Congrats to Bray Coastcare!

Seamus of Bray Coast Care sent us this email;

Hello All,

It gives me great pleasure to announce to you all that Bray CoastCare Group have been informed today by Aidan Gray from An Taisce that they have won the Annual Award for Best Coastcare Group 2007-2008 from the 65 coastcare groups nationwide.

I was informed by phone at last Saturdays harbour cleanup that we were nominated and that a panel of 8 judges would look at the nominated groups from the 65 Coastcare groups nationwide. (The 3 nominated groups were: 1:Dalkey Coastcare Group, 2: Bray Coastcare Group, 3: Sandycove Coastcare Group.) They would then decide on a winner and get back to me with the result.

Here is the summary of the group which the panel of eight used to come to their final decision:

“Nomination Shortlist

2. Bray Coastcare Group, Co. Wicklow

The group formed as a Coastcare Group in spring 2007. This group was
formed by two individuals from Bray who approached Clean Coasts with an
aim to clean up and improve the coastline and cliff walk at Bray and
Bray Head. Clean Coasts introduced the two individuals together, who
decided to hold a public evening to promote the establishment of the new
group, and recruit volunteers and form a committee. With contacts of
previous involvements in Bray through Clean Coasts and the individuals’
efforts, a drive was made for attendees for the public evening. A local
hotel provided a function space, and signs and leaflets were distributed
around the cliff walk and town. Media space was also given for one of
the individuals. The public evening in September was well attended and
a committee formed. Following this evening, the group have held a clean
up at Bray coastal areas every month, from October 2007 to May 2008,
and have approximately 50 volunteers on their group email. Clean ups are
well attended with one including approximately 120 people. The result
of this progress has developed more success: The group have been having
meetings with the local Town Council, and are playing a large role in
the erection of environmental signs and notice-boards for the cliff
walk area. Nearby coastal towns have also followed the route of Bray
Coastcare Group, and Arklow, Brittas Bay, Greystones, have all held public
evenings in 2008 to recruit volunteers, form committees, and hold a
monthly clean up. Bray Coastcare Group has paved the way for the whole Co.
Wicklow coastline to come together, and replicate its success.
Approx. number of members in group: 40-100.”

This is a fabulous result and an amazing achievement considering the group only began to set up from April 2007.

The certificate award and a cheque for a small amount of money for the group to use towards their activities will be presented to the group on MONDAY THE 9TH of JUNE in a venue in County Louth (More details to follow). Any volunteers who wish to come along for the awards can contact me on 0860692407 or email me and we can arrange lifts down and other details,etc.

May i take this opportunity to sincerly thank you all for all your hard work over the past year. Without the great team effort this achievement would not have been possible.

CONGRATULATIONS AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL SOON!

I will be emailing everyone over the next few days about a special BBQ which we are organizing for after our June 7th Cleanup to celebrate both our 1 year anniversary as a group and our terrific achievement in being chosen as Coastcare Group of The Year 2007-2008.

God bless,

Seamus Connor,
Bray Coastcare Group.

Meeting in the Brockagh Resource Centre

Paul writes…

County Wicklow Partnership will hold a public information meeting on Monday 12th May at 7.30pm in the Brockagh Resource Centre, Laragh, on the topic of;

Strand 1 – Supervising Community Halls & Facilities
Strand 2 – Community Services
Strand 3 – Community Enterprises

Information on this programme, guidelines and application
forms are available on http://www.pobal.ie

For more details on this information session contact:

Wicklow Rural Partnership - 0404 46977
Arklow Community Enterprise - 0402 91092
Wicklow Working Together - 0404 61841

New volunteers pitch in!

The Brittas Bay beach-clean last Saturday was a huge success!  Despite threatening weather, many volunteers turned up and were even joined by passing strollers who admired the cause.

 

Denise Sloan and John Kelly

 

Denise with her family (and dog!), Jass Mc Evoy, Corey, John Kelly, Marti, Delia Hickey

Wicklow Rural Partnership meeting

While surfing the internet earlier, I found a fellow blogger who writes about Wicklow matters! 

www.thewicklowway.ie/wordpress/

I learned the following information right off the bat and thought I’d pass it on:

Wicklow Rural Partnership is leading a partnership project to prepare an Outdoor Recreation Strategy for Co. Wicklow aiming to “provide a framework for the futuredevelopment and management of outdoor recreation activities within the county.” 

