'Mayfly' the Eco Showboat comes to Offaly this weekend

The Eco Showboat Mayfly - a vibrantly coloured solar powered boat touring

Ireland's inland waterways for two years - will be moored in Pullough over the weekend

of June 17. Join artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly for a fascinating afternoon

of events hosted by the Pullough Heritage Group.

Join the Eco Showboat team at St Mary's school at 2.30 pm where you can meet Anne

and Denis to hear about their two-year solar journey on the island’s waterways, the

extraordinary people they have met, and the challenges they have faced as the first solar

boat to navigate the entire country using sustainable energy.

At 3 pm the Eco Showboat team will welcome artist Fiona McDonald, who has

been working with scientists from the National Parks and Wildlife Services who use

sensors to measure an ecosystem’s “breathing” or/andGreenhouse Gas Flux”, to get a sense

of the annual carbon cycle of ecosystems. Meet Fiona to hear more about this exciting

technology and what it can tell us about global warming. Then join the team for a chat over

tea and some locally produced culinary offerings.

Following tea with the artists, you are invited to a screening of “Pilgrim Road Movie”,

at 4 pm, a short film shot by Anne and Denis with photographer Kevin O’Dwyer in

July 2022 exploring what remains of the medieval roadway used by pilgrims for centuries

as they travelled along the Esker Riada - a continuous raised glacial ridge on the

landscape formed over 12,000 years ago - on their way to Clonmacnoise.

Anne Cleary, one of the founder of the Eco Showboat project said: ''We are very grateful to Pollagh Heritage Group and St Mary’s School for welcoming us so warmly to Pullough.

The Eco Showboat aims to bring people together around ecology in a way that is enjoyable and fun, combining climate science with art to give people engaging moments where we can imagine solutions to the climate crisis together. The Pullough Community has really bent over backwards to help us realise this vision in County Offaly.''

The Eco Showboat Journey to the East is a five month arts expedition from Askeaton to

Dublin aboard the solar powered Mayfly, flagship of the Eco Showboat project. Brain child

of artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly, the project is supported by the Arts Council,

SFI, Creative Ireland, Waterways Ireland, and LAWPRO (full list of partners here ).