Currachs and naomhógs are among the only sea craft built upside down, and the expertise dates back generations.

Poet Keith Payne learned all this and much more when he found himself working on a Dunfanaghy currach over 16 weeks. He was Cork City Library eco-poet in residence from 2022 to 2023 when he was drawn to the work of Meitheal Mara.

A Dunfanaghy currach under construction Photo: Meitheal Mara

During that time, he learned about carpenters’ marks and pigtails and how to row with Naomhóga Chorcaí – “among the most inclusive groups of people” he has ever met, he said.

As he began to master the oars on the river Lee, he realised how hard those communities dependent on the currach had it out at sea – “ what they did to bring fish home and put it on the table”.

Payne is not only a poet, but also a translator and editor, and has published seven collections of poetry in translation as well as his debut collection, Broken Hill. A new publication, Whales and Whales, from the Galician of Luisa Castro is forthcoming from Skein Press. He is curator of the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Poetry Exchange.

Meitheal Mara brings together inclusive groups of people for its boat-building projects Photo: Meitheal Mara

His latest work, Building the Boat, records his experiences with Meitheal Mara in verse, and it has just been published by Badly Made Books.

It is available in Meitheal Mara, in Books Upstairs in Dublin or directly by emailing [email protected]

He spoke to Wavelengths about the project below