With an outdoor summer to enjoy to its fullest this year, it is more important than ever that Galway’s beaches are kept clean for the sake of visitors, and the environment.
As part of the rollout of the ongoing ‘Be part of the solution, not part of the pollution’ environmental campaign, Galway City Council and Clean Coasts Ireland have launched a new beach cleaning initiative this weekend.
Love Your Beach Week will see seven Galway City groups associated with Clean Coast leading a series of community litter clean ups on beaches and their surrounding areas.
This new initiative will run from Saturday, July 10 through to the following Friday, moving to a new beach every day.
Tiarnan McCusker from the city council said that they were excited to partner with Clean Coasts on this environmental initiative, which will see the clean ups followed by talks and workshops with environmental and educational experts.
“Activities will include a treasure hunt, a flash mob dance, summer bird watching, talks from local experts on Biodiversity and games for all of the family.”
The groups taking part in this initiative are Beach Buds, Curiocean, Galway 2020 Wavemakers, Galway Atlantaquaria, The Eglington Hotel direct provision centre, Knocknacara Tidy Towns, and Bailte Slachmara Bearna.
The events will start at Ballyloughane Beach on the 10th July at 11am and move Westwards along the coast, taking in Dead Man’s Beach on the 11th at 11am, Claddagh Beach on the 12th at 5pm, Grattan Beach on the 13th at 5pm, Salthill beach (Ladies’ Beach) on the 14th at 5pm, Rusheen Beach(Windsurfing school) on the 15th at 5pm and Silverstrand beach on the 16th July at 5pm.
Ray Foley, Clean Coasts Ireland said that Galway City is an “enviable position” of having so many stunning beaches on its doorstep.
“The more people we can get to engage with these places in a positive way, the more likely they will be maintained and improved into the future.”
“Clean Coasts already has numerous active 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.’’
