PHOTOS: Cooley Peninsula Community Alert holds clean up day in Rockmarshall

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On Saturday, to mark the start of the National Spring Clean in April and in advance of World Earth Day, Cooley Peninsula Community Alert and its Peninsula Marine Litter Project held the first of its season of clean ups in Rockmarshall.

Among items collected were tyres , bottles, cans, and fishing pots. What was of suprise and concern to the group, was the extremely high volume of wet wipes and cotton bud sticks.

While the group has found these before, this was usually in Bellurgan much closer to the sewerage plant and shows that recent storms moved these to newer areas.

Such is the volume of litter washed up, the group said that they would need another 40 people every week for a month to get it clean.

The local community alert committee in attendance were joined by locals lead by Eunice Rice and over 30 volunteers from the Louth Volunteer Centre.

A real stalwart of the clean ups, Ruth O'Connell of LMFM fame, played her usual key role in engaging volunteers. TD Ruairí O'Murchu and his son Toirleach were pleased to join in on the day.

Councillor Fiona Mhic Conchoille, a trustee of the community alert group, took the opportunity, alongside Chairperson Michael Muckian to thank everyone for their efforts in helping keep Louth clean, and looked forward to more joining in clean ups planned across the Peninsula regularly now until October.

The group said that the volunteers from Louth Volunteer Centre were well looked after by Aaron Farnon from Costcutter in Riverstown who made sure they, mostly all refugees who are living locally, had something to eat, and added that they were “so grateful” of what they called Irish hospitality.

The group were educated on the importance of the work they carried out by Clean Coasts organiser Aidan Gray, who the group said is a great supporter of this initiative, and regularly visits schools to drive home the importance of the work of Clean Coasts.

Here are some photos of the day, shared by Cooley Peninsula Community Alert.