Category: Clean-ups

As part of Team Limerick Cleanup Good Friday action, we did our bit cleaning the canal banks on both sides from Clare Street to the Park Canal Bridge up to the railway bridge on the Rhebogue side. We were blessed with such beautiful weather!

21 people joined in, some of them friends of friends who were just visiting Limerick, some others long time supporters of our group. It was nice to see by passers stopping and talking to us- maybe because our high-visibility vests were so well branded! Well done everybody!

We had two meeting points: the UL Boat House and the Anglers’ Walk entrance. The group on the UL side was smaller, but they did great work! You can see their “capture” below. We worked along the bank, hoping to meet after a couple of hours. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great (drizzling, cold and chilly) and there was rubbish galore, so we decided to stop and call it a day. We regrouped on the Anglers’ Walk side for a photo. Someone in the neighbourhood must have called the guards seeing the pile of rubbish accumulating at the gate. Fortunately, they arrived at the moment of our glorious photo shooting – they drove past us up and down and left us alone.

We had great support from the Limerick City and County Council, who sent a truck to pick up the bags almost immediately after we finished.

A big thank you goes to our friends at Richmond RFC, who kindly provided us with tea and coffee and allowed us to clean up and get dry while having some home baked delightful cakes. Their new club building is impressive – they’ve done a fantastic job!

A sudden shower earlier in the morning didn’t scare us – the weather forecast claimed the weather will improve throughout the day.

We met at the UL Boathouse at 10am, crossing paths with the participants to the annual Jacinta O’Brien 10km Run. The materials received from An Taisce (bags, gloves, vests) were supplemented with the ones we had in storage from last year’s clean-up (pickers and more gloves).

We split into two groups- one working toward UL and the other one working toward Rhebogue. We were extremely lucky to have the support of a little rubbish collection vehicle owned by UL Buildings& Estates. This made our work a lot easier, as the little truck was able to come and collect the bags instead of having us carrying them back to the base.  Amongst the bigger objects we collected were a kids play pen, a wheelie bin and a large barrel. A lot of rubbish was left by the high water on the river bank – plastic bottles and cans mainly.

Dermot came well equipped and he was able to get into the ditch – which, quite unusual for this time of the year, is still full of water!

We then walked back to Dromroe Village Hall, where the two teams were reunited and we shared tea, coffee and some delicious cakes (as usual!).

The event signaled the closing of a great Green Week in UL, including a lot of other attractive activities.

Thanks to all the participants for giving their time and energy – what we achieved in less than 2h was amazing!

We’ll be back in the next weeks, caring for the section from the Groody river toward the city , for the Canal bank and then for the Abbey bank!

We were blessed with glorious sunshine today. A lot of volunteers turned up and we had 2 boats on the canal collecting rubbish from the water, thanks to Pat and Dan .

We organised teams who took care of different sections of the canal bank, and everything worked out wonders. We met at 12pm and a few groups started straight away. A small group lead by Arthur went to work around the boat house, where they had spotted a lot of rubbish.

But people continued to arrive for the next hour or so, and we distributed bags, gloves and pickers  and directed them toward the areas that needed more attention.

Tires were pulled out of the canal by the boats, and we were astonished to find so many tires that ended up in the canal. Someone solved the mystery – actually the canal bank was reinforced with tires when it was done up back in 2005-2006. They’re now becoming loose and some of them are ending in the canal.

A microwave and a bicycle were pulled out of the water, and a toilet seat was found on the canal bank. Tim and his three little daughters joined in, and with their united forces they were able to pull out a truck tire from the ditch between the foot path and  Richmond RFC.

Mary from Wildroutes took photos of some of the odd objects that herself, Pat and Joan Lysaght pulled out of the canal: a TV set, a CD folder, a supermarket trolley and so on. You can admire them on our Facebook page.

More photos from today are available here.

A lot of walkers passed by. Some of them avoided eye contact; some others had a word of appreciation. A fisherman who found himself surrounded by volunteers left his angles and piled the rubbish that he could find around him for the volunteers to collect it. A man we stopped asking if he saw any volunteers at work on the northern side of the canal asked to join. We tried to give him a flyer so that he can join next time, but he replied “I want to help now!” He took on the wheelbarrow and didn’t stop until all the rubbish bags were back at Richmond RFC. We found out that he is originally from Bulgaria.

