{"id":630873,"date":"2026-09-20T22:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630873\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T22:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:50:40","slug":"irelands-largest-freshwater-lake-is-dying-before-our-eyes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630873\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s largest freshwater lake is dying before our eyes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent most of my childhood lucky enough to have a view of Lough Neagh<\/a> from my bedroom window. One of the first images I ever took was of the lough. It looked beautiful, with the moon reflecting off the surface late one summer evening. I felt compelled to capture it somehow, and a torch was lit in my mind. <\/p>\n

Many years later, I moved back home to Tyrone after years of living away. My photographic work has always been rooted in place, and so the visible degradation of nature in rural Mid-Ulster took hold of me, as I saw my home with fresh eyes. <\/p>\n

Lough Neagh, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Europe, is dying before our very eyes<\/a>. The lough is central to life in the North but also has 9 per cent of its catchment area in the Republic. <\/p>\n

A perfect storm of pollution, sand-dredging, poor regulation, invasive species and archaic ownership is leading to a near-collapse of the lough\u2019s ecosystem, most visibly realised through the blooms of toxic blue-green algae every summer. <\/p>\n

Ireland has a complicated relationship with its natural environment. Tribal politics, shortsightedness and superstition, mixed with unchecked greed, have led to a seemingly irreversible slide into environmental catastrophe. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hundreds take part in protest demanding action on Lough Neagh environmental crisisOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

With my Shallow Waters project, I am trying to tell the story of Lough Neagh \u2013 of how myth and tradition sit alongside heavy industry, despite being at odds with each other. The iridescent green sludge clinging to the shores of the lough is a mark of failure: failure to protect our environment and to grasp that we can\u2019t drink money. <\/p>\n

Future generations will \u2013 of course \u2013 look back on our actions with anger and disappointment. <\/p>\n

\"ThisThis year and last have seen heavy and prolonged blooms of blue-green algae on Lough Neagh. Though autumn has set in, parts of the lough are still choked, like this beach in Antrim Marina.
\nPhotograph: Joe Laverty \"SignageSignage at the harbour of one of the lough\u2019s many large sand-dredging plants. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"BirdsBirds take in the dawn light at Ballyronan Harbour as sand-dredgers move along the horizon, preparing for the daily dredging of the lough\u2019s bed. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"WashingbayWashingbay is the location where the ‘Holy River’ entered Lough Neagh, where it was long
\nclaimed the water had healing powers, resulting in a pilgrimage of the sick every summer
\nsolstice eve. This belief persists today, with rags tied to a specific tree in the woodland all year
\nround. Now, a large peat-extraction factory sits just out of sight, behind the trees. A plastic sign informs walkers that the water is still dangerous to bathe in, while the bare trees and frost would suggest the annual fever-pitch of the blue-green algae crisis was months ago. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"AA makeshift shelter for a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the lough from the graveyard where the High Cross of Ardboe is situated. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"DeclanDeclan comes from a long line of eel fishers on Lough Neagh, where it is believed eel fishing dates back to the Bronze Age. However, that tradition has recently ceased with the annual blooms of blue-green algae that suffocate the fragile ecosystem of Lough Neagh. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"DannyDanny Donnelly stands where a person would in earlier decades have been submerged in water, before the lough was artificially lowered in 1959. A geographer who studied the lough and its social conditions extensively over a decade, he published On Lough Neagh\u2019s Shores in 1986. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"ThomasThomas McElhone walks the shallow waters of Lough Neagh around Traad Point. Photograph: Joe Laverty \"Amy,Amy, an ecologist, lives on the southern shore of Lough Neagh. She sees a strong disconnect between the public and the unfolding disaster at the lake, and a lack of awareness of what Lough Neagh could have offered people, particularly in terms of its potential to improve mental health.
\nPhotograph: Joe Laverty <\/p>\n

The Shallow Waters project has been funded by Belfast Photo Festival\/National Lottery Heritage Fund and has been nominated for the Prix Pictet, AIB Portrait Prize & the Taylor Wessing Irish Photography prize. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I spent most of my childhood lucky enough to have a view of Lough Neagh from my bedroom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,197485,82,976],"class_list":["post-630873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lough-neagh","tag-science","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}