(Work In Progress)
Shallow Waters.
Lough Neagh is the largest body of water in the UK & Ireland. It connects five counties and is often referred to as a county in itself. The Lough is central to life in the North of Ireland but also has 9% of it’s catchment area in the Republic of Ireland.
It is the largest freshwater lake in Europe, and it is dying in plain sight. A perfect storm of pollution, sand dredging, poor regulation, invasive species and archaic ownership is leading to a near collapse of the Lough's ecosystem, most visibly realised through the blooms of toxic blue-green algae in the Lough.
Folklore suggests many differing accounts of how Lough Neagh ‘appeared’ and folklore plays a huge part in the life of the people who reside upon it’s shores. People still converge on ‘Washing-bay’ on the Summer Solstice, where it’s long been claimed the water has healing qualities. Druid groups gather around ‘Oxford Island’, Sean-nós singing and traditional music is still hugely popular around Lough Neagh’s shores. But this folklore and tradition sits side by side with heavy industry and industrial agriculture that is killing the ecosystem of the Lough.
Shallow Waters aims to investigate the way myth & tradition sit alongside heavy industry and how closely connected they are, despite being at odds with each other. Through a photographic investigation of the landscape, it’s people and traditions, I aim to chart a thread of connection between the two opposing engagements with the shallow waters of Lough Neagh, as it fights a perfect storm of pollution & negligence.
