Rising in the misty moors of County Cavan, the Shannon tumbles and twists 200 miles to the Atlantic Ocean, nearly dividing Ireland in two. Along its banks are dozens of historic towns, castles, and monasteries that testify to Ireland's storied and turbulent history. The river's floodplain is dotted with marshy grasslands and bogs that support a wealth of birds and other wildlife. But for many anglers, it is the salmon that draws them to the Shannon.

The River Shannon

Here I came to the waters edge
Where the Shannon meets the sea
Runs and ripples with the stirring
Reflecting the sky darkly
Over the pallid sea of thought -

Burned with dreams of freedom
Men killed in battle or hanged
Moon falls among rushes
In shadows and in garden trees

The darkness would be broken
But the dream never rests
By the crash of each wave
Their hope never wanders-
Or resists

Sleep until the dawn rises
And on the horizon of the sea
Wings of open fire is born
And everything is blue again

For the old ones are here
Their shadows remember
Summer with free winds
A time of the future....
When time of the past are one.

Beryl McMullen