Old friend proves himself to be no egret

Last week, an old friend of mine (not in the sense of seriously elderly, although he’s no stripling), Mr Kevin Hanly, a man with a great eye for the workings of nature and natural things, was abroad alone on his boat in Courtmacsherry Bay in West Cork, (something a seriously old person would not do), fishing for bass, writes Damien Enright

An hour later, not having caught any, he crossed the bay to the other shore.

Trolling for mackerel about 300 metres off Coolmaine strand, he spotted something white on the water, a plastic bag, he thought, as his boat drifted nearer.