Islands of Ireland: Cleaning up the plastic 'treasure' on Inishbroon

But I had no room on my kayak for a 12ft by 6ft refrigerator door which must have come from a commercial ship

Plastic clean-up on Inishbroon, County Galway

The presence of Daniel Defoe’s castaway classic Robinson Crusoe on a bookshelf in a pub in Letterfrack did not augur well for the upcoming kayak trip. Nevertheless, the trip from Trawmore Strand at Renvyle Point went off smoothly promoting thoughts of another 19th century classic, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. However, it was a poor type of treasure that was to reveal itself.

Inishbroon is an oddly-shaped island, quite like a fedora at a jaunty angle whose brim is the fully-circuitous pebble beach. Even seen from Trawmore Strand opposite, the island has deep gullies in its small cliff face as if clawed by the giant talons of a prehistoric beast. Up top, is fertile ground which slopes down to the northern shore and which contains the remains of lots of lazy beds — showing the importance of every scrap of land in the area in former times. The name derives from the Irish Inish Brún or Browne Island.

Inishbroon, County Galway 

There have been many reports over the years of barnacle geese on Inishbroon whose sward provides plentiful food for them. The black and white bird arrives in October from Greenland and departs in April. Islands are its favoured habitat so it is many many options in the west of Ireland.

The craggy Mweelaunatura and Illaunnamweelin are two islets on the way to Inishbroon, while much further out are the magnificent Inishark and Inishbofin. The 15-acre island has a number of other named reefs in between it and the outer islands: Carricklahan; Carricknabortaun; and Mweelanatruha. A little to the north lies the imposing Illaunananima or Soul Island which has a counterpart in southern Connemara and which is one of the loneliest, wild spots encountered in this series so far.

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There is a myth associated with Inishbroon which suggests that a local woman was banished to the island by the Renvyle community for some kind of misdeed and there she had eight children with father or fathers unknown. Like all myths, there are threads of truth and threads of fiction interwoven in the tale.

Inishbroon is also linked to the 1927 Cleggan fishing tragedy when 45 fishermen drowned in County Galway. Eighteen of the victims came from the village of Rossadillisk which was subsequently abandoned. The body of John Murray washed up on Inishbroon and was found by a fellow fisherman. The poet Richard Murphy, who owned the nearby ecclesiastical High Island, wrote a poignant poem about the tragedy.

Dan MacCarthy on rubbish clean-up on Inishbroon, County Galway

Considering the month that is in it [May is Sustainability Month at the Irish Examiner — check out irishexaminer.com/sustainability for more], a clean-up of Inishbroon was deemed appropriate and so the task of gathering the usual mountain of plastic rubbish was anticipated. Inspired by the super-efficient beach cleans in the Spiddal area, it was only appropriate that the Irish Examiner lent a hand in this instance.

Inishbroon however, was also surprisingly clean. I managed to remove a plastic pink sandal and about 23 plastic bottles which was about half the quantity on the island. The vast majority of the bottles were for spring water with some shampoo, detergent, wash-up liquid and a milk protein milkshake. Most of the wrappers had been washed off by the sea or the manufacturer’s name had been bleached out. As Inishbroon is more than 1km from the mainland more refuse might have been expected than was actually there. Of course, it is highly likely that much more plastic lies beneath the pebbles and seaweed. The buyers of these bottles would hardly have expected their purchases to end up in a recycling facility in Cork.

Unless manufacturers come up with some other method of selling their products it would appear that the islands such as Inishbroon will be prey to commercial interests and a myriad of maritime life will be negatively impacted. And finally, the pièce de résistance: a 12ft by 6ft refrigerator door which must have come from a commercial ship, who knows how far distant. No room for that on the kayak, alas, so on Inishbroon it stays for now until someone or a massive wind or wave removes it.

How to get there: No ferry. Kayak from Trawmore Strand directly opposite which can be reached via a few boreens from Tully.

Other: cleancoasts.org