Recently, in almost every Irish newspaper I could read about problem of water contamination, illegal dumping of litter, and the issue of keeping Ireland tidy.
The most troubling news are concerning water contamination in Galway, and polluted waters of Lough Corrib that is a water supply for Galway. The picture that stroke me the most was a photo of dumped household wastes in the river Suileen which is linked with a main drinking water resource. A river full of black rubbish bags, Coca-Cola and Lucozade empty bottles and many other rubbish and waste produced by a consumption.
I think it would be an excellent black PR for those companies to see big billboards with the photos of dumped wastes in a water supplies. Always Coca-Cola? or maybe always e-Coli, a microbe related to the human and animal sewage, that could be find in almost every water tap in Galway and Kerry?
In the local Carlow newspaper (The Nationalist) I found a terrifying article about rotting carcasses of fox, chickens and other animals dumped in the cardboard boxes just on the edge of the road close to the estate.
Carlow Town Council is deliberating on cutting all of the trees and bush around the Liberty Tree fountain, which is central part of the town, due to the large amount of waste, they are also thinking about setting up CCTV cameras in the most often littered parts of the town.
Year ago, I found bottom of the Barrow river full of dumped wastes, Tesco’s troleys etc.
What is going on? Is this an effect of consuming style of life, a kind of hedonism which sneaks into the Irish life? Is Ireland becoming dirty and polluted country? It seems that the run for earning more money, and having more goods, better and faster cars, especially fancy jeeps and pickups (with the higher level of CO2 emission) made some Irish people completely insensitive on environmental issues.
To prevent any comments in a way “go back home”: I don’t claim that Poland is clean, but I can see rising level of environmental awareness over there.
People of Ireland, where do you go from here?
You’re completely right. I was actually going to start a new blog about a year ago, along the same lines as RoadDeaths.ie to highlight cases of dumping using cameraphones. I never got around to building it but I still think it should be done because it absolutely disgusts me to see how dirty we have become. Shame on us.
You are right,in the rush to earn the almighty euro
some of us have lost sight of what we are and where
we are from and where we want to be in fifty years from now.
Agreed, a lot needs to done here to improve the quality of life in general. Ireland used to be referred to as a ‘green’ country but that has not been the case for a long time now. I feel bad for the tourists that come here and are disappointed by what they see and experience.
Acutally it has been reported that it was polish workers in the galway water plant whom neglected treatment of the water under their responsibility. Thus germinating cryptosporydium. Of course I’m not denying Ireland has become a tip of a nation because of the capitalist ruling class has made it so. They encourage shit building projects and hundreds of thousands of cheap labor immigrants into this country to rise housing prices and other social taxes respectively. Ireland is screwed, its new middle is thick and plastic, they have destroyed their sacred traditions, sadly to say.
do you have a link to that report or it is just a rumour? and as for immigrants, majority of them don’t work in a building sites but in the services.
and who destroyed sacred traditions?
In reply to “yes, go home.” This was a governmental problem, not a fault of the Polish worker. I am a Scot who worked in ireland for 4 years in management positions. I was so happy when the Poles came, it meant I could get rid of my uneducated, unreliable, lazy workforce and replace them with overqualified, hard working and reliable people. “Go home” is a valuable argument. However, if the Poles go home, who will build your houses? Who will serve your guinness? who will wash your car?
The minute the Poles leave, ireland will go back to being poor, because the Polish save their money and the iraish commit it to credit. The rising cost of houses will soon lead to a crash and negative equity. I look forward to the day that your 500,000 euro house is worth 250,000 but the mortgage is the same. Maybe then you will appreciate the workers that built it on less than the wage you claim is too much…. Except for you of course…
I was sick to death hearing about these foreigners who took our jobs, being a foreigner myself. Ireland was a poor country when we came. It will be a poorer country when we leave.
Poland has culture, ireland has the craic. Getting drunk and talking shit is not culture.
See who is winning in ten years, good luck ireland. When u sober up……
Jon (or John) I presume you are too sensitive. During my stay in Ireland I haven’t experienced any negative attitude, except some feedback on my blog. Irish people I have met so far are rather tolerant. The negative voices towards Poles are present, but it is nothing strange, and they are in minority. There is always some negative attitude towards emigrants in every country. The same I can say about Scotland. From one side I was happy - since in the nineteen nineties Scots were still appreciating Polish forces who defended Britain from Nazi Germany (and my grand father was in Polish tank division in Scotland), but from the other hand some of the Scots treated me as a emigrant from the 3rd word. It is always like that in every country. I am sure that when we -Poles - will face the massive emigration into Poland from the east we will treat the emigrants worse than we treat each other.
In my opinion the attitude of the Irish government is to keep the emigrants in Ireland and encourage them to stay for ever.
As for the culture… every nation and tribe have its culture. In fact, Irish culture and the level of sense of humour even sunk in the Guinness is very attractive.
Anyway… Ta very muckle for the good opinion about us. I see Scots still like us
I see you are in Poland (using Neostrada - DSL). Where about in Poland are you living?