Sir, - I note from your edition of June 5th that Keel, Achill island, like many other beaches countrywide, retains its blue flag. This is to be viewed with some scepticism.
While the blue flag appears to relate to water quality, which in Keel at is indeed pristine, it evidently ignores the surrounding environment. The dunes in Keel are a filthy disgrace - and it isn't the wind dumping debris from the sea.
I've not known the wind to tie up plastic bags of rubbish - nor to pile plastic bottles in one spot and broken glass ones in another.
The vista from the beach is also increasingly blighted by quasi-necrotic, poorly maintained, unlandscaped holiday-home developments. - Yours, etc.,
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COLM V. FAHY,
Sorrento Road,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.