OPINION (AN COLÚN): The pros and cons of the common reed on Lough Derg

AFTER listening a couple of weeks ago to the councillors of Nenagh Municipal District complaining about the problem of reed growth impinging on swimming space in Lough Derg I drove across beautiful Lower Ormond to have a look for myself.
Relatively speaking, Lower Ormond is “off the beaten track” and “hidden”. Its beauty is quiet, subdued, unshowy. I have a deep grá for its green, pastoral charm. I feel it's a part of my homeland, of the region where I sense my roots.
It's also a place which I got to know extremely well over many years through my love of horseriding, a love which saw me setting off from many villages and crossroads; setting off to gallop across fields and jump hedges and drains in the company of good friends. As I drove across Lower Ormond on Saturday many of the areas I passed through triggered memories of those horserides; followed by singsongs and laughter in the local pubs. Sometimes as I drove along I even recognised some of the daunting hedges my brave horse and I jumped over; I spotted a couple of places where the jumps didn't go so well and I ended up in mud or briars.
I came to the Coolbawn area, where I saw revealed before me the glorious expanse of Lough Derg, a sight whose loveliness can make the heart ache. I passed near the “boutique resort” of Coolbawn Quay which made me recall doing an advertising feature for the Tribune about the resort nearly 30 years ago. It's very popular with wedding parties, which is little surprising as it's an ideal location. I arrived at the townland of Skehanagh and stopped beside the lakeshore. It was raining heavily and the sky was low and grey. There were a couple of nice benches beside the lakeshore for people to relax and enjoy the view. A few cormorants perched on rocks and a couple of swans moved slowly on the water. It may seem a cliché to our jaded, cynical minds but the sight of swans with a lake as a backdrop remains perennially special for me; especially on a day such as last Saturday when the bad weather was keeping most people away from the lake and it seemed as if I had the place to myself.
Apart from the aesthetic pleasures of this location, it was also obvious that the councillors's concerns were well founded. I love reeds as much as the next man but they have colonised vast swathes of the lake's shores, which is problematic if you want to swim or manoeuvre boats. It does seem as if a bit more management is needed.
At another spot in Skehanagh I saw five people emerge from a mobile sauna and take to the water. They waded out for many yards before the water level reached their waists. The lake bed looked people-friendly, decent for swimmers. I drove on to the Luska area, another part of the lakeshore which attracts swimmers. Again there were vast swathes of reeds gradually encroaching and diminishing parts of the area.
Following my exploration of the eastern stretch of Lough Derg I did a little research on the pros and cons of the Common Reed (Phragmites Australis). The messaging, the picture, is mixed. Phragmites Australis is very common in freshwater wetlands, lakeshores and beside riverbanks. One of the good things about it is that it forms tall, dense areas of vegetation which provide good cover for birds and other wildlife. I read that the reeds can reach 20 feet in height, though I've never seen them this high in Ireland. Reeds are interesting from a heritage point of view because they provided early settlers on this island with a very crucial raw material – thatch for the early houses. Without ready access to this excellent building material, early settlers would have had a difficult problem finding an alternative material to roof their huts with.
In North America reeds are often viewed as an invasive species (having been imported from Europe) and are therefore treated with disdain. In Europe they are viewed more favourably, although some people, such as our North Tipperary councillors, from time to time call for them to be cut back in order to allow greater room for swimmers and boats.
I also read that reeds can be transformed into ecologically friendly drinking straws and are an excellent source for biomass. I did not know (but now I do!) that many parts of the plant can be eaten. The young shoots can be consumed raw or cooked; and a powder extracted from the dried stems can be moistened and roasted like marshmallow.