Mweelrea, mussel rafts, Connemara blackface sheep and a weathered hillside that once supported 500 people per square mile. Even on a grey day, there is something spectacular about Ireland's only fjord, running 14 kilometres from the village of Leenane to the Atlantic Ocean.
This may be why a simple idea is proving to be so successful. It is now two years since salmon farmer James Ryan and Galway businessman Mícheal Ó Cionna set up Sea-Cruise Connemara, now known as Killary Cruises. Assisted by the EU Pesca scheme, the company purchased a catamaran and applied for a passenger ferry licence to run trips within the sheltered waters.
Since it was set up, more than 60,000 visitors have experienced a trip on board. The 90-minute "cruise" from Nancy's Point, several minutes west of the village on the south side of the fjord, has included a taped commentary which traces the geological origins of the landscape and the history of the area on the Galway-Mayo border and outlines the current state of its economy, based mainly on farming fish.
Some of the passengers have been of school age, and this inspired the company to produce an education pack which can be used by transition-year secondary school students. The company took advice from the Transition Year Curriculum Support Service for this.
Last week the vessel was fitted out with new interactive media equipment and a three-dimensional model of the fjord, which was funded by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). This €60,000 dimension to the vessel is intended to "demystify" aquaculture.
The Killary's splendid isolation, after dramatic post-Famine emigration, attracted many writers and artists over the years, Oscar Wilde, Paul Henry, Richard Murphy and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein among them. However, aquaculture is now breathing new life into the area. Recently, it became the latest inshore area to benefit from a co-ordinated local aquaculture management system (CLAMS) brokered by BIM and submitted to Galway County Council.
Already the CLAMS group has endeavoured to "clean up" the fjord, with decommissioning of obsolete rafts and cages and use of visually unobtrusive barrels. However, CLAMS does not include members of the Killary Shellfish Co-op, due to major differences on how to develop the waterway.
The co-op believes that there has been a concerted effort since 1997 to push smaller local shellfish farmers out and that the fjord is now heading towards an "environmental disaster", a view disputed by BIM.
