No, I am not referring to the Donald´s complaints that he was cheated out of winning the elections.
Neither am I referring to those who say Covid 19 is only a flu.
No I am referring to real live rubbish - the sort you get in rubbish bins...
And alas in lots of other places where it should not be either.
Romeo H. wrote a letter to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio regarding same. The letter, and pictures speak for themselves, so I add nothing else.
Warning: The photos are not pretty, so don´t review if you are feeling a bit ´Covid-down´ or any other sort of down either.
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Hi Ryan,
As a German citizen and being married to a Kilkenny woman, I have been
staying over in Kilkenny for the last 3 months. Rosaleen, my wife, and I
have been living in Germany for about the last 12 years. We have been
thinking about moving to Ireland sometime in the future and Rosaleen
suggested I should at least 'do an Irish winter' before thinking about
moving here.
So far the experience has been surprisingly positive despite the 'Covid
factor'.
One of the things we started to do back in December 2020, is to pick up
garbage that other people just throw out onto the side of the roads. Some even
bring bags of garbage from home and just leave them in ditches
anywhere, especially on country roads.
This behaviour really gets under my skin, because it is so
self-destructive, so shortsighted, so stupid, for lack of a better word
and there are many other words that come to my mind. ;-))
It is madness and even if I am trying very hard to understand it, I
simply am not fully able to comprehend such behaviour. Is it a lack of
education or is it lack of respect for the planet we live on?? Is it
just laziness or all of the above?
Perhaps you could enlighten me and the rest of Ireland a bit about that
during one of your morning shows.
Anyway, on our frequent walks from Kilkenny to the Thornback Graveyard,
we discovered an enormous amount of garbage just waiting to be picked up ( ;-))
on and beside that road. Rosaleen's mum and dad are buried there in the
graveyard. It is a beautiful country road with a little stream flowing
downhill on both sides of the road.
You would not believe what people throw in that lovely stream and
anywhere else for that matter. We found leftover building material,
old and rusty radios, batteries, I mean real batteries from a moped probably,
chandeliers even. Not to mention the heap of plastic bags, plastic cups, plastic trays,
metal cans and this sort of thing. Some of it has been in the little
stream for years and only comes to the surface if you really start
digging it up. And digging we did as we got more passionate about
cleaning up this lovely country road.
Perhaps it also helps us to stay healthy and sane. Two or three times a
week we go out, especially when the weather is nice, and do
something that makes sense to us and that makes us feel a bit better for
doing it. But that feeling lasts only a short time. Namely until we come back a
few days later to find new garbage where we thought we were finished
cleaning up. In other words, it feels like a never ending story. And no
matter how much you clean up there will always be more work to do.
At times I am disgusted, not by the work I am doing, but when I think of
the mindset of the people who act this way.
Enough of this, I just needed to get this off my chest.
This brings me to the reason of my letter to you Ryan. What can we do
about that? I feel embarrassed for the Irish people, whom I otherwise
greatly admire. I am sure the majority of the people in this beautiful
country feel the same way about throwing away garbage as we do. But I
don´t understand the others. What am I missing?
Like you often say on your program, the goodness of the people and the
sharing of love within the community is a big part of the Irish
character make-up. Is there a disconnect with the planet earth?
This beautiful island will not stay like this if the people who live
here won't take care of it properly.
I mean there are so many things wrong in this world already, and we do
not have to add to it by being disrespectful in this way.
Rosaleen and I have been listening most mornings this last 3 months and
we deeply appreciate your contribution to the entire country. It is very
comfortable to sit here in bed besides Rosaleen around 9 a.m. and having
breakfast while listening to your morning show. Yes, we are treating
ourselves to a breakfast in bed almost every morning the last 3 months.
I am going back to Germany on the 6th of March, if all goes according to
plan. I am a gardener and have to go back to do some work now that
spring is finally around the corner. In the summer, I hope to be back in
Ireland for a few weeks. We will definitely be checking up on the
Thornback Road .... ;-))
Have a great day and thank you for reading my letter.
Kind regards
Herbert...
P.S.
We want to acknowledge Bernadette Maloney and team in the Environment
Department of Kilkenny County Council for their support with our
clean-up project.
All these blue paint bits, lay in the stream over a stretch of about 30 feet.
Getting started....
This photograph on the right shows what I gathered after only six minutes of rubbish collecting...
This is a typical collection of what we found most days: drinking cans and bottles, snack packaging, and discarded building materials.
We thought we would get a two mile stretch of the road cleared of rubbish, but all you see here covers only a stretch of less than 1/4 of a mile.
In all we gathered together 15 bags of rubbish.
- And more to do!
But there were some bright moments... HONEST!
Some people stopped to thank us. One lady even gave us a box of chocolates - within Covid constraints I hasten to add!
(Romeo was surprised the person driving in the car behind this lady did not honk his horn. Pluses and minuses where ever you are)
Others told us about their own collecting rubbish stories.
And we did have company as we worked. Yes, as we collected on the same short
stretch of the road over a few days, these three bullocks kept us company all the while.
So this First Day of the Rest of my Life story is about my FREE travel pass; from the age of 66 eligible residents in Ireland can travel on public transport for free. 
Photos attached - include a photo of bus driver who enjoyed the story of ´my first
time´. It was he suggested he should hold up my OAP pass on its first
use. As
it happens the driver himself came from Kilsheelan, so he was delighted
I was visiting the village as my first free travel adventure. 
