Bogged down on Rossnowlagh beach on any given Sunday

We’ve been fighting them on the streets, now we’re fighting them on the beaches. Ireland’s dreaded litter louts have been out in force this summer and we have the beer cans, broken bottles, dirty nappies, coke cans, plastic cartons, and cigarette butts strewn in the sand to prove it. Blue flag beaches are dropping like flies. Some famous beaches are covered with SUVs instead of sandcastles, while nearby public toilets are manky and unusable.

Generations have enjoyed school holidays on the miles of magnificent strands around Ireland. From Salthill to Seapoint and Strandhill, Inch, Lahinch and Inchadoney,  Portrush, Portrane and Portmarnock, Brittas Bay, Bundoran and Ballybunion, Killiney and Kilkee are all famous picnic and paddling stop offs that punctuate an Irish summer childhood. But our beaches are under serious pressure. This year six Irish beaches lost their blue-flag status, down to 77 such awards along our 5,000km of coastline, compared to Portugal’s 225 and the 209 and 114 in Denmark and Croatia.

Dublin now has just one blue-flag beach at Dollymount Strand, with Killiney, Seapoint and Portrane losing this coveted status and are now considered unfit to carry a blue flag. But it’s not just Dublin strands which are struggling, it’s a countrywide problem and there is no coherent response from the authorities as cash strapped Councils cut back on clean-ups and cannot agree on a strategy to curb cars on beaches. Some Councils have been proactive and placed more bins on proms and beach fronts such as in Waterford while others like Cork have taken the opposite view and removed bins, bizarrely claiming that they only attract rubbish!

Billy Butler of the World’s Oceans Festival knows all about the battle for our beaches. But he doesn’t blame the locals or local authority for the sometimes woeful state of the beach in his hometown.

“Tramore is the beach. It is our jewel but it isn’t always treated like that. We had a couple of really bad incidents this year, it’s outrageous, it’s so depressing, like in early June people just went nuts, it was shocking the level of litter.It’s mind boggling to see the rubbish that was left by visitors, it’s pure ignorance and it’s not just Tramore, it’s a national problem with our beaches which are not respected. People wouldn’t go into Stephen’s Green and leave their  litter and picnic rubbish behind them,” suggests the frustrated activist.

But there are positives too as Billy Butler says the Council are doing a good job with well maintained public toilets, more bins on the beach, a dog poop programme and better lighting on the prom.

“People need to take ownership of the beach, work hand in hand with the Council and lead by example, but there’s lots of education needed but we are making progress,” he believes.

Inchadoney in West Cork has it’s headaches too according to Wayne Murphy of Tonnta, the Irish Surfing magazine. “This should be a pristine beautiful  beach but because of intensive farming and the excessive use of nitrates and phosphates this beach is regularly destroyed by algae bloom in the summer which people often mistake for green seaweed. It’s getting worse every year and even though it’s meant to be a blue flag beach it’s a disgrace with constant complaints from swimmers and beach users. Sometimes people can’t get down the steps to the beach it’s so bad and then the Council bulldoze it into big heaps and it decomposes into a mass of stinking black putrefied stuff and instead of the beach being the jewel in the crown people are constantly complaining,” explains the surfing enthusiast back home in Ireland ten years now after living in Australia.

Wayne Murphy remains optimistic though and believes the prospects for improvement are good as most people aspire to do the right thing.

“They had the same difficulties in Australia for years and the place was like a pig sty and now it’s quite clean and people take care and are proud of their beaches. I see people here looking for bins but there are none. It’s going to take time and we need more education campaigns, improved facilities like showers and toilet blocks and resources especially with so many more people using the beaches now they are not treated as they should be.”

Even in high profile places like Lahinch which has made strides and built a new lifeguard hut at the cost of €350,000, the Council failed to install simple faucet  showers for leisure users and the public toilets stink and are unusable. The same is true of Easkey in Sligo which is tarnished by refuse, abandoned vehicles and toilets in an appalling state.

“On beaches all over the world swimmers, sunbathers and surfers have access to basic showers to wash off sand and salt but not Lahinch or Ireland, a cold shower seems like too much to ask. The toilet block is an absolute disgrace, you couldn’t let kids use it and all the authorities seem interested in is collecting the parking fees,” observes regular beach goer, Steve Kidd, originally from New Zealand.

Achill boasts five blue flag beaches

Achill though is an eye-opener and a shining example to all with its five blue-flag beaches. Local artist Shane Cannon is justifiably proud. “It’s just great, everyone has done a super job with the beaches which are so clean and safe and keeping the cars off them is a big plus.”

Traffic jam and ice cream

By contrast a large part of the stunning Rossnowlagh beach in Donegal is regularly covered in cars, jeeps and other vehicles but moves are underway to control this with a car free zone at one end of the beach. Boy racers pulling ‘doughnuts’ and anti-social behaviour are also a problem at beaches countrywide which allow vehicular access. Quad bikes damaging dunes is also a cause for concern.

Jimmy McVey who administers Ireland’s blue-flag scheme with An Taisce explains: “The criteria and standards for the blue flag programme are very high. Local authorities must first apply to An Taisce in January each year and all aspects of water quality, litter, maintenance, facilities, recycling and environmental information are taken into account. The number of qualifying beaches is always going to fluctuate as we apply these guidelines, and while we have had some loses this year there have also been successes with blue-flags for Greystones, Clogherhead and Bonmahon being awarded, after failing to qualify last year.”

The An Taisce man charged with promoting public respect  for our beaches explains that they are constantly plugging away at the task.

“This year we piloted a ‘pack it in and pack it out’ programme in Cork and Donegal where the Councils removed the litter bins in a bid to encourage better behaviour by getting people to bring home what they brought with them,”  outlines Jimmy McVey.

Clearly from the state of many Irish beaches this year not everyone has got the message just yet.