The River Shannon
Carsten Krieger O’Brien Press €24.99
SOMETIMES it takes an outsider to remind us of the extraordinary beauty that’s on our doorstep.
In his latest coffee table book, German-born, Carsten Krieger, leads us by the hand – or perhaps the eye – and reintroduces us to the glories of the broad, majestic River Shannon.
While the epic beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way hasn’t wanted for advocates in recent years, Krieger’s handsome book offers a timely reminder of the more unassuming beauty that’s on show as he slowly winds his way from Cavan, through the midlands and on to Limerick and the Atlantic Ocean.
The river’s mythological beginnings and present day use are all detailed through 200 powerful photographs which are laid out with clear purpose.
Past and present are combined beautifully. A photograph of miners at work by the river in the 1940s is placed opposite an eerie depiction of the abandoned mine today.
Another page captures Westmeath’s Belvedere House, the home of ‘the Wicked Earl’. Its elegant rooms and grand entrance are sumptuously exposed here.
Opposite the 1740 grand state house is a crisp white fisherman’s cottage with two bicycles leaning against the wall, a bale of hay and a canoe in the adjoining outbuilding.
The book is divided into three chapters to give Krieger the space to focus on a different section of the river and what it means to the people who live and work there now and in times past.
The Shannon Pot to Lough Lee, Athlone to Limerick and The Shannon Estuary are all intricately examined through Krieger’s discerning lens, giving an insight into a river that may never have been studied quite so clearly before.