Sarah Slater
For Eugene Walsh his work cleaning a river of trolleys and rubbish is a “labour of love” which keeps him “sane”.
Eugene Walsh pictured on the River Burrin in Carlow where he has been cleaning the river of supermarket trollies and rubbish. Photo: Dylan Vaughan.
Every day for the past 18 months, Eugene from Carlow who is kept company by his faithful dog Cushlas, voluntarily gets in to the river Burrin in the centre of town, in an attempt to get rid of shopping trolleys which are routinely dumped into along with rubbish of all types close to the busy Hanover bridge.
Over this Summer, due to the heatwave and resulting water shortage, a lot more dumped trolleys and rubbish are being uncovered by Eugene who is part of a group of volunteers known as Cairde An Naduir or Friends of Nature who try to keep the rivers and environs clean around Carlow.
The group also tries to educate people how best to respect and care for their surroundings.
“I do what I do because I can’t look at how dirty the river is over a two-mile stretch. This beautiful river runs through the centre of town and I can’t stand by and do nothing no matter what the weather is like. The prolonged dry spell is definitely bringing a whole load more old trolleys and horrendous litter to light,” explained Eugene.
The 60-year-old, a qualified carpenter, who has been forced to cut back on work due to chronic arthritis, says his cleaning mission not only helps him with his physical health but also his mind.
“It’s funny to think that in a way cleaning up other people’s waste not only trolleys but bikes, tyres, thousands of bottles, cans, children’s buggies and household waste and their refusal to care for nature helps me with my arthritis battle but is also good for my mental health as I feel I’m doing some good.
“It’s up to all of us to care for the environment for future generations. A man called Jim Murphy and some of his friends did this voluntary work for years before me so all the hard work they did encouraged me to take up his mantle.
“I’m not afraid of picking up any type of disease from the river as I make sure I kit myself out well with protective clothing and equipment. County Council personnel such as Jannette O’Brien and Pat Kehoe have now seen the result of the amount of work I’m doing and how committed I am to keeping the river clean. They have now given me some equipment and extra work clothing,
“Any cuts I might end up with when cleaning are covered with iodine as quickly as I can to help against getting any type of infection or disease such as Weil’s or Lyme disease.”
Eugene, a dad to two daughters, explained that he continues to appeal to supermarket management where the trolleys are originating from about putting a security system in place stopping them to be thrown into the river.
“I continue to have an ongoing battle with the supermarket where the trolleys, which can cost up to €500, in particular, are coming from to put in some kind of locking system on them so people can’t take them and as a result in them ending up in the river. On one day alone, I took seven trolleys out of the river.
“One day I even brought some of the trolleys I took out of the river covered in waste back in to the supermarket in protest and still nothing has been done."
“I’ve taken hundreds of bags of rubbish and trolleys out of the river in the past year and a half. The County Council has also spent €380,000 trying to keep this stretch of river clean.
“My two daughters also help me at times with my mission of trying to keep the river free of trolleys and rubbish. A lot of people have said to me that they wouldn’t do my work for €1m but all I say is, ‘Mother Teresa wasn’t paid for her work and I wouldn’t expect to either.
“I just love nature. I got the chance to travel all over South America and several other countries in the past and have seen some very dirty places. It made me wake up to the fact that we have to look after our rivers and countryside. ”
Eugene Walsh. Photo: Dylan Vaughan.
Local activist and optician, Ber Jennings explained the main reason the River Burrin is so silted and dirty is that, "there is no one person or body or local authority responsible for keeping it clean.
“Eugene has managed to get some reaction by the public to what he is doing by also putting a lot of trolleys on Burrin bridge but more needs to be done to help. The second main reason, that the river backs up with rubbish, is that it is full of sand.”
In a statement Tesco supermarkets, where Eugene claims that up to 95% of the trolleys originate from said: “We’ve been in touch with Eugene directly to understand how we can best support him with his work and we’re working to have the trolleys in question collected as soon as possible.
“All our trolleys have a coin-operated lock system and we work hard to prevent them from being removed from our stores. We encourage customers to be mindful of returning their trolleys to the appropriate bays in the vicinity of the store.”
