River art installation in Mayo town aims to get people talking

A STAINLESS steel art installation in The Mall River in Westport hopes to start a conversation about what a clean rivers in Mayo look like.

It will be in place for the next week and is part of the ‘Testing The Waters’ project, which was launched in conjunction with Westport Tidy Towns last Saturday.

The aim of the project is get people talking about water quality and the health of the river.

Eithne Larkin from Westport Tidy Towns explains that the stainless steel artwork represents native plants and trees that would be found either in or on the banks of a healthy river.

“It’s showing what we’ve lost, but what we could get back,” she explained.

READ: Six Mayo locations make shortlist to become Ireland's Greenest Places

“The idea is that when you stand on one of the bridges and look down it’s a ghost-like feature. The plants should be there. They were there and could be there again.”

There are plaques on trees across from the installation with information about the plants explaining the function of each plant.

As well as the art installation, there are a series of talks taking place and a walking tour with visual artist William Bock, who created the pieces of art.

There will be a citizen science project to measure the impact of natural growth in the river on biodiversity. The local community will work with LAWPRo and experts from the Co-Centre for Climate+ Biodiversity + Water to monitor the quality of water in the Carrowbeg river and biodiversity.

Another offshoot of the project is to find out who is in charge of the river.

Eithne Larkin explains that there has been confusion for a number of years over who is managing the river.

“If nobody is managing the river, what happens if we put something into it? Well, we might find out who’s managing the river.”

As previously reported by The Mayo News, Mayo County Council have stated they are not in charge of the Mall river – the section of the Carrowbeg River which goes through Westport’s Mall. Inland Fisheries Ireland have done likewise. The OPW do not appear to be in charge while it has not been ruled out that it could be in private ownership.

The Mall River’s wellbeing has proved controversial in the recent past. In 2022, the partial removal of silt islands in the river split opinion locally.