Galway’s first ‘Love your Beach Day’ will be held next Saturday with clean-up events taking place at four iconic beaches in Galway City.
Galway City Council and Clean Coasts Ireland have organised the events to celebrate International Coastal Clean Up Day on September 17 after Love your Beach Week was cancelled in June due to bad weather.
The beach cleans at Ballyloughane, Grattan, Ladies and Silverstrand beaches will start at 2pm, followed by workshops 3pm.
At 2pm at Ballyloughane beach there will be a beach clean-up with Beach Buds Clean Coasts group, and a family friendly workshop will follow at 3pm with Curiocean, when the CuriOcean team will present some fun, hands-on activities for people to learn about whales and dolphins.
There will also be a clean-up at 2pm at Grattan Beach with Galway Volunteer Centre followed by a talk on ‘How beaches help us tackle climate change’ with Dr Kevin Lynch of University of Galway.
After the Ladies beach clean, Galway Atlantaquaria will share stories of some of the fish and shark egg case discoveries that can be made along our coastlines.
At Silverstrand, there will be a clean-up with Bailte Slachtmara Bhearna (Barna Tidy Towns), and Tom Cuffe, Bird Watch Galway, will then give a talk on ‘Autumn Birds of Galway Bay’, and people can bring along binoculars.
Speaking about the event, Tiarnan McCusker, Environmental Awareness Officer with Galway City Council, said that they will revert to a full week of activities in 2023.
“On Saturday 17 September from 2pm, there will be litter clean-ups, and fun and insightful free talks from environmental experts, but it’s really about everyone taking responsibility and protecting our wonderful beaches and Galway Bay from litter pollution,” he explained.
Speaking about Love your Beach Day 2022, Dara Dever, Clean Coasts Officer said that Clean Coasts are delighted to partner with Galway City Council on Love Your Beach Day.
“The more people we can get to engage with our beautiful coast in a positive way, the more likely they will be maintained and improved into the future.
“There are already numerous active Clean Coasts groups throughout the city, some of whom are hosting these events. We would love to see new faces, young and old come along to these free events.”
The Love your Beach week recently won a silver award in the Best Environmental/Ecological Project Initiative at the All Ireland Community and Council Awards 2021.
For further information on clean coasts Ireland or to become a clean coasts group visit: cleancoasts.org
