CLOGHERHEAD WILL BE THE PLACE TO BE
It’s not the Creature from the Black Lagoon - it’s the Beast from the North East!
But fear not, the 10-metre Octopus is a friendly giant perched on top of the old house on the site of the forthcoming Seafood Rock festival in Clogherhead .
“Charles Preston of LPM Bohemia conceived the idea and along with Jig from Jigantics has created the beast with experienced help from local fishermen. Clean Coasts, Aston Village Educate Together, V&W Recycling and Dreadnots GAA Football Club contributed plastic waste to the project, so it has been a real community project.” said Damien Kierans from Red Fish Events.
Made entirely from recycled and upcycled retired fishing equipment (that would usually have ended up in the sea), along with plastic reclaimed by local groups and schools, this really is a remarkable project.
The Clogherhead Community Group not only funded this project but Oliver Kirwan, who runs the Tidy Towns group, collected the litter on a regular basis from the boats as they landed.
SeaFoodRocks Festival 2018 is taking place in Clogherhead, Co. Louth from 13th – 15th July and this year it’s going eco.
“Most importantly we’d like to thank the fishing community of Clogherhead who contributed to the build with their time and materials. Without their expert net mending skills this project would have been unmanageable. Special thanks to Ricky Burke and Kevin Smith for leading the team.
It’s great to see Clogherhead fishermen at the fore in making the ocean cleaner.” continued Damien.
In a recent Facebook competition, the gigantic octopus was christened ‘OctoAsh’ by Ashton Tallon, an Octopus crazy kid, who was hell bent on winning:
“Ashton is completed obsessed with octopuses and anyone who knows him got behind my post, we’re all so thrilled for him,” said his delighted Mam, Rachel Tallon.“He can’t believe he got to name a giant octopus after himself, he even wore an octopus tie to his First Communion!!” said his delighted Mam, Rachel Tallon.
Tickets for SeaFoodRocks 2018 are available at www. seafoodrocks.ie.