The Sea, The Sea: Nuala O’Connor On The Power Of Water

Water was never far from my ear as a child or younger adult. The River Liffey ran yards from the door of my childhood home in Dublin; its shush over Glorney’s Weir was my lullaby at night. Twenty-seven years ago, in my mid-20s, I moved to another coastal county, Galway, to work at Punchbag Theatre, which sat on the Claddagh Pier where the Corrib River roars into the sea.

Like most people, I love to stand by water, to look at its mysterious movement; to wonder what life lives underneath and within it; to feel its strange, seductive power acting on me. This is true of rivers, lakes, and ponds but, most especially, of the sea. A marine expanse, morphing from aquamarine to grey to silver, is mesmerising. Standing beside the sea, watching it over and back, is the surest selfsoother I know.

As I write this, I’m on a two-week writing retreat on Achill Island. Every day I walk the road nested between Slievemore and Dugort Hill that leads down to the sea. It’s late October and the moon is waxing full as Hallowe’en approaches. The winds are up and the rain is frequent, but the island is treated to sun-dazzle too. I trot towards the Atlantic and my eyes water as the breeze lands this way and that on my face and body; my lungs happily fill with good air.

The sand on Dugort Beach yields underfoot – it is perfect sand, a rich coppery beige colour, and fine to the touch. A peaty stream swashes and backwashes into the sea, turning the water stout brown. I pick up limpet and razor shells and congratulate them on their beauty. I study shiny bladderwrack tossed up by the water and the golden bullwhips that once anchored kelp to the seafloor.

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