Ecoboat set to dock in Belturbet

Eco Showboat will dock at Belturbet Marina on Sunday, August 14.

The Eco Showboat Expedition 2022, a four-month arts voyage from Limerick to Enniskillen aboard the Mayfly, the flagship of the Eco Showboat project, and the first solar electric boat to make such a journey, is to moor in Belturbet.

The Eco Showboat will dock at Belturbet Marina on Sunday, August 14, for an afternoon of free waterside events in the extraordinary Pangolin Pavilion, a pop-up shelter made from 30 striped umbrellas.

The brainchild of artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly, aka School of Looking, they’ll be joined by Ben Malone, Community Water Officer for Cavan, and marine biologist Rachel O’Malley, who’ll show some of the intriguing creatures that live under the rocks in local lakes and rivers - invertebrates and indicators of water quality.

Singer-songwriter Deirdre Murphy and her band meanwhile perform their new song, ‘Pour Down on Me’, commissioned specially for this event.

The Eco Showboat project has received the Arts Council Open Call Award, the SFI Discover Award, and the Limerick Arts Strategic Award. It is supported by Creative Ireland, Waterways Ireland, Dublin City Council, the Local Authority Waters Programme, Leitrim County Council Arts Office and local authorities and universities right across the country.

The agenda of events set for Belturbet will begin with a waterside conversation with Ben Malone at 2.30pm, followed by a performance of Earthman Bob by Robert Fitzgerald at 3.30pm.

The concert with Deirdre Murphy will begin at 5pm, and the School of Looking Workshop will run for the duration afternoon.

All events before 5 pm can be booked through Eventbrite.