Being the proud owner of a Honda 125 motorcycle had its advantages and weaknesses. Yes, I have felt every pothole from Gougane Barra to the City, felt the steepness of the valleyside of the Lee and was open to the changing seasons and the elements of weather. Then in recent times, it was time for the bike to go to buy a bigger model.

I have to say I felt sorry for the inanimate object I was leaving behind. In a sense, it was like losing a friend. It and I had spent eighteen months in the Lee Valley on fieldwork, exploring every byroad and bylane.

I suppose the old bike has got me thinking on the Lee and what I have learned if anything. There are places in the Lee Valley that have stuck in my mind. Like coming back from places such as Dripsey on these wintry days and witnessing amazing red sunset skies over Inniscarra Reservoir. I felt privileged to be viewing them. In fact, there are several signs across the Lee Valley that highlight the “beautiful Lee Valley”.  The emphasis is on scenic beauty hoping that the beauty will inspire people to come and it does. For the most part though it is the local communities in the valley, which have chosen what heritage and what gems of beauties to show and to remember.

One aspect for certain is that the more I research the places within the valley or the more doors one knocks on, the more information comes to the fore. What is also apparent is that everybody’s view of the world is different. Each person encountered has a unique relationship to the past and present. It could be an insider’s view / local view or an outsider’s view like myself. For most people I met heritage was a personal and collective experience focussing on their own roots. In fact, the historical data played ‘second fiddle’ to their personal stories.

Many of the people I have interviewed talked more about life or what it means to be human. Cultural heritage, encompassing history and geography, was not something abstract but was part of a way of life. It has been interesting to view how stories and values have been handed down and how each successive generation has taken it in turn to hold a torch for some element of the past in the present.

All the above themes in particular landscapes and how they evoke memories are explored in a photographic exhibition that I am holding in gallery two in the inspiring Cork Vision Centre on North Main Street from the 16 November to the 7 December. It is based on the book that was published during the year drawing on the Our City, Our Town series in the last eighteen months. It is entitled In the Footsteps of St. Finbarre, Voices and Memories of the Lee Valley.

Following the River Lee valley from source to mouth takes one on a journey of 45 miles from Gougane Barra in West Cork to the Lee Fields in Cork City. In that carved out journey, one encounters the spiritual world, the sense of mystery and that peace and quiet that many people search for. There is calmness and opportunities for thinking straight in places such as the heart of The Gearagh, near Macroom. There are the breathtaking but contrasting scenes linking to influences and wider connections to the wider world.  The collision of the old and the new can be witnessed across the valley. Sometimes the contrasts are worrying but at other times, without them, the sense of living communities would be redundant.

My photographic exhibition is entitled Photographing the Lee- Landscapes and Memories. It focuses on a number of aspects of cultural heritage in particular the beauty and structure of ‘things’, which highlight our cultural heritage not only from the past but also what we have inherited in the present. There are pictures that show the power and majesty of the natural world like the overbearing Shehy Mountains in Gougane Barra. The Shehy Mountains can be viewed for 75 percent of the Lee’s journey and at times I have felt they are calling me back to conduct a fuller study or to revisit strangers I came across at the start of the research last year. I have delighted in the flow of the Lee, encountering its physical geography in a completely different canvass to that of the north and south channel in Cork City.