Environmental awareness will only work if it starts with the young children and filters through to the parents and wider community. The raising of Galbally national school’s first green flag last week, proved that a school community working to reduce litter, can help to improve an entire village.

With invited guests, parents and people from Galbally village present, the green flag was raised by Tom Blackburn, assisted by Shane Hanrahan, while Conor Finnan raised the Irish flag and Sean Walsh Carey, assisted by Alannah Ryan raised the Galbally flag, all to the backdrop of wonderful drumming by the students and our national anthem being sung in Irish.

Principal of Galbally NS, Martin Kearney told the crowd that the staff and students, with the help of Ms Cunningham and Mrs Burns, worked really hard to earn their first flag.

Mrs Cunningham credited the students with doing 95% of the work, saying that they understood the importance of being environmentally friendly.

Some of the students also stepped forward and spoke about what they did to get this flag, thanking the committee for working tirelessly to ensure that everyone actively sought to secure the flag.

They have been working together to ensure that Galbally is a green school and is doing its part for the protection of the planet.

While working towards securing the flag, they increased their recycling by 60%, reduced the amount of rubbish to go to landfills by over 60% and also created compost to a high standard that they could use in their school garden.

Canon Talbot said that it was fitting that the boys and girls in the national school should be honoured for their hard work and efforts.

Cllr Eddie Ryan said that these young people who worked so hard for this flag can now demonstrate what they’ve learned to their parents, siblings and people from the community.

Tim Ryan rejoined the Galbally Tidy Towns committee last year and he said that one comment which had been coming back from the judges was that the school could get involved in the Tidy Town efforts by working towards a green flag.

“It’s a big job to get the green flag and there’s a lot of work behind the scenes. Litter is one of the most important things in the Tidy Towns, so this will be a huge boost to us,” he said.

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