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Coastal Development in Ireland
Looking back ashore, boaters got a unique view of the air display off the County Wicklow Coast
An estimated 1,000 boaters in a fleet of 200 boats gathered off the County Wicklow coast this afternoon for a spectacular edition of the Bray Air Show. A selection of pleasure craft from small fishing boats and RIBs right up…
A Whiterocks lifeguard cleans graffiti from the vandalised beach unit
#Vandalism - Vandals have caused an estimated £800 (€900) worth of damage to an RNLI lifeguard unit at Whiterocks on the Causeway Coast. Following two of the busiest days of the summer season so far in Northern Ireland, the RNLI…
Pleasure craft from small fishing boats, runabouts and RIBs to larger yachts are rafted up at North Harbour on Cape Clear in West Cork. New pontoon facilities will be installed this Summer
The good news for West Cork boaters is that the €200,000 pontoons procured for Cape Clear island's North Harbour will be installed this Summer. And as our photo taken this week shows there's little doubt that they will be put…
Dog’s Bay in Connemara, with its distinctive white sand
#TopBeaches - The weather might not agree but summer isn’t over yet, and there’s still plenty of time to explore Joe.ie’s pick of amazing beaches around the Irish coast. Seaside beauty spots like Inch Beach in Co Kerry (famous for…
Killiney Beach was re-opened to swimmers on Monday following a bathing ban for high levels of E.coli detected before the weekend
#Pollution - RTÉ News reports that a swimming ban was lifted yesterday on bathing spots at Seapoint and Killiney on Dublin Bay’s southern shore after high levels of E.coli were detected last Friday (30 June). The bathing ban remains at…
Dunmore East Harbour Master Harry McLoughlin in his control centre atop the new Harbour Services Building, with the busy new Visitors Pontoon beyond
Time was when Dunmore East was known among the cruising fraternity as The Glue Pot writes W M Nixon. In a time now barely within living memory, it was a picturesque little port which was at its busiest with the…
Swimming is prohibited at Dollymount (above) and Sandymount pending the results of water quality tests
#Pollution - The beaches at Dollymount and Sandymount on Dublin Bay have been closed to swimmers after a sewage spill in the Liffey caused by heavy rain on Thursday (8 June). According to BreakingNews.ie, swimming is banned at both of…
Killiney Beach has been plagued by water quality issues in recent years
#CoastalNotes - Two beaches in the Dublin area and one in Donegal have lost their Blue Flag status in the latest list of EU beach quality awards. According to TheJournal.ie, Balcarrick in Donabate, North Co Dublin and Killiney in South…
Loughshinny Beach, between Skerries and Rush in North Co Dublin, has again failed to meet the EPA’s minimum standards for bathing water quality
#CoastalNotes - Three beaches in Dublin and three in Galway have failed to meet the minimum standards for bathing water quality, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Irish Times covers the latest EPA Report on Bathing Water Quality,…
Beaches usually take years to form via deposits from water currents, like Dollymount on Bull Island
#CoastalNotes - A beach on Achill Island lost to storms 33 years ago has returned after a freak Easter tide. And locals at Dooagh are celebrating the return of their 300-metre sandy strand that in more recent years has been…
Bantry Bay Residents Speak Out Over Seaweed Harvesting Licence
#CoastalNotes - While Bantry Bay prepares to open up as a maritime hub for Ireland’s South West, local coastal residents are expressing concern over the first State licence for the mechanical harvesting of seaweed. As the Irish Examiner reports, Kerry-based…
The proposed mixed development in Bulloch Harbour, Dalkey that was refused planning permission in February. DLRCoCo are considering to bring lands at the scenic south Dublin Bay into public ownership.
#BullochPublic - In a move being considered by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the local authority could bring land at Bulloch Harbour in Dalkey into public ownership. The decision reports DublinLive, would also see the land developed in the public’s interest,…
A model of an improved Bray harbour in County Wicklow put forward by Bray Harbour Action Group. The model illustrates some of the possible enhancements that BHAG say could 'reinvigorate and transform' Bray Harbour – including increased protection from easterly and north easterly winds; improved access to the water for small ferry/day trip boats; improved parking and traffic management; the addition of storage and changing facilities; improved landscaping; and the removal of sand and silt to extend usable time and make moorings safer
Following a campaign by Bray Harbour Action Group (BHAG) to deal with a silt–up of the county Wicklow Harbour, BHAG met with Bray Municipal District Councillors yesterday. Speaking after the meeting BHAG chairman Ger Crowley said” We have a duty…
Dermot Bolger’s latest novel, published in 2016 and written in memory of Irish seafarers like his father who undertook dangerous voyages from Ireland to Lisbon during World War Two.
#DermotBolger - Dermot Bolger is to read from and discuss his novel “The Lonely Sea and Sky-The Story of Irish Seafarers on hazardous voyages to War-Torn Europe”.  The reading concludes Glenua & Friends 2016-2017 winter lecture season which takes place next Thursday 13…
Save the date!... as this Sunday 9th April is the All Ireland Chowder Cook-Off!
#ChowderCookOff - Save the date as this Sunday 9th April is the All Ireland Chowder Cook-Off that brings 32 counties to Kinsale to compete for the title of All Ireland Chowder Champion! As reported on Afloat the small commercial port in…
Ireland’s longest Greenway officially opens in Waterford. Pictured at the official opening of the Waterford Greenway with Minister Simon Coveney TD includes in front Sean Findler from Tramore, Co. Waterford and Declan, Jessica and Cillian Long
Up to 10,000 people celebrated the official opening today, Saturday of the Waterford Greenway, the longest off-road walking and cycling experience in Ireland. Events took place at three different locations in Waterford, and on the Greenway itself, to mark the…

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.