What's in the Inny?

Weather conditions last Thursday morning meant a field trip to Lough Sheelin was off the cards for the students at Scoil Bhride in Mountnugent.

While the weather put a dampener on the morning, the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) Community Officer Eoghan Connaughton was the only one actually getting soaked. As the Celt drove through the village of Mountnugent, crossing over the beautiful stone bridge, a thick-blue coated man was the only person out in what was torrential rain, carrying buckets up from the river.

Not a coincidence; Eoghan was out doing a kick sample in the depths of the River Inny, in a quest to bring the river's wildlife to the children.

Buckets of invertebrates sat on the classroom tables much to the delighted of the pupils who have been participating in 'Learning Life Sciences by Lough Sheelin' classes with Kathleen O'Hagan, a biology teacher who owns the company Eco Endeavours, which she established in 2013.

"The idea was to teach local people about the preciousness of their own local environment," Kathleen explained.

She has been bringing in plant samples over the past couple of weeks, therefore the day began with a test of the students' knowledge. They did not disappoint, rhyming off the yellow iris, bramble, flowering rush, which is now beginning to flower and the yellow lily with ease. Pollinators were also a topic of discussion, jumping from flower to flower conveying pollen and fertilising as they go, while the Mayfly's cycle was also discussed.

"Everything in nature happens in a lovely way, everything is coordinated and everything happens at the right time," Kathleen explained.

Next it was over to Eoghan, who displayed the fruits of his earlier endeavours before the children.

He invited the children to come and have a look at the large buckets containing macro invertebrates; mayfly, caddisfly, leech and fresh water shrimp among them.

The LAWPRO Community Officer did not have to ask the children twice; they jumped out of their seats in eager anticipation.

"What do these little creatures do?" Eoghan asked.

"Eat the algae," one bright student responded.

And if they didn't? Again, the response was forthcoming, the river would be polluted and covered in algae. The creatures eat the plants, and the fish eat the creatures.

"It's the food chain," Eoghan explained, clearly impressed by their knowledge on the topic.

"Great teacher, bravo," he exclaimed.

To everybody’s delight, there is abundant life in the River Inny, with a lot of Mayfly, which indicates that the water is clean, as the species does not live in dirty water.

With cups and tweezers, being careful not to squeeze tight, each student had the opportunity to catch a creature, examine it closely and guess the name. The mayfly was identifiable by its three tails; while the fresh water shrimp stood out due to its speed while swimming. Cheers of joy were heard from those victorious in catching it and placing in in their cup, proudly showing it off among their peers.

The LAWPRO team looked at the composition of the water, determined the PH, the nutrients, the temperature and found that "the Inny is good".

"My team travel the whole country and we go into every river and we test the water quality so see if it's clean," explained Eoghan, adding that the River Inny is getting better in terms of water quality.

"Ireland had pristine waters in the 1960s, no pollution, perfect clean water.

"In the last twenty years, things are actually getting better which is great," he told the children, who were giddy with excitement upon hearing that their local river is clean.

"For the last 25 years, there's been a lot of effort to clean the rivers and it's working. There are efforts happening by Tidy Town groups, there's efforts happening by farmers, there's efforts happening in households and the waters are getting cleaner. They can get better.

"Can they become pristine? We'll have to wait as it takes a long time to find out."

Speaking to the Celt after the talk, Eoghan said there are funds of up to €50,000 available to community groups who want to embark on projects. The classes in the Mountnugent school were also funded by LAWPRO under their Small Grants and Events Fund.

"We can talk to communities about your local water, the pressures and then give advice on how we can do actions to improve the water."

To find out more about their grant offerings or to have an officer visit your local community, visit lawaters.ie