In June this year three Ireland-based artists-Danny Sheehy, a writer; Anne Burke, a writer and photographer; and I, a sculptor-set out on a voyage in a canvas-covered traditional Irish currach to follow a route used by Irish monks in the seventh century. Starting in Sligo on the west, we followed the Atlantic coast north, then east, rowing a total of 210 miles until we reached Rathlin Island, which is almost as close to mainland Scotland as it is to the Northern Ireland coastline. Currachs are currently making something of a revival in Ireland. With an emphasis on leisure use now, this has in places involved the forming of community groups set up to build and use the craft in appropriate local ways. One example is West Clare Currachs and another is the Lough Neagh Boating Heritage Association, a group with which I am associated and which is dedicated to restoring traditional working boats to Lough Neagh, west of Belfast, the largest inland lake of the British Isles.
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