Ireland's immense underwater riches are revealed in a new book by Nigel Motyer, an international award-winning underwater photographer who has been diving and photographing Irish seas since the 1980s and has an unmatched portfolio of Irish underwater imagery. His photography has featured in many publications worldwide, including National Geographic.
Nigel is married to Sinead, a former Rose of Tralee; in fact, Nigel was her escort when she won the title back in 1989. They met in the bank when posted to the same foreign exchange desk. Now, forty years later, they live in Malahide in the north of Dublin with their two children, Hannah and Ben.
He moved into banking from school, where, he freely admits he wasn’t an ideal employee, the pull of the ocean made him wonder if a career in finance was really for him. He ultimately developed a highly successful career that led him to become a senior executive in an American Fortune 250 company, where he ran their Merchant Acquiring business in EMEA.
In 2023, after twelve years in this role, Motyer decided his life needed to change, the demands of running a European business for venture capitalists on Wall Steet, with the seventy hour weeks and endless travel across multiple time zones, while lucrative, resulted in a lifestyle that left little time for his family and his passion for the ocean. Something needed to change, the diving lifestyle he wanted to explore would be physically more demanding if he waited another 10 years and the sudden death of a number of friends hammered home the point that time wasn’t on their side, so at fifty-seven both he and his wife decided quit work and to walk away from the sharks on Wall street to allow them to travel and spend more time with real sharks instead.
A Lion's mane jellyfish photographed off Skellig Michael
As Afloat reported earlier, his new glossy four-colour hardback Beneath Irish Seas is a stunning photographic showcase of the beauty and biodiversity of Ireland’s coastal waters, featuring an array of magnificent flora and fauna,including majestic basking shark gatherings in the Atlantic depths, swirling shoals off the Skelligs and breathtaking coral reefs. Renowned underwater photographer Nigel Motyer’s work has taken him all over the world, but in these pages he challenges the misconception that marine wonder belongs only to sunnier shores, highlighting the vibrancy and captivating natural drama of Irish seas.
