Beezie

This is a painting I did of the Garavogue River. It is the place I played around when I was a child. We used to catch little eels and tiny fish in our hands and put them in jam jars with some stones and weed. In the summer we waded across to the crannog with the three tall trees, and sat there in the sun. In front of this little manmade island is the Finola, a boat which was owned by a local man called Jumbo Mc Carrick. Jumbo had a great knowledge of the river, and Lough Gill from which the Garavogue flows. He, and other boatmen brought provisions to the last inhabitant that lived on one of the islands: Beezie Gallagher. He recalled Beezie's great hospitality to all visitors, her affinity with nature, and that even the wild swans ate from her hands, in front of the hearth in her cottage. Local people feared the last resident of the lake was destined to drown while out boating. Instead, the eighty year old Beezie died as a result of small accidental fire in her island cottage. On Christmas eve 1949 Beezie made her final visit to Sligo and returned to Church Island safely, after crossing from the Dooney Rock shoreline. Her body was discovered a few days later by local friends who had arrived for a visit, and to cut some firewood for her.
The island is now, more often called Beezie's Island, after Sligo's own Lady of the Lake. The last remains of her island home can still be seen there.
Our own house is on the right edge of the painting.