Read more here

This blogger suggests that an annual fee for beaches would be a good idea, where regular visitors could pay for a sticker to put in the window of their car. 

If you like this idea or have more of your own, the meeting is at:

Glendalough Hotel at 8pm on Wednesday 7th May 2008

Information tidbits…

Paul Writes…

Don’t forget Brittas Bay Coastcare Group will hold a beachclean on Saturday 26th April at 12pm.

Thanks to all who took part in the Ennereilly beachclean last Saturday.

The black bags which were filled on that occasion and doubtless will be removed by our supportive local authority before they disintegrate.

Well done to our fraternal colleague Seamus of Bray Coastcare, not just for his well deserved tribute in Wicklow News, but also for mobilising 80 Spanish youngsters in their beachclean last week.

Finally, is it true that Brittas Bay and Arklow Coastcare Groups are entering Corey and Kate in the Flora Womens Mini Marathon on June 2nd.

Is there no end to the dedication and resourcefulness of these two groups.

Well done Ladies. You deserve all the support you can get

Ennereilly Beach clean

Paul Writes..

There is a beach clean on Saturday 19th April on Ennereilly Beach, which is the little beach just in off the road north of Arklow and south of Ardinairy beach.

It starts at 10.30am, should last an hour and is spearheaded by the inimitable Arklow Litter Warden Corey Bateman and Arklow Coastcare Group. The Brittas Bay Coastcare Group will assist.

Anyone interested, please come along.

A bit of Brittas history…

Paul Writes…

Beachgoers might be interested in the following historical perspective of previous footprints in the sands of the Wicklow coastline:

The Wicklow beaches are steeped in history. The earliest signs of human activity in Ireland are recorded from the discovery of flint scatters at Ennereilly strand between Brittas Bay and Arklow.

Arklow Wicklow and places between were landing sites for Christian missionaries. St Patrick and a group of monks attempted to land at Arklow but were repelled during a fight from which one monk is reputed to have had a tooth knocked out. They set sail for Wicklow where they received a kinder reception and the injured monk known as Manntain or the toothless one built a church. A group of clergy were already established in Threemilewater just north of Brittas Bay where the ruins of a church still exist. Wicklow Arklow, Kilcoole and Greystones were subject to Viking invasions from which settlements were established.

A path from the beach (no longer accessible) leads to Dunganstown Castle which was alternatively the home of the Dungan family, the Knights Hospitaller who were Crusaders and the O’Byrne Clan. A descendant of the O’Byrne’s the late J.T.O’Byrne, County Engineer for Wicklow told me many years ago that there was rumours of a tunnel from the castle to Jacks Hole.

Harsh custom and excise laws encouraged smuggling activity during the 18th century. A noted pirate, Captain Jack White operated from the Brittas Bay area. The site of his home is known as Jacks Hole which has a secluded beach. He distributed his booty at a coach inn on the main Dublin Wexford road known as Jack Whites Inn which is also reputed to be the meeting place of another disreputable motley crew known as the Brittas Bay Coastcare Group.

Jack White was eventually apprehended tried, and as was the custom taken to the cliffs at Ardinairy hanged and his body thrown into the sea. Let us hope the Coastcare Group are spared a similar fate.

 

News Update!

There’s a lot of news to catch up on, so this will be a long post, but stick with me.

In reverse order, I’ll start with the latest:

-o-

There will be a beach clean in Arklow tomorrow, 3rd April, between 1.30 and 2.30pm.  If you’d like to join us, we’re meeting at the South car park, and we’d be very grateful for your help - bring the family (and the dog)!

