hidden europe 2

Focus on fish

by Nicky Gardner

Summary

Many a coastal community, and even one or two inland spots, have realised that there's no better way to promote trade and tourism than through a colourful display of freshly landed fish and other seafood.

The reputation of fish generally took a dive when the misshapen Caliban in The Tempest was accused of being half fish. But that doesn't seem to have deterred the promoters of Europe's many fish festivals who each year showcase these mute communicators from the deep that invariably end up in our frying pans. Many a coastal community, and even one or two inland spots, have realised that there's no better way to promote trade and tourism than through a colourful display of freshly landed fish and other seafood.

No better place to start than at Ireland's Achill Island seafood festival, which this year