Sir, - There is no shortage of patriotic fervour at sporting events in this country, be it manifested at county level in Croke Park or at national level in Lansdowne Road. It never ceases to amaze me therefore that as supporters spill out onto the streets after the game, they proceed to abuse the very ground, which, only a short time before, the team they were shouting for was representing.
Let's face it, the Irish are a dirty people. If we have a clean, green image among our continental cousins, it is a mere historical accident of low population numbers post-famine, and not due to active intervention on our part. Indeed, we are fast losing any claim to this green image - witness the annual summer fish-kills in our rivers, the problem of pollution in our lakes - most notably in recent times Lough Leane in Killarney - and the now ubiquitous black silage wrap festooning our hedgerows and fences from one end of the country to the other. How many of you have had a pleasant walk in the mountains, by the seaside, down the banks of the local river or in the woods, spoiled by an unsightly mass of rubbish left behind by some careless individual? Moreover, with some people it is more than just carelessness - it is wanton and it is criminal.
The problem of litter in the River Dodder in Dublin has received some media attention of late. It is a microcosm of the situation in Ireland as a whole. The Dublin Branch of the Irish Wildlife Trust, instead of wringing its collective hands, has decided to take action. Tomorrow (Sunday) we are going to clean up as much of the river in the city as numbers allow. Goodbody Stockbrokers have provided generous sponsorship for the day as well as volunteers. It is a small step, but it is one more communities will have to take to beat this modern scourge. Hand in hand with direct action must be a government-sponsored education programme and the proper enforcement of our anti-litter laws. If everyone applied the NIMBY acronym (Not In My Back Yard) to the problem, then it could be solved very quickly.
Litter is bad for wildlife, it is bad for tourism and it is bad for business, but most importantly it is bad for our self-perception as a people. We must stamp it out. - Yours, etc., Dr Rory P. O'Hanlon,
Irish Wildlife Trust,
Lower Baggot St,
Dublin 2.