Water Works
PS2 Gallery, Belfast
Water Works reimagined and celebrated Belfast’s maritime traditions with city wide events, workshops and the building of thousands of boats including life size skiffs, milk bottle rafts, coke can dinghies and shoebox yachts culminating in a day of celebration along the River Lagan.
On the banks of the river Lagan, as part of PS2's River Celebration hosted a series of performances by HIVE Choir, Emma Brennan, Janie Doherty, Rosie Mullin, Méabh Meir and a Lagan Currach Trad Session to mark the end of the organisations project as part of Belfast City Council's Belfast 2024.
Coinciding with the Pagan celebration of Lughnasadh, and our votive offerings to the river in the form of thousands of boats, we were also honouring the river through the creation of a myth.
Unlike other significant rivers in Ireland, such as the Shannon, Boyne, Boyle, Bann, Bandon, and Erne, and - even more locally - the Farset, Blackstaff and Belfast Lough, the Lagan lacks a parable which protects it from us, and vice versa.
Our project aimed to highlight both the power and vulnerability of our river. Since time immemorial, water has been regarded as a sacred but formidable element, venerated for its life-giving properties as well as its ability to overwhelm. River-goddesses are representative of mothers and healers, and as fertilising and nurturing entities, whilst also embodying formidable forces which must be appeased.
Amidst rising river levels and occurrences of flooding, as well as possibilities for leisure that a rejuvenated waterfront can bring, cultural expression can help us to communicate the myriad value that caring for the river can create. Photography by Catherine Devlin.
The river she,
bends just to me.
Her will to hone
Is mine alone.
The river she,
I bid her free
cast out the pain
that threatens she.
From my palm,
an offering ship.
Sail on steady,
don’t sway or dip.
An báidín saor
we send to float,
get rid, from she
her sufferin’ coat.
Emma Brennan, 2024
