0:00

What is the story

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behind this vital

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waterway? Ireland's

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River Shannon, the longest in the British

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Isles, is important not just to Irish

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life today, but has had

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a long and crucial role in local legends

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and folklore. So what is

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the story behind this vital waterway

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which remains important to modern life

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and economics in the country? You're

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listening to Tool Stories, a monocle production

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brought to you by the team behind

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The Urbanist, Hamantri Tuck. In this episode,

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Sarah Gries recalls the fishy tale behind

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the Shannon. The

1:06

Shannon is the longest river in the British

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Isles, running 350 kilometres in length. Its

1:14

slow, steady passage divides the island of

1:16

Ireland in two as it flows from

1:19

east to west. The

1:24

source of the river is the Shannon Pot,

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high up on the mountain slopes and county

1:28

cavern. The water issues

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from a deep pool, gradually becoming a

1:32

small trout stream, which slowly but

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surely becomes the great wide river. Its

1:42

island's most vital waterway steeped in

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Celtic history, poetry, myth and

1:47

legend, and it flows through 11

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counties before reaching its mouth in the Shannon

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Estuary and County Limerick. For

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most of its journey, the Shannon is tranquil

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and calm, as it's wide but

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not particularly deep. rising only

2:01

76 meters above sea level at

2:03

its highest point. But

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at the place where it meets the

2:07

Atlantic, where sky, river, marshland and sea

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come together, it's transformed. Here

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it becomes tidal, the waters suddenly

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chubby and wild, before margins the ocean.

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Like many great rivers across cultures and

2:20

borders, the Shannon has an origin story that

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comes from the myths and legends of the land from

2:24

which it flows. This story

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comes from ancient Ireland, long before

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medieval Christianity or Roman Catholicism took

2:31

hold, while Viking or normal

2:33

invasions changed the landscape of the island,

2:35

along with its culture, economy and ecology.

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The creation myth of the Shannon predates

2:41

the church and can be traced back

2:43

to tales of Ireland's Celtic

2:45

ancestors, populated by

2:47

ancient tribes and pagan deities. These

2:50

stories continue to be passed down orally

2:52

and in the written word through poetry,

2:54

art and music, kept alive

2:56

through storytelling and imagination, from

2:58

generation to generation. The

3:05

story of the salmon of knowledge might be

3:07

familiar to some listeners, the legend

3:09

of a magical fish with red spots, which

3:12

lived in the waterways of old Ireland. If

3:15

caught and eaten, the salmon would bestow upon

3:17

the finder the ultimate reward for the curious

3:19

at heart, all the knowledge in the world.

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But there's another chapter to this tale. This

3:25

chapter is less widely known and concerns the

3:27

beginnings of the Shannon River, a

3:29

cautionary tale like the story of Adam and Eve

3:31

in the Christian and Hebrew sacred texts about

3:34

the feminine quest for forbidden knowledge. While

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a man may fish for the salmon and

3:39

consume its wisdom through eating its flesh, this

3:42

other legend warns that if a woman eats of

3:44

the salmon of knowledge, she will not live to

3:47

tell the tale. Our

3:50

story begins with a woman named Shannon, or

3:52

Shannon in the Irish, who went

3:54

to the well where the mystical fish was said to

3:56

be swimming. Despite the warning of the ancestors,

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she was a woman. was hungry for knowledge

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and thirsty with curiosity. She

4:03

wanted to know everything there was to know about this world

4:05

and all the other worlds. She

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found the well and she caught the salmon. She

4:11

cooked the fish and began to eat. As

4:14

she ate, her skin began to glow.

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The girl was wrapped with sensual ecstasy

4:19

and carnal pleasures. The sweet

4:21

smell of the fish, the rough touch of its

4:23

skin, the taste of its flesh. Her

4:26

whole body began to radiate light. In

4:28

Shannon's shone with an aura that rippled through

4:30

her entire being. She

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felt the blood rushing in her veins and

4:35

her eyes glittered with fire and poetry. All

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at once she could see into the past, present,

4:40

and future. She understood the

4:42

meaning of all languages, human and

4:44

non-human tongues, and animal voices. The

4:47

powers of speech belonging to plants and animals,

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so she found. In

4:52

her rapture, she leapt into the air and she

4:54

fell down into the dark, deep world. The

4:57

water poured forth and washed her out of the land

4:59

of the living. Her

5:02

body was never seen again. She

5:04

disappeared from corporeal existence and

5:07

was transformed, becoming one with the river

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itself. This

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metamorphosis of a girl who wanted

5:13

to know the answers is the story of

5:15

the River Shannon. That's how it got its

5:17

name. There

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are many ways to read a myth, and I like

5:24

to think that perhaps, although the young woman was destroyed

5:26

in physical form for daring to defy the

5:28

will of the gods, she was

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resurrected as a river deity, the

5:32

goddess of the Shannon, whose brave curiosity

5:34

was the source of its power. Water

5:37

is a substance that no human or creature

5:39

or ecosystem on Earth can survive without,

5:42

just as Ireland's natural infrastructure relies on

5:44

the nurturing flow of the Shannon River.

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Maybe this myth in some way reveres

5:49

this natural curiosity and shows

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the powerful transformation of a woman in

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pursuit of knowledge. The

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Famine of Knowledge. I'm

6:01

Celtic mythology, the Other World or the

6:03

Realm of the Dead as a to

6:05

trust and magical place. So. The

6:08

series and spirit temptations and

6:10

submitting fruits. There is much

6:12

that can be learned from. It's strange old ways,

6:14

but every piece of knowledge comes for the previous.

6:18

Like Eve Shannon taste is the thrill

6:20

of knowledge, the discovery of. Totally places

6:23

and eating the fish and the

6:25

finished. Overseen if

6:27

punishment is becoming. A river

6:29

goddess and experiencing knowledge that maybe that's

6:31

the site last. Awesome for and being

6:33

transformed. From. My

6:36

family originates from county memory and the sun

6:38

and has always. Been a great source of

6:41

joy, inspiration and part train for the inhabitants

6:43

of Limerick City and county. Clan. Walking.

6:46

By the son and his hearing. Five songs.

6:48

And sing poetry in the ricin, the wrestled

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in the water the size of the phone.

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There's so much work going on around the

6:58

sun and these days in terms of tourism,

7:00

art. Project Archives and Heritage Sites

7:02

which is unsurprising as it's waters

7:04

make up a total of one

7:07

says of Ireland total land area.

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And twenty twenty one, the Sun and Tourism

7:12

master plan says how a new vision. To

7:14

sustainable tourism along the Summons

7:16

Waterways. Has it's in the

7:18

river and is developing regions as t

7:20

tourist destination within the heartlands of Ireland.

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Offering up at stories, As poetry.

7:26

The wild beast in wildlife to visitors from

7:28

all over the world. Tolstoy's

7:40

is a Monocle production from a

7:43

team behind the Urbanist. This episode

7:45

was written by Sir Across I'm

7:47

Produce a nested by David Stevens.

7:49

Be sure to subscribe to the

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podcast, receive new episode every week

7:53

and talk to Buy Sex or

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Listing City of Us. you