A group from Transition Limerick joined, and they have done an absolutely fantastic job! Carla helped collecting the bags from the northern side of the canal with her van and brought them back to Richmond as well.

We had staff and students from UL, Susan from the Adult Education College, people of different nationalities, backgrounds and paths of life. None of us actually likes picking up rubbish, and it would be fantastic if we could make a difference by convincing people to take their rubbish home and not having to pick it up ourselves. Rubbish bins would probably make a difference if placed on the canal and river bank. In the mean time, those who really care about the river and canal banks- like Cait or Joan- pick up rubbish every day when they are out walking. Fair play to them!

We had 35 people out caring for the canal bank out today. Thank you very much for giving up your Sunday time to help a good cause! We were all proud to see how good the canal bank showed afterwards (although there are a few points where we need to go back).

We are extremely grateful to Limerick City& County Council – and especially to Sinead McDonnell, the Environmental Officer, for providing us with bags, gloves and pickers and for organising the rubbish collection on Monday.

We would also like to thank to the nice people at Richmond RFC for hosting our tea&coffee&chat at the end of the activity!

 

 

This Sunday, we had a lovely sunny day working by the canal. A few people joined Pat Lysaght in his boat and collected rubbish from the water. We cleaned the canal bank on the city side and had a great chat with the children from the neighbourhood, taking about their ideas for the future of the canal bank.

 

Yesterday, about 20 people showed up for the canal and riverbank cleanup. We were hoping for some sunshine, but it didn’t happen. At least it didn’t rain!

The meeting point was Richmond Rugby Football Club on the canal bank at 12pm. The Munster Junior League final was on at 2:30pm, and we knew the place was going to get very busy.

People continued to arrive between 12 and 12:30. Miriam Lohan had done an audit of the riverbank and had maps for every group – with the severely littered areas marked on it.

Members of the Clancy Strand Street Feast group brought lovely cakes. Mary from Wildroutes showed us how you can build a nice birdhouse of almost any material. Children  were playing around. A fisherman showed up, wearing high boots, and offered us his help with carrying the rubbish back on the river and on the canal.

Shane Hickey and a few other people from the UL Green Campus initiative came to help, and brought materials left after last year’s  spring clean  with them (pickers, plastic bags).

We also had the support of the City Council Environmental officer, Sinead McDonnell, who helped us getting gloves and plastic bags, and made possible the pick-up of the rubbish this morning.

People spread along the canal and the river. We noticed the work that had been done to prepare the side areas for sowing grass. We tried to avoid them. Miriam cycled up and down, making sure everyone had the proper materials and helping various groups.

It was amazing to see how all the various people belonging to groups across Limerick city and from the neighbourhood came together. The “We love Plassey riverbank” Facebook page was the central point, but this blog post, together with the posters that we placed on the riverbank on Friday and the tiny flyers (actually business cards) also did the job.

We encountered mixed reactions from the people who were walking, jogging and cycling. Some avoided eye contact and didn’t answer to friendly hellos. Others stopped and engaged in a conversation. A lady told us it was the first time she walked there in ages – and she was really impressed.

There were people of several nationalities and backgrounds – together with locals, there were Swedish, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian. Not everybody knew the others in the beginning, but we quickly bonded.

The before and after pictures on our Facebook page show impressive transformations. We felt we really made a difference! The problem was that we ended up with 60+ very heavy bags of rubbish, that we had to carry back to Richmond RFC.

Dan O Neill, Plassey fisherman and hero of the day, ferried all he could fit in his boat.Anthony Furlong, of Limerick City Biodiversity Network  took quite a few of these 60 bags down the path on his bike. The problem was that we only had a wheelbarrow. Most of the bags had to be carried  back – and that was probably the toughest job we had! Asia came to our help with her 3 lovely daughters, carrying heavy bags at the back of the buggy.

When all the bags were brought back to the Richmond club – to be collected on Monday morning, we enjoyed the warm hospitality of the club, getting a cup of tea and a cake and planning the next action.

Note: Brian Leddin, who took part  in the clean-up, has a post on his blog on this event as well. There is also a mention of our action on this local blog.