"There are a lot of people out who take a great pride in their island"

An islander who has cleaned the beaches surrounding Arranmore Island for around a decade says he has seen positive changes and improvement over the years.  

Peter O’Donnell from Arranmore island has been nominated for a Clean Coasts Ocean Hero 2022 award. Peter is shortlisted for the Individual of the Year, which is a category that acknowledges those individuals who initiate change and inspire others to do more to protect and conserve their coastline.   

Peter began collecting rubbish from the coastline on his return from Scotland. He said: “It just caught my attention that the beaches were getting polluted.”

At the time it was mostly fishing nets, nets and ropes and lots of ropes that were washing up on the shore. Walter and Margaret Strachan from Germany were cleaning the beaches and Peter joined them. The couple has since left the island and Peter finds himself covering the beaches of the beautiful island with his collie dog on a daily basis. 

Peter has found coconuts and stress rockets on the beaches. Armed with a picker Peter heads to the beaches each morning. Peter’s picker is made of recycled material. A man from the States told Peter that the instrument he uses to pick rubbish off the beach is an object used in military exercises. 

The environmentally conscious islander leaves pickers at the side of the beach and when people come to walk on beaches they also use them and return them. The Clean Coasts bags are left inside the pickers and people fill them as best they can and then leave the bag to be collected.

“A few years ago it was pretty bad but it has improved, big time. There are a lot of people on the island on a Sunday and Saturday who walk their dog and then leave the bags there for you to collect,” the Aphort man said. 

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Peter has also set his sights on Inish Caorach, he wants to clean the shore to help ensure that the birds don’t ingest any plastic materials: “When I was out there a lot of the birds were making nests with plastic. I would like to get out early in spring before they start to nests. It is nasty stuff (plastic) and it could harm the birds and they do ingest it too.”

He said that during the Clean Coasts clean-up day there are people who apologise when they can’t make the actual day. However, Peter encourages people to come and clean any day they wish. Transition year students join him from the States on an annual basis and Peter enjoys informing them about the beaches and the sea. He is also proud of the work the islanders do: “There are a lot of good people out there who have a great pride in their island.”