"Lough Ree & Its Islands" by Sean Cahill, Jimmy Casey, and Gearoid O’Brien.

For the first time in the history of the lake three local historians, people who have lived their lives in close proximity to Lough Ree, have turned their attention to the recording of the multi-layered history of this great inland sea. Lough Ree is bordered by the counties of Longford, Westmeath, and Roscommon and the authors collaborating on this project have their individual roots in these three counties.

Lough Ree has witnessed at first hand the flowering of the early Christian church in Ireland, the Viking invasion, and later the Normans, the confiscation of land and the subsequent habitation of some of it’s islands by the dispossessed, the use of islands as playgrounds of the rich, the navigation works on the Shannon, the great era of the Shannon steamers, and in our own time, the development of the hire cruiser, the growth of the private boat-owner fleet, and marina business, opening up this great lake for the pleasure of visitor and local alike.

Lough Ree boasts the second oldest Yacht Club in the world, and has hosted regattas and boat races from 1770. The lake is a haven for fishing, wild fowling, and a natural amenity which endows it’s host counties with their own unique taste of paradise. From the town of Lanesborough in the north to Athlone in the south it’s shorelines are peppered with houses and castles, monasteries and convents whose histories are shrouded in the mists of time.

"Lough Ree and its Islands" sets out to recapture the history of Lough Ree from it’s formation through it’s appearance in the annals of Ireland both in terms of the Christian church and the marauding armies (both Irish and foreign) which were attracted by the wealth of the monasteries; the coming of the Normans, the medieval history, the Reformation, land confiscations, the Cromwellian era and the modern era – the nineteenth century with it’s flourishing social communities and the tourism boom of the twentieth century. It then goes on to look in detail at the main islands including Inchenagh, Inchcleraun (Quaker Island), the Black Islands, Inchturk, Inchmore, Inchbofin, and Inis Ainghin (Hare Island). This book throws new light on the history of this storied lake, it brings together the fruits of various published (and unpublished) accounts and builds a comprehensive picture of the lifestyle of the islanders.

True, others have written about Lough Ree and there are books such as Harry Rice’s Thanks for the Memory (1952) and W.J. Nash’s affectionate booklet Lough Ree and around it (1949) and several other fine books on the Shannon such as those by Richard Hayward (1940) Where the river Shannon flows; L.T.C. Rolt (1949) Green & Silver; and Ruth Delany’s masterful By Shannon shores (1987), but this is the first new book specifically on Lough Ree to be published in over fifty years, it is the result of the interaction between the authors and their subject and is based on research, observation and interviews with those who lived on Lough Ree or it’s hinterland

The book was republished in January and is again available from the IWAI shop  - the first edition sold out in two months.