-o-

There was a clean-up of our own beach at Brittas Bay last Saturday at 2pm.  The weather had been typically Irish all day - it couldn’t seem to make up its mind as to whether it was supposed to rain or not.  The weather had been so bad at one stage, that we decided we’d have to cancel… but, to our delight, volunteers turned up, and the sun came out!   It was as though karma had blessed us and approved of our work, such was the warmth we felt from the gesture.  So many thanks to Joe Gogan and Mary Aldridge for helping us, and to another kind local resident who’s name escapes me - I hope he finds this blog and makes himself known

Together we pulled 12 black sacks worth of junk off the beach (including a LOT of glass) within an hour, so this is something to take pride in!  Well done, folks.

-o-

On Wednesday 26th March, we held a public awareness meeting at Jack Whites Inn.  The aim of this meeting was to give a voice to Brittas Bay’s local residents, and to spread awareness of An Taisce’s Coastcare project. 

(Hang on… what’s Coastcare again?)

Aidan Gray spoke first, being the project manager from An Taisce who is not only a walking encyclopedia of event ideas, but is the man who facilitated our grant for equipment, and brought us away on a most excellent trip to Wales for a seminar!  He explained how coastcare groups can have so much value in the community, and also informed us that due to an increase in funding, An Taisce is now able to set up new coastcare groups further along the Irish coastline, starting with Northern Ireland.  Jennifer Smyth attended the meeting all the way from Belfast to speak about her experiences.

Corey Bateman (Arklow Litter Warden) then took the floor and explained her pro-active approach to littering and vandalism.  Her speech was supported by ‘before and after’ photographs, and she explained that she by far preferred to visit kids in the schoolroom to educate them on environmental issues, rather than hand out fines to litter offenders on the streets, as prevention makes so much more sense than cure.

Myung Kennedy stood up next, representing Sunbeam house in Arklow, which is a service that caters for people with varying forms of disability.  She described the success of a recent beach-clean where several of her clients and their friends took part with huge enthusiasm.  Myung stressed that she would dearly love to include her clients in further projects.

“This was a moving example of the disabled sector providing the community with real leadership in tackling a serious problem that affected everyone.” (Paul Leahy)

Jimmy O’Shaughnessy then stood up and expressed his dismay over the lack of attendance by other public figures and businesses, stating that such meetings as ours are important for the community and should be heard.  He offered his full support in the future and complimented the group for its work despite lack of funding.

Jenny Ryan and Caitríona O’Flaherty rightly suggested that our group should contact local clubs who are involved with beach activities, such as the Wicklow Swimming Club.  Joe Gogan, a local resident, said that he was delighted to see our group had been set up, and offered his help in the future.  Susan Hayes, representing Greystones coastcare, was enthusiastic about the prospects of Irish coastcare groups meeting regularly to discuss and compare strategies, and Fiona Downes very kindly offered the services of the County Wicklow Volunteer’s database for our beach cleans!

Brittas Bay’s caretakers Ray Hughes and Mick Ryan couldn’t attend the meeting, but their hard work and dedication was recognised and greatly appreciated.

Tea and biscuits were munched, and brains were picked, so overall the meeting was a great success!

-o-

I’ll be posting soon hopefull with photos from the Arklow clean up, so watch this space…

Summer Beach Cleans

One of the toughest parts of organising beach-cleanups, is the advertising.  Even with the radio ads, newspaper articles and posters, you still can’t be sure the date has been noticed.

So, a most brilliant idea was thought up…

For the upcoming summer months, beach cleans will held on the last Saturday of every month - how simple is that?!

Not only will this cut down on advertising worries, but makes the events easier to remember.

Spread the word!

Welcome to our new blog!

Hi, and welcome to our brand new blog!

This site is here to tell you about our efforts to care for Brittas Bay, as you’ll read in our ‘About’ page.

This is our group so far:

From left to right, is Aidan, from An Taisce, Paul (chairman of the Brittas Bay and Barndarraig Residents assoc.), Corey (Arklow litter warden), Kate and Denise (local residents).

We’d be delighted to hear from you, whether you’re a local resident, a one time visitor, or a regular Brittas beach-goer!  We love comments, no matter how short or silly, so please leave your mark

If you’d like to participate in our beach cleanups, or would like to help us financially, please email us with your details to: cackaloo ‘at’ hotmail ‘dot’ com!