean away 20 to 30 bags of rubbish from the beach. It does all add up, even if you start small.” 

 “Clean Coasts groups around the country are very welcoming places in my experience,” Prionsias encourages. “We keep things very simple, anyone and everyone can join a beach clean. All you have to do is turn up, we’ll give you bags, sticker, even a hand washing station to clean off afterwards! You’re going for a light bit of exercise, listening to the sounds of the ocean and making your local spot a much nicer place. Just go for it!”