Return to the ‘Shannon Country’

Historian Jonathan Smyth looks at some local folklore around the Shannon in his latest instalment of his popular Times Past column; we also hear the story of a Cavan romance from 1888 that hit the headlines...

The well-travelled travel writer, Richard Hayward, set out to explore the River Shannon in August 1939, in a road trip which began at the Shannon pot, the source of the river in County Cavan. His evocative account of that journey, in the book, ‘Where the River Shannon Flows’ became a bestselling go to book for tourists. Eighty years on, inspired by Hayward’s delightful peregrinations, Paul Clements steps in to retrace the same beautiful journey for a modern-day audience. ‘Shannon Country’ by Paul Clements will be published by Lilliput Press in the autumn.

Like Hayward, Clements begins from the Shannon Pot, taking him by car, on foot, by bike and boat. The journey takes in the length of the river from its source, to the Shannon estuary, a 344 km journey combining its scenic beauty and the changes wrought over the years, painting a compelling portrait of twenty-first century Ireland. Clements offering provides a ‘mingling of travel and anecdote with an eye for the natural world’.

Pot luck

As may be expected, the longest river to be found in Ireland, or Britain has a few interesting facts. Beginning in the cool shade of the Cuilcagh mountains, in Cavan, its winding flow reaches the sea just below Limerick. Importantly, it drains approximately 15,500 square kms, or one-fifth of the island of Ireland through its tributaries. On the website www.glangevlin.com the ‘Tale of the Salmon of Wisdom’ is told. In the time of Finn McCool and the Fianna, a girl named Sinnan, daughter of Lodan, went in search of a wise salmon. She came to the place, which became known as the Shannon Pot, where the salmon lived. He was having none of it, on learning of the girl’s mission, and caused the pool to overflow and drown the young maiden. Her name became associated with its emanating flow that became anglicised as Shannon.

The website for the Marble Arch Caves www.marblearchcavesgeopark.com mentions that the source of the river occurs along the Cavan Way, ‘a lengthy distance’ walking route beginning at Blacklion and ending in Dowra. Other sites in the region include the nearby Cavan Burren Park and of course the Marble Arch Caves, along with the Tullydermot Waterfalls and Moneygashel Castle amongst an array of other Geopark attractions.

Travelling along the magnificent waterway, Clements tells stories about water gypsies, sailors, lock keepers, bog artists, ‘insta’ pilgrims and a water diviner celebrating wisdom through her river songs’, that illuminate the ‘cultural history and identity, wildlife, nature, and the built heritage, including historic bridges’. The book provides an intimate portrait of many hidden aspects of Ireland’s countryside, its people, topography, and wildlife, creating what the publishers Lilliput Press refer to as a ‘collective memory map’.

The Shannon, tells the story of a river running through literature, art, culture, history, and mythology with a ‘riptide pull on one’s imagination, celebrating the deep vein flowing through the culture of the island of Ireland’.

Paul Clements is a seasoned author, broadcaster, journalist and former BBC News Editor. His books cover ‘travel nature and culture and heritage’ according to the ‘Fodor’s Essential Ireland 2020’. His biography of Richard Hayward, of which I have a copy, was adapted for television by the BBC in 2015.

While looking through Clements book, it also seemed fitting to look at Hayward’s writing on the Shannon. Cavan came in for Hayward’s praise: ‘Lakes and rivers are everywhere, mountains of curious and fascinating shape rise on every hand to close upon 2,000 feet, little singing streams run here and there, and the limestone countryside looks fertile, green and comfortable.’

Hayward considered that ‘no part of Ireland’ was so steeped in ‘early history’ as is Cavan.

In the distance from Swanlinbar there lies Binnaughlin, known as ‘the peak of the speaking horse’, or as the Coppal Bawn, a one 1,218 ft high mountain. Binnaughlin was climbed annually each July when the locals celebrated Bilberry Sunday. In his research, like Clements, Hayward consulted local people including the famous Cavan historian Philip O’Connell, author of the ‘Schools and Scholars of Breifne’, and many others living in the region who retained the old traditions.

Paul Clements has an affinity and passion for travel writing, spiced with history and anecdote, in a similar vein to the classic works of Richard Hayward. Paul Clements ‘Shannon Country’ will be a guaranteed treat to those who read it and will possibly inspire us all to take a holiday on the Shannon so that we too can observe all those wonderful sites.

A BAD ROMANCE?

An unusual story of a Cavan romance made headlines in 1888. And like a plot from a Catherine Cookson novel, it involved a remarkable occurrence. Some 25 years earlier, John L. Smith and Catherine Brady were married, secretly, in Cavan. Smith though poor, wed Brady, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, with ‘his jaunting car’ and ‘fine high stepping horse’. News of the marriage made her father angry. He forbade Catherine to live with Smith.

‘Smarting under the indignity’, Smith left for America. The ship was wrecked during the voyage and Smith’s name was listed amongst the dead.

But he did not actually die, having made his way to America. Through hard work he was to become wealthy.

Meanwhile, Catherine had her own trials too. John wrote letters home to her, but none of them were passed on by her family. She concluded that Smith was dead. With nothing to keep her in Cavan, she emigrated to Sydney, Australia. Happily, she met a surveyor named Vaughan and they were married. Unfortunately, while on a surveying exhibition, he was killed leaving Catherine a widow. In a’ terrible state of want’ she went to San Francisco where she found well-paid work.

One evening, she went out to watch a play at the ‘Alcazar’; it was an evening that would change her life.

On the other end of the same bench, sat a grey-haired man with a ‘weather-beaten face’. He turned on hearing her ‘voice and laugh’. Calling out to her, he asked if she would be Catherine Brady from Co. Cavan. Fate alas! had intervened.

Smith and Brady were brought together again. Everything was explained and Mrs Smith moved to live at her husband’s ranch.

Having looked back on their lives, they could now look forward to a future.