Video transcript
Good afternoon, it’s day two of Cruinniú and I’m delighted to be here and to share. My name is Hilda O’Grady, I’m the Programme Manager with Cuan Beo and I just started with Cuan Beo. I took a career change from HR to work in my area of passion, which is everything to do with the marine and water quality. I’ve been in the job four or five months and I’m loving it, and today we’re here in our marquee and we’ve had lots of events to raise awareness about water quality, about our restoration programme, our eco-credits projects, and our source to sea education programme. And it’s been brilliant just to speak to people and get them to think about water quality here where they live, and indeed, what they love about the sea.
Initially when I grew up, I grew up in Offaly, and we didn’t really get to the sea much, except maybe once a year, and that day was a magic day—the first time you’d seen the beach, and who would shout out in the car who saw the sea first. And as a landlocked county, that was the big thing, you know, once or twice a year. And then as we got older, we did go on holidays and we went to places like Wexford and Mayo and to see the different beaches.
And then as I travelled and went to Australia, I went to see the Great Barrier Reef and indeed lots of different places in America and Alaska. I just always loved the water; I loved kayaking, I loved sailing on it, I loved, you know, swimming. I loved just seeing what there is and just even the feeling of it.
And when we got the opportunity to move to Kinvarra 12 years ago, I fell in love with this beautiful bay and for us, it’s everything. It’s what we see every day. It’s where we come to sit on the benches across yonder just to relax or to get away, maybe just to get some time to yourself. Or indeed as my children were growing up, I never brought them to play centres; I just brought them to the park in Coole Park or indeed I brought them to the beach.
And now in my volunteer life, I’m a member of a group called the Kinvarra Earth Keepers. And we have different programmes that we run with children to connect them and their families with nature, and we do a lot of beach cleans—and we run four to five of those a year. And it’s a great way to connect people with the place that they love and do something to look after it.
So for me, it’s all about connections; it’s in my daily life, it’s in my life now, and I’m really lucky and very privileged. And I just feel it’s really important for us as an island nation to connect more people with the sea and its many benefits for them—mentally, well-being—and indeed just to love, experience it, and look at it here today being out on the water. It’s amazing.
Hilda O'Grady
