Cork looks good in ‘Clean Coasts’ photography competition

17 November 2021
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie

Clean Coasts recently announced the winners of the 12th Love Your Coast photography competition during their virtual awards ceremony.

The Love Your Coast competition is an integral part of the Clean Coasts programme. Ireland has some of the most spectacular and diverse coastlines in the world. For the past 12 years, the ‘Love Your Coast’ competition has been about capturing the essence of the Irish coastline, its beauty, and its diverse character.

Being Ireland’s foremost community-based coastal programme, Clean Coasts counts on the work of nearly 2,000 volunteer groups nationwide to help protect our coastline, waterways, seas, ocean, and marine life. Once more, Clean Coasts’ volunteers and groups have been eager to engage with us and support the fight against marine pollution. Clean Coasts mission is to foster pride in our coastline and waterways and each year the Love Your Coast competition is an opportunity to see this reflected in the entries.

For the Love Your Coast 2021 competition, almost 1,300 entries were received – the most entries the Love Your Coast competition has had to date.

CORK CITY: Clean Coasts Love Your Coast photography competition Coastal Heritage category’s shortlisted image by David Keeley entitled Clontarf Bridge.

Clean Coasts Love Your Coast photography competition Wildlife and the Coast category’s shortlisted image by Derek Bolton entitled My Bubble.

Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography awards were held virtually for the second year in a row, where the winning photographers for the Love Your Coasts Photography competition were announced. The competition had a prize fund of €5,000 for the amateur photographers competing in five categories: Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People & the Coast, Wildlife & the Coast and the introduction of a brand-new Love Your Coast Category for 2021, Creativity and the Coast.

2021 was a great year for Images from Cork, as we saw two Cork photographers score top places in two categories. Michael Goulding won third place in the category Coastal Landscape for his image entitled Epic, taken on Mizen Head in County Cork. Cork photographer, John Hall scored second place in a new category called Creativity and the Coast for his photo entitled Foggy Morning at Scilly, Kinsale, taken in Scilly, Kinsale, Co. Cork.

Moreover, Marcela Gleixner with her A seashell found on the Garryvoe beach in Cork was also shortlisted within the top 10 images for the Creativity and the Coast category, as well as Dan Lettice with the image Breaching Common Dolphin taken in Reen Pier, Union Hall, Co. Cork and Derek Bolton with the photograph titled My Bubble taken in Barlogue, Baltimore, Co. Cork were among the top 10 photographers in the Wildlife and Underwater Category. Finally, David Keeley with his Clontarf Bridge taken at Cork Harbour was one of the top 10 photographers for the Coastal Heritage Category.

The 50 best shots were shortlisted by the Love Your Coast judges for an online gallery. Winning images showcased the stunning coastlines of Wexford, Donegal, Waterford and Galway.

Michael John O’Mahony, director of the Environmental Education Unit said: “This is the 12th year of the competition and it has been very successful and very well received and we have seen some of the most amazing photographs of our coast over the last number of years. This is more than just a photography competition: we are an island nation and our coast and marine environment are incredibly important to us. Clean Coasts has almost 2,000 volunteer groups who are doing amazing work when it comes to managing and protecting our marine environment, so these photographs are a way for everybody to appreciate and celebrate our coast and be inspired to get involved too.”

Clean Coasts would like to wish a huge congratulations to the Cork based prize winners Michael Goulding and John Hall and thank all of the Cork entrants for submitting their photographs.

WINNERS 2021

Overall winner: 

Declan Roche , Let Me Out, Wexford Harbour Quay front, Co. Wexford

About Clean Coasts:

Clean Coasts is a charity programme, run through the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, which engages communities in the protection of Ireland’s beaches, seas and marine life.

Clean Coasts works with communities to help protect and care for Ireland’s waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life. Clean Coasts thrives to create tangible and immediate improvements to Ireland’s coastal environment, involving thousands of volunteers removing large quantities of marine litter from our coastline each year.

Clean Coasts has grown over the years and now includes two main national clean-up drives. Other initiatives include the Green Coast Award, the Love Your Coast Photography competition, the Clean Coasts Roadshows for coastal communities and the Ocean Hero Awards. All these initiatives are aimed at celebrating the beauty of our coast and the efforts of our volunteers across all of Ireland.

Currently, there are nearly 2,000 registered Clean Coasts volunteering groups. There are a variety of group types such as community groups, residents’ associations, tidy towns groups, sports clubs, schools, businesses, universities etc. Clean Coasts organises hundreds of beach clean-ups annually mobilising thousands of volunteers, removing considerable quantities of marine litter from Ireland’s beaches and waterways.  Our volunteering has expanded to also include Corporate Volunteering.