This case explores the different ways that Life Below Water impacts, inspires and resonates through culture whether that be food, music, folklore, art or travel. This case addresses UN SDG 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, sea and marine resources for sustainable development.
Cabrera, Anna and Vanessa Murphy. Tapas. Dublin: Blasta Books, 2023. [X Collection]
Chin, Kwanghi. Wok. Dublin: Blasta Books, 2021. [X Collection]
Blasta Books self-describe as ‘we are to cookbooks what street food is to restaurants: we give people a fun, affordable, accessible way to eat exciting food’. ‘Blasta’food'. 'Blasta' is from the Irish language meaning ‘tasty'tasty, delicious or appetising’appetising'.
Anna and Vanessa acknowledge that there are thousands of ways to create many of these tapas dishes but they chose the way they like to create them. Tapas includes recipes for Galician-style octopus with paprika and potatoes; garlic and chilli prawns; fried fish platter from Malaga; cod fritters; octopus salad and Catalan salted cod salad. In the introduction to cod fritters they acknowledge the type of salted cod they are familiar with many not be readily available in Ireland and offer alternatives.
Fitzgibbon, Theodora. A taste of the sea in food and pictures. Period photos, specially prepared by George Morrison. Newton Abbot [England]: David & Charles, 1977. [de Courcy Ireland Collection]
Theodora Fitzgibbon (1916-1991) was an Irish cookery writer from the 1950s to the 1980s. She was one of the founding members of the Irish Food Writers' Guild and became the Guild's first president. George Morrison (1922-) is an Irish documentary maker and photographer. His works include Mise Éire (1959) and the maritime film Two Thousand Miles of Peril (1972) about the Irish Lifeboat Service. A taste of the sea in food in pictures has photographs paired with recipes e.g. Preparing the currach, Co Clare, 1870 paired with a recipe for potted mackerel.
Sexton, Regina. A little history of Irish food. London: Kyle Cathie Limited, 1998. [X Collection]
Regina Sexton's landmark work A little history of Irish food includes information about different seaweeds: dulse, soke, cruach, carragheen, and their use in food. The work developed from concerns about contemporary food issues: food policy, food systems, food sovereignty and food poverty. In addition, if for every food choice a person makes there is a consequence or a repercussion, then how we make these choices? These food concerns were viewed through the lens of sustainability, the environment and our relationship to cultural identity.
Shellfish was a key part of the Mesolithic (8000-4000 BC) Irish diet. This is evidenced by archaeological evidence of middens comprising oyster and limpet shells, and references to shellfish in placenames e.g. Sligo is in Irish ‘Sligeach’ which means ‘abounding in shells’.
Townsend, Horatio. A general and statistical survey of the county of Cork. Cork: Edwards & Savage, 1815. [Older Printed Books Collection]
Horatio Townsend (1750-1837) was of the Castletownsend family. His survey was commissioned by the Dublin Society and its focus is on Cork County's agricultural economy focusing on Cork’s topography, climate, minerals, soil and waterways; agricultural activities, cattle industry, dairying, grass, hay making and the prices of hides, wools and other goods; size and types of farms, the relationship between tenants and landlords, assizes, types of leases and the running of estates of landlords. In addition it covers a wide range of subjects such as river navigation, towns and villages, the speaking of Irish and English, education, the diet, clothing and living conditions of the people and much more.
Townsend mentions the use of seaweed as a fertiliser.
Cooke, Barrie. “L’azur, l’azur, l’azur, l’azur, l’azur…” In Clean Irish sea: exhibition of paintings and photographs, the city centre, city quay, Dublin 2; November 23rd - December 14th 1988. [de Courcy Ireland Collection]
Barrie Cooke’s (1931-2014) ecological concerns grew since studying natural sciences in Harvard before he turned to studying art history. In addition, he had a lifelong preference for living beside a river or lake, had a passion for fishing, and a large collection of books about the natural world of flora and fauna. Cooke owned a copy of the 1991 publication Caring for the Earth, A Strategy for Sustainable Living, produced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, United Nations Environment Programme and WWF (World Wildlife Fund for Nature. It’s described as a “User's guide to Caring for the Earth”. The devastation caused by effluent in rivers, algal infestation in lakes and the spread of invasive didymosphenia geminata emerged in his work from the late 1980s onwards.
Clean Irish Sea 1988 was the first major exhibition of contemporary Irish art devoted to environmental issues however it received a relatively limited response in the media.
O’Brien, FitzJames. “Lough Hyne” in Daniel O’Donovan’s Sketches in Carbery, county Cork: Its antiquities, history, legends, and topography. Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, 1876. [Munster Printing]
Dan Donovan came from a Skibbereen medical family. Sketches in Carbery uses a descriptive style for accounts of West Cork and includes O'Brien's poem “"Lough Ine”.
Healy, James, ed. Irish ballads and songs of the sea. Cork: Mercier Press, [1967]. [Munster Printing Collection]
Many of ballads and songs in this book refer to the sea. The song “Herring the King" was specifically chosen as it links to the items on fishing
Praeger, Robert Lloyd. The way that I went: an Irishman in Ireland. Dublin: Hodges Figgis, 1939. [X Collection]
Praeger described how he travelled around Ireland but does not consider this book to be a ‘travelogue’. He describes his first visit to Lough Hyne and the species he found in the Lough.
O Drisceoil, Diarmuid & Donal O Drisceoil. Serving a city: the story of Cork's English Market. Cork: The Collins Press, 2011. [Munster Printing Collection]
Kay O’Connell reminiscences about how she travelled to West Cork to buy directly from small boats in Castletownbere. Similarly, Ballycotton Seafoods have their own small fishing fleet at Ballycotton Harbour which services their shops.
UN SDG Target 14b: provide access of small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets.
Murphy, Richard. “High Island”. Elliott Press, 1985. [Cartographic Visual Collection]
Richard Murphy (1927-2018) was a poet whose work frequently referenced the sea and he is best known for his poem "The Galway Hooker." In 1969 he purchased High Island where he could work in peace and in 1974 he built a second retreat on Omey Island. In this poem we see islands as a point of contact for lobster, shark and fisherman.
