Stories from the Blackwater Catchment is A Creative Communities project which brings together Elders for Cluain Dara day care centre and young people from the neighbouring school, Coláiste an Chraoibhín. Participants have been sharing stories and questions about the river Blackwater and what it means to live within its catchment. I have been working with the groups since Autumn 2024, stirring up river relations, co-creating and collecting imagery that has been conjured up by this engagement, and I will be bringing this collection to Fermoy library for the Bealtaine Festval (which celebrates creativity as we age, and runs annually during the month of May).
Visitors are invited to come see and hear and contribute to this collection. Members of Cluain Dara and Colaiste an Chraoibhín will be dropping by to share their stories and thoughts about the project. The exhibition will run throughout the month of May and I will be hosting creative sessions in the library on Thursday mornings of the 8th 15th, 22nd and 29th May, if you would like to get involved please do drop in between 10 am and 1pm. All welcome 🙂
John Joe O’Sullivan’s Box of Lures
This fly box belongs to one of our river elders, John Joe O’Sullivan. Each hand-tied fly is a quiet testament to time spent by the water. John Joe has fished in every tributary of the Blackwater and beyond.
These tiny, intricate creations are more than just tools for catching fish. They are quiet conversations with the river — observations made in feathers, plants, scraps of thread, and imagination.
To tie a fly is to understand the insects that live along the banks, the moods of the water, and the patience needed for the catch. John Joe is deeply attuned to the ever-changing greens of the river in shifting light. The materials for each fly are most reliably gathered from the riverbank, chosen to match the weather and the flow of water on that particular day.
Later, a fishing friend tells me: “You must match the hatch.” To catch a fish, your fly must resemble the river insects hatching at that very moment. It’s part science, part instinct — and a deep form of listening to the river.
I am intrigued by the yellow ones both by the material and the spidery form. John Joe ducks my questions and asks me to identify which one might be “The Devil”, one he thinks I might guess by its colour.
This box is more than a collection — it’s a map of memory, craft, and deep-rooted knowledge of the river and its life.
julforrester 