Eco Showboat

Denis Connolly and Anne Cleary, founders of the Eco Showboat project, on Mayfly Solar Boat. Photo credit: Brendan Dowd

Mayfly, Ireland's first fully solar electric boat to dock in Offaly

Eco Showboat

Kayley Hardiman

Published: Tue 13 Jun 2023, 4:48 PM

Last updated: Tue 13 Jun 2023, 5:00 PM

The Mayfly Eco Showboat will dock in Pollagh on the Grand Canal this Saturday for an afternoon of events hosted by Pollagh Heritage Group.

The showboat will welcome local people to St Mary’s school in Pollagh on Saturday at 2.30pm for an afternoon of art, ecology and chat and be able to meet Anne Cleary who established the Eco Showboat expedition along with Denis Connolly which is a four month arts voyage from Limerick to Enniskillen.

Then, at 3pm, the Eco Showboat team will welcome artist Fiona McDonald, who has been working with scientists from the National Parks and Wildlife Services who use sensors to measure an ecosystem’s “breathing” or "Greenhouse Gas Flux”, to get a sense of the annual carbon cycle of ecosystems.

Following tea with the artists, attendees will be invited to a screening of 'Pilgrim Road Movie', at 4pm. It's a short film that was shot by Anne and Denis with photographer Kevin O’Dwyer in July 2022 exploring what remains of the medieval roadway used by pilgrims for centuries as they travelled along the Esker Riada, a continuous raised glacial ridge on the landscape formed over 12,000 years ago, on their way to Clonmacnoise.

One of the founder's of the Eco Showboat project Anne Cleary, said:

"We are very grateful to Pollagh Heritage Group and St Mary’s School for welcoming us so warmly to Pollagh. The Eco Showboat aims to bring people together around ecology in in a way that is enjoyable and fun, combining climate science with art to give people engaging moments where we can imagine solutions to the climate crisis together. The Pollagh Community has really bent over backwards to help us realise this vision in County Offaly."

The Eco Showboat Journey to the East is a five month arts expedition from Askeaton to Dublin aboard the solar powered Mayfly, flagship of the Eco Showboat project. The project is supported by the Arts Council, SFI, Creative Ireland, Waterways Ireland, and LAWPRO. The Mayfly is Ireland's first fully solar electric boat.