An Irishman's Diary

When an e-mail arrived from a group called “Dodder Action”, I first thought this was a contradiction in terms. Doddering is not normally associated with the sort of dynamism at which the message hinted. But then I realised the group derived its name from the well-known Dublin river, and that it therefore suffers from the same etymological traducement.

Rarely can a waterway have been so misrepresented by its anglicised title as the Dodder. In the original Irish, Dothra, it appears to mean “turbulent”. Which is an altogether more accurate description, because as those who live along it know well, the Dodder is not just a highly active river, it is also occasionally prone to violence.

For centuries it served as an industrial engine to a large part of south Dublin, sweeping down from the Wicklow mountains and powering umpteen mills along its 15-mile course through Tallaght, Firhouse, Templeogue, Rathgar, Donnybrook, Ballsbridge, and Ringsend, where it meets the sea.

But its propensity to flood, suddenly and with disastrous effect, is long established too. One day in 1628, for example, it carried off Arthur Ussher, deputy clerk to the Privy Council of Ireland, as his friends watched from either bank, helpless to save him. And four centuries later, it remains untamed, capable during heavy rains of engulfing Dublin 4.

So action and the Dodder are not incompatible concepts, clearly. But it turns out that the Dodder Action group relates not to the problem of flooding. Instead, its concern is with inundation of another kind: the growing amount of rubbish being dumped in the river.

In one way, the Dodder illustrates nature’s glorious powers of regeneration. During the heyday of the mills, it must have been very polluted: sacrificed almost entirely to the needs of industry. Nowadays, it is again a leisure amenity: pleasing to look at, rich in birdlife, and well-stocked with fish.

You can find brown trout in its upper stretches, sea-trout and mullet at the tidal end. Unfortunately, the river is well-stocked in other things too, including shopping trolleys and dolls’ prams. Second-hand nappies are not unknown. And near Milltown Bridge recently, an entire car was fished out of it – a record catch for the Dodder, albeit that the angling season doesn’t start until St Patrick’s Day. Never mind the effect on the rest of the river’s wildlife.

One of Dublin’s more eccentrically-located sculptures, a bronze rhinoceros, stands on a platform in the middle of the Dodder at Milltown. It looks quite sturdy. But given the waterway’s history of flash-flooding, combined with the threat of car-sized pieces of rubbish floating by, some local conservationists had begun to fear even the rhino’s extinction.

A challenge to any clean-up is that the Dodder flows through three different council areas. And besides the usual disputes of jurisdiction, there is always ample opportunity on a river to blame dumping on those further upstream, while wringing hands. In short, some dodderiness in response to the rubbish problem might have been excused.

But the action group was having none of that. Its members have instead decided to get their hands (or rubber gloves, at least) dirty in the river’s cause. And their plan has two parts. First, on March 9th there will be a reconnaissance mission, in which anyone interested is invited to walk the river bank, starting at the Speaker Connolly pub in Firhouse and proceeding towards the sea.

Then comes March 23rd:

D (for Dodder)-Day, which, sure enough, will involve an amphibious assault. Again starting at Firhouse, canoes will be deployed, while pickers and baggers advance alongside them on the banks, joined at intervals by reinforcements from the different suburbs.

If all goes to plan, by mid-afternoon, the Ringsend section will have been liberated, and at least one of Ireland’s rivers will run free of rubbish. But the organisers hope that, as well as being a short-term fix – part of An Taisce’s National Spring Clean – the operation will also help build communities dedicated to the Dodder’s longer-term protection.

Already the group has assembled a coalition of volunteers ranging from the Quakers to Sinn Féin. The Green Party (they haven't gone away, you know) are deeply involved. As are the councils. But the hope is that several hundred people will join the clean-up. So there's still room for you too. See facebook.com/pages/Dodder-Action/262894190451698 or via Twitter @dodderaction.

fmcnally@irishtimes.com