Our beaches aren’t as classic as Vincent O’Brien’s thoroughbreds

It is disgusting to see the attitude of people who will allow litter to float away on the wind, as if somebody else will sort it out for them

THE good weather of the past week has been the type of gift we enjoy greatly because it is so unexpected.

We are almost conditioned to expect rain, even in summer, and even if the rain doesn’t fall, it is often overcast, cloudy and cool. No wonder so many people choose to go abroad when the expectations for good weather here are so low.

The timing of this week’s bright sunshine has been perfect now that many people are reluctant to indulge in the cost of foreign travel. Instead, we have been able to enjoy our own beaches.

Much as I don’t wish to rain on your parade, the fact is that standards on many of our beaches are not what you might want them to be. Here are just some of the problems that besmirch our beaches: cars, rubbish, animal excrement, dirty seawater and yobs.

How did this habit of bringing cars onto our beaches develop? My own favourite beach is Inch in Co Kerry, a magnificent strand that on a sunny day is one of the finest places to bask, although the wind whipping in off the Atlantic can burn you quickly if you haven’t applied adequate protection.

But the behaviour of many drivers is terrifying, especially if you have small children, as I do. Some of them treat it as if it is a public highway. I have seen cars race along at high speed, others reverse out of parking with scarcely a look to see if children are playing anywhere nearby.

Admittedly, the number of accidents has been low, but that’s not the point: why should parents, who have enough anxiety making sure kids are safe going into the sea, have to worry about them getting knocked down too?

I’m not singling out Inch. This is a problem all around the country on beaches that can be accessed by cars. There is a serious litter problem on almost all beaches. Councils get blamed for not clearing it up or for not providing enough rubbish bins or clearing them often enough. Sometimes large skips are required, especially when beaches are crowded.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility? People bring cans and bottles of drinks and wrapped foodstuffs in bags, so what’s wrong with putting the remains back in the same bags. It is disgusting to see the attitude of people who will allow litter to float away on the wind, as if somebody else will sort it out for them.

Listeners to The Last Word this week made frequent complaints about parents leaving soiled nappies on beaches. Such ignorance hardly bears thinking about. Dog (and sometimes horse) excrement is another major problem. It’s bad enough that people allow their dogs to soil our streets – try pushing a buggy around and you’ll soon find out how bad the problem is – but at least most people manage to avoid the offending material. However, on a beach kids and adults are much more likely to put their feet or hands on it and the health consequences can be serious.

The answer, of course, is the employment of litter and dog wardens. This costs money that the councils say they don’t have, but why can’t part-timers be hired to perform these functions? The public service recruitment embargo is being blamed, which goes to show how silly blanket measures can be. The employment of people in such jobs could even be self-financing if they were allowed to levy on-the-spot fines.

However, the councils might be reluctant to crack the whip, even if the money was available, because it could lead to criticism of their own responsibility for the poor quality of much of the seawater at our beaches.

While heavy rain over the past two years is being blamed for washing dirt into the sea, the poor quality of the water is often due to the effluent being pumped into the sea by the councils without proper treatment. This means you have to worry about ingesting dirty water if going for a swim. Another of my favourite beaches, at Furbo in Galway, has had this problem. It is not just unhealthy – it is damaging to the promotion of Ireland as a tourist location both domestically and abroad.

The announcement this week of the loss of four EU standards-approved blue flags for our beaches – reducing the number of accredited beaches to just 77 and continuing a downward trend in recent years – is the result of this.

The other problem is caused by a minority of the people who frequent beaches. Some of the behaviour can be appalling, especially when drink is involved. Maybe I’m just getting older but I notice it more now that I’m with my kids: I don’t bring children to pubs because it is not a suitable environment for them so I don’t want the beaches to become open-air alcohol emporia, full of foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking smokers. There’s a time and a place for everything, surely?

Fortunately, the majority of people don’t bring their cars onto the beaches, take responsibility for properly clearing up their own litter, leave the dog at home or clear up its mess afterwards and don’t treat the beach as a venue to get drunk. You just wish there were more of them.

On a separate note, the affection in which the legendary racehorse trainer Vincent O’Brien – who died this week – was held was emphasised to me 19 years ago at an event I attended in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.

It was the annual general meeting of a company called Classic Thoroughbreds, which had been set up to raise funds from the public to buy horses that would be trained at O’Brien’s Ballydoyle Stables in Tipperary, take part in the best flat races and then, if they won, would be sent to stud at Coolmore. It was an idea that was highly attractive to gamblers, but it seemed like a good each-way bet because it offered potential riches as well as the kick of part-ownership of a group one horse. The presence on the board of O’Brien and his son-in-law John Magnier of Coolmore, and other notable businessmen such as Dermot Desmond and Michael Smurfit, was a further enticement to investors. It turned out to be a disaster.

AT that time the Ballydoyle stables were going through a difficult spell, blamed on a virus, and none of the purchased horses was up to much. Money bled away quickly and there wasn’t even the consolation of a major racetrack success, let alone the sending of a valuable horse to stud. By the summer of 1990 the company was struggling and investors were angry.

The company’s agm took place on a very hot and sunny Friday at 6pm and, if my memory serves me right, on the evening the World Cup started. The hot room raised the temperature of the irate shareholders and Smurfit, as chairman, struggled to control the emotions of the investors.

Vincent O’Brien was on his way, he said, as he implored his audience to calm themselves. When O’Brien finally entered the room from the rear, a grateful Smurfit announced the arrival of the great trainer. Then something remarkable happened. The investors turned and started clapping, some of them taking to their feet in a standing ovation. Never, I imagine, has the director of a struggling public company ever received such a welcome.

But these people knew that not every horse could be a winner for O’Brien. His record shows that he was probably the greatest of all time – although his successor at Ballydoyle, his namesake (though no relation) Aidan O’Brien is doing a hell of job in establishing his own legend.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm. Matt can be contacted by e-mail about this column at [e-mail].