By Iarlaith Hyland
Eight nominees from county Cork, including Midleton school St. Colman’s Community College and their assistant principal, Proinisias O Tuama, have been shortlisted across seven categories in the 2025 Ocean Hero awards.
St. Colman’s have a renowned reputation for the work done by their environmental society, accumulating an illustrious array of awards over the years, having previously won the Ocean Hero School Of The Year award 6 times, 4 of which were in successive years from 2015 to 2018. While in the last 2 years (2024 and 2023), they have fallen short of taking home the main prize, being shortlisted both times. They have achieved this through campaigning, taking on hands-on activities and setting up environmental workshops.
Their efforts have been assisted by their well renowned assistant principal, Proinsias O Tuama, who also founded Clean Coasts Ballynamona. The assistant principal is also a regular at the Ocean Hero awards and has this year been nominated for the Individual of the Year and Leadership awards, due to his dedicated volunteering cleaning up the beaches around east Cork. His own organisation, Clean Coasts Ballynamona, is nominated for the Group of the Year and Community Action award respectively.
Also nominated in the Leadership category is professional ecologist, Katriina Bent from Tramore, county Waterford, while other nominees from the county, Molly’s Tramore and the Health Service Staffs’ Credit Union Cork (HSSCU) nominated in the Community Champion category, while in the Campaign Ambassador category Tramore Eco Group are nominated.
From humble beginnings in 2006 as the ‘Clean Coasts’ Merit Awards,’ the awards have grown from a single category, to honouring 45 groups and individuals in 9 categories in 2025. Clean Coasts has the great honour and pleasure to engage the support of over 2,500 Clean Coasts groups and 45,000 volunteers nationwide, and the Ocean Hero awards are an annual homage to the great efforts of these dedicated volunteers.
Winners will be awarded Ocean Heros across nine categories at a ceremony at the Gibson Hotel in Dublin on International Volunteer Day, which falls on December 5th.
