Mullinahone.net

Those who have been encouraged to go out for a summer stroll in the recent nice weather will have noticed the huge improvement in the neatness of the roads leading out from the village. No longer are the roadsides littered with debris such as plastic bottles, fast food containers, plastic bags, cigarette boxes, tayto bags and many other kinds of rubbish.

Who have we to thank for this great improvement? Is it ourselves? I’m afraid not. We haven’t all been converted to a tidy Tipperary philosophy overnight but a start has been made. Our thanks is due to South Tipperary County Council and their recent roadside clean up campaign. The workers who carried out the clean up locally were the local FAS workers under their local supervisor Jamesy Ivors.

We say well done and thank you. Where do we go from here? Do we wait and let things go back to normal, letting rubbish pile up and waiting for another “dig out”. Maybe with the change of Taoiseach dig outs are now over. It is time for all us to take responsibility for keeping our countryside clean.

Last week two of the primary schools in our parish received tidy schools awards from the county council. The schools are certainly showing us the way forward. What can we do? Well everybody can do their bit and pull their weight. First of all don’t dump litter as you and your friends pass along the roadway. Every person would help if they took responsibility for gathering up and disposing of the litter outside his/her own property. We know that you may not have thrown it there, but are you going to leave it until some other kind person comes along to clean it up.

One difficulty with that attitude is that litter seems to attract even more litter. The old saying much wants more might even apply. The third point is zero tolerance for those who litter. If you see some person throwing litter from their car or cleaning out their car by the roadside, don’t adopt the strategy of the three blind monkeys “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”. Challenge the culprits or if you don’t like to do that, report them to the local authorities. After all our county council has litter wardens on its books. Remember it is you who has right on your side.

Once upon a time smokers felt free to light up in non-smoking areas and were highly indignant when challenged. That has changed for the better. Why can’t the same treatment be handed out to the litter louts? Keep your eyes wide open and our roadways may stay in the fine neat condition they are now in. Another old saying comes to mind “For evil to triumph, it is but necessary that good men should do nothing”

Keep our parish nice and green.