Sustainability, craft and community are at the heart of WITH OUR EYES ON THE HORIZON, a community publishing and heritage project. Meitheal Mara boatyard works at the heart of Cork and the wider community continuing this long tradition of building Currachs. They have, kept the tradition and community afloat, passing on the skilled traditions of boat building and of the Meitheal. The opportunity to encapsulate this ancient and living tradition in verse has arisen with Cork City Library’s Eco Poet in Residence, Keith Payne, who has embarked on a build along with students from the National Learning Network. Over the course of 16 weeks, Payne will participate in every aspect of the building of a Dunfanaghy Currach, from bending the hazel rods to stitching the canvas, to launching the Currach onto the Lee. Payne is compiling notes, archive material and interviews to assemble a book-length poem that follows the clear, clean lines of the Currach into the water. As the Currach follows the current, the lines of Payne’s verse will follow in its wake to ports nationwide and as far as Galicia, Sydney and Newfoundland, where some of these Currachs have landed over the years. This project directly engages the young people of Cork city and county; readers and spectators nationwide; the Irish diaspora and all those connected to the island from shore to shore.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.