What a bubble! One full of water. The mystique of water always pervaded my being, after all didn’t I come into this world with the breaking of water. With such an entry I was wet behind the ears. From early childhood water held my imagination. Growing up, the fairy fort in our land was always
When I was growing up on our County Roscommon farm, a half-mile stretch of river formed the mearing between our land and the adjacent townland. We called it, simply, The River, and the section from The Bridge to The Bottoms was a regular haunt for us. The river bed was deep and for most of
Fráoch Mac Idath, of the Connachta was the handsomest warrior in Ériu 1 (Ireland) and Albu (Scotland), ach níba shuthain – but he did not live long. The whole land was full of his story and renown, so much so that Findabair, the daughter of Queen Medb (Maeve) fell in love with him simply from
‘The Lough has a mind of its own’, so the natives declare. Lough Funshinagh – the lake of the ash tree, there is none like it in Ireland, or Europe indeed. It overflows, then disappears almost fully, then overflows again. A type of turlough they say, we have many a version in our county of
I grew up in the heart of the country within a whisper of the longest river in Ireland. The Shannon known as the “wise river” meandered through eleven counites almost separating the East and the West. Electricity had been connected to our house in the very early nineteen sixties but the running water inside and
Riverdance. Where does that word take us? The O2 arena? possibly. No doubt it would be Bill Whelan’s stunning classic that was first performed in 1994 during the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest springs to mind. That however is not the riverdance that filled me with wonder and fascination; the one that I am
The death of the great Fergus mac Róich, former King of Ulster occurred when he was bathing with his consort Queen Medb in a lake on Mag n’Aí . Medb’s husband, the king Ailill spied the two of them together and even though Medb famously chose Ailill for his lack of envy, a wave of
We were on a boat. Somewhere. As soon as things get nautical, I’m instantly lost. I’m pretty sure it was the River Shannon. I think I got a breakfast roll from a shop in Tír na nÓg at one point? On a voyage through the heart of The Emerald Isle, you pass through these pockets