Green day: Meet the Irish activists leading a revolution for our beautiful planet

Ahead of Earth Day on April 22, Jonathan deBurca Butler talks to Irish people who are devoting their lives to creating a better environment for the place we all call home

A view of Earth, partially hidden behind the Moon, captured through the spacecraft window on the recent Artemis II space mission.

THIS planet is uniquely beautiful, even if its inhabitants do their best to pollute and destroy it.

Mountains in Mayo, lakes in Switzerland, the rivers and forests of far-flung nations, and even Donald Trump’s “big beautiful ocean” have existed long before mankind and will remain long after war-mongering narcissists are gone.

April 22 is Earth Day — a day dedicated to demonstrating support for a better environment — and since its first iteration, in 1970, it has perhaps never been so relevant.

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Shannen Healy

“I DO think Earth Day this year feels a bit more important than any other, because the world is quite a scary and divided place at the moment,” says activist and influencer Shannen Healy.

“It’s a real reminder that people who feel they can’t make a difference actually have huge power when we act as one.

“I think that’s exactly what the theme this year, ‘community and collective action’, really touches on.”

Three years ago, Shannen, from Carrigaline in Cork, started offering her friends and a then small band of Instagram followers (_greengal is her page) her tips and advice around what she calls her “imperfect sustainable journey”. 

Today, her 30,000 followers receive regular hacks on how to run a sustainable kitchen, keep a bathroom clean but chemical-free, and find fashion bargains in charity shops.

“I’m not trying to follow virality,” says the 31-year-old of the online world. “It’s easy to lose the run of yourself and start talking about things that you’re not interested in just for clicks.

“For me, it’s always been about sustainability and spreading the word around that.”

At this time of year, Shannen is particularly busy with requests for advice and consultations.

“Companies are reaching out to me a lot more, asking me what they can do and how they can make a difference,” Shannen says.

Activist and influencer Shannen Healy says this year's Earth Day is especially important 'because the world is quite a scary and divided place at the moment'.

“I think Earth Day is actually gaining quite a lot of traction. Companies and brands are using it to show actions they’re taking.”

The hope is that their actions filter down to the public sphere, through employees, colleagues, and consumers, who then learn from their example and implement the lessons in their lives.

Apart from introducing simple sustainable measures to their routines, people who are contemplating a sustainable life should “research and remain open-minded and open-hearted to new ideas and new ways of living,” Shannen says.

She says:
Be open to learning. 

“Once you start on one thing, you’ll want to keep going and it can get a bit addictive. You see chemicals in your washing detergent and then, from there, that goes into your kitchen and you look for ideas around what swaps you can make, and it just snowballs.”

Kayleigh-Ann Myles

Environmentalist Kayleigh-Ann Myles agrees that being informed is a great first step.

“If you don’t want to take any actions yet, read or watch a Netflix documentary about climate change and sustainability,” says the 27-year-old.

“The first action is interest. Find out how something affects your life and take a small action on it. Every action matters.”

Kayleigh-Ann has been steeped in the culture of sustainability from an early age.

“I grew up in a rural part of Carlow and my mom was a complete environmentalist, without the title,” she says.

The actions were always there, the awareness was always there: The importance of second-hand clothes, non-toxic cleaning products, not using processed foods, and the importance of vegetarianism. 

"It was just part of what we did.

“I probably rebelled against it a little bit; a 16-year-old doesn’t want to go shopping in a charity shop.”

After school, Kayleigh-Ann studied English and psychology at Waterford University.

As part of her course, she spent a year in in the Netherlands, where she saw “just how far ahead the Dutch were, in terms of environmental protection”.

“Everything evolves around the natural world there,” says Kayleigh-Ann. “It’s really a lovely thing to see. So I decided I was going to switch to sustainability studies.”

Specifically, Kayleigh-Ann studied sustainable energy system management in Groningen. When covid lockdowns kicked in, she found herself away from home and alone in a new apartment.

“I was moving into this new apartment and sharing tips on how I was living more sustainably,” Kayleigh-Ann says. “I’d share them with friends, but then they’d message me asking if I’d let their friends follow the page.”

That page soon turned in to @savetheplanetsociety, which today boasts more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.

Environmentalist Kayleigh-Ann Myles: 'The first action is interest. Find out how something affects your life and take a small action on it. Every action matters.'

As well as offering tips and information on how you can help the planet, the page dishes up short, but informative, exposés of the world’s worst climate and sustainability offenders. The posts are loud and attention-grabbing, but the messages are clear: We’re in trouble.

“We’re trying to educate people who, maybe, have no interest in sustainability,” says Kayleigh-Ann. “There has to be a way for this information, which is important to everyone on the planet, to be processed.

“So if a post pops up and in 10 seconds you’re educated with words that aren’t threatening to you, in a way that’s easily understood, that’s exactly what we want.

“We do get pushback, but for every 10 pushbacks we get 100 people messaging us, telling us how great and important the page is.”

While Kayleigh-Ann thinks Earth Day is “incredible”, she says “it’s not enough” and encourages everyone to act daily.

She says:

I think people need to understand the importance of small actions and how they collectively make a massive impact.

“For example, choosing to eat less meat, the impact of that collectively is phenomenal; choosing to be more cautious about your clothes, and recycling properly. All of these actions add up and they do make a difference.”

Pat Kane

WHEN she moved to Ireland in 2011, Pat Kane had no plans to get involved in sustainability. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, she had moved to Jamaica in her 20s, where she worked for a communications company and met her Monaghan husband.

On moving to Ireland, she joined a well-known sports betting firm and was asked to create its first diversity, equity, and inclusion group. This exposed her to charity events, social entrepreneurship, and initiatives such as food clouds and men’s sheds.

“I decided this was where I wanted to go,” says Pat. “My background was in business, so the idea was to marry my corporate experience with sustainability trends to see how that worked and try to bring it together.”

Pat Kane started a one-stop shop online for products and resources around sustainable living

In 2018, Pat started reuzi.ie, a one-stop shop for products and resources around sustainable living.

Since then, she has added an environmental, social, and governance framework and carbon consultancy, called Antaris.

“I never set out to be an influencer,” says the 43-year-old. “But I wear so many hats and, on top of all of that, I do a lot of speaking and writing, so the Instagram page @iampatkane is really driven by all of it.”

Pat’s approach to sustainability is very much informed by her experience in the business world.

“Nobody is perfect,” she says. 

I’m against giving people specific advice, because we are all different and have different circumstances.

“Instead, I’d suggest sitting down and doing a life audit to see what you can do and understand what works for you. So, find out what you are wasting, what you are buying on repeat.”

Critically, the audit shouldn’t focus on what you can buy to make life more sustainable, but should focus on what is there already.

"Start with using what you have. So don’t go out buying the latest sustainable water bottle.

“You’re going to reuse, repair, restyle, and repurpose.

“I’d say, ‘Don’t try everything at once. Pick one habit and stick to it’.”

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