A land where Environmental Education is front page news

As Brexit craziness takes a firm grip on England, every new trip to Ireland feels like an even more wondrous visit to a parallel universe. Ireland is sort of the same as England, but in so many ways it is vastly, hugely, different.

It was the morning after an old colleague's wedding, I was breakfasting with my wife. She passed me the papers; I nearly spat out my cornflakes. I was not still drunk, this was a major national newspaper with a big advert for a schools recycling education programme on its front page. Hats off to Ireland's Sunday Independent.

It costs 14,935 EURO to secure a 'front solus'* in the Irish Independent on Sunday. Having that sort of budget to spend on advertising an environmental education programme is just mind boggling. 

REPAK who paid for the advert want 'to educate Ireland's children on recycling, leading to a better environment for us all'. I wonder if their materials need further investigation? 

*technical term for being the only advert on the front page of a newspaper. 

Morgan Phillips