Writing
Journal
Notes from the river and the season. This is also the newsletter archive.
The Louse
It is the size of a lentil and the colour of the thing it eats. The story of what happened to the salmon and sea trout of the west begins with something you could miss on the back of your hand.
Why "Keep It Wild" Is the Whole Point
The wild Atlantic salmon is in steep decline. What that means for a river, and for a place that has always measured itself by the fish.
Your First Cast
A short field guide for the beginners' day. What to expect, what to wear, and why the grass comes before the river.
The Reversal
A salmon-farm licence was cancelled, years ago, for exceeding its own limits. This year an appeals board handed it back, and the machine, once again, overruled its own conscience.
Three in a Hundred
In 1975, close to two million wild salmon came back to Irish rivers. This year the count came in, and it only confirmed what the men on the water already knew.
Everywhere Else
A fillet in a supermarket chiller, labelled to make you feel good. A short account of the places that have shown open-net salmon farms the door, and the one that keeps holding it open.
Licensed
A signature on a document in Dublin put eighteen cages into Bantry Bay this year, and set the state's own fisheries body against the state. A note on how these things are decided.
The Quiet Season
In the strangest spring anyone could remember, the rivers of the west emptied of people. The trouble is that the fish had been emptying for far longer, and more quietly.