"Rubbish worth its weight in gold" was the quip on Galway's Quay Street yesterday after the extraordinary recovery of 10 Claddagh rings from the county's landfill.
The rings are the property of Dillon's jewellers, originators of the Claddagh design, and had been commissioned for family members and friends of the owners. They were engraved with a special millennium hallmark and were worth about £6,000 in total.
They had been returned last Friday to the managing director, Mr Jonathan Margetts, in a plastic bag. They were left on top of a small bin beside his desk. The next day he realised the rings had been put out accidentally with the rubbish.
The manager on duty at the Poolboy landfill in Ballinasloe, Ms Ann Dolan, was contacted and she agreed to defer packing the waste from Quay Street to allow Mr Margetts and his staff to search. By an amazing stroke of luck, the bag containing the rings was found within 10 minutes.
