Ferneo Bay is a small sheltered bay on the Mullet Peninsula, created by the land of Devlane on the south side and Elly Point to the north. It has a beautiful silver strand sheltered by sand dunes all along the shore and the townland of Mullaghroe in the background. On the commonage behind the sand
Gollierstown Bridge was peaceful as I rested. Suddenly, another joined me, and spoke: “I remember the boats on the canal. The Grand Canal. Oh yes, it went from Portabella to Ballinasloe in the finish. The first cut was at Clondalkin. 1780. To Sallins. The boats? Longer than ye’d imagine: first one, 17 metres you’d call
Once upon a time, the Mountmellick branch of the Grand Canal was a hive of activity, channelling brimming barges and their solid equine companions from Monasterevin, Athy and beyond. Today, the amputated waterway bustles with other colourful creatures. Stretches of it echo Kavanagh’s “leafy with love”, while elsewhere cold cement roadways have ceased its life
There is a pond in Carriglea Shanballymore about 4km from my home and I was delighted when a pair of swans came to make their home there in the spring. They have been coming there for a number of years. They made a nest and the Pen which is a female swan laid 6 eggs
My great grandad was a great man for oral history. He was born in 1915 and lived in Moydow, Co longford, so his story telling ability spanned for over a century, for he lived until he reached the age of 101 and died in 2016. His ability to tell a yarn was very unique and
Back in the 1980s my brother lived in Michigan and loved to fish. He couldn’t come home because there was no Green Card but we loved to open the presents he sent. My sister got a quilted jumpsuit and I got a fishing rod and a few lures. One dark rainy night in March, while
If Rivers could talk what stories they would have to tell, good and bad. Unfortunately they can’t – at least, not in language we can understand – so we have to tell their stories ourselves. I’m from Bray in County Wicklow, and like anyone else from the town I have plenty of stories about the
Sligo is the Shelly Place, on the Little Rough River that runs, short and fast, from the Bright Lake to the shining sea where Eva Gore-Booth’s ‘little waves of Breffni’ lap gently on the shore. Sligo is ‘the holy mountain (Ben Bulben) whose mighty heart gathers into it all the coloured days’ of Seamus O’Sullivan’s
This is a true story told to me by my Nana one day One day while we were sitting by our little stream having lunch with our Nana, she was reminded of a story that her grandmother, Ellen, told her back in the 1950s when she was on her annual summer holiday with her, on
My Father, the Fisherman I can still see him standing at The Gap, a local fishing spot in Thomastown, casting his line into the surging water – a man who loved the river bank and who’d spend hours waiting for the salmon to bite. Many times I was there when a tug would come on
One of my favourite places in the world is the mouth of the harbour in Berehaven, with Ardnakinna lighthouse looking down on you from your port side and the Pipers Rocks standing tall and secure to starboard. Even more special are the Glas Lochs, a series of lakes in a scooped-out basin in the Caha
My nearest body of water is the Grand Canal. I lived at the 21st Lockhouse, Ballycommon for many years. My Grandad, James Fisher, is the lock keeper at this lock and I have many special memories of helping him open locks and put boats through. Locks are essential when the canal flows through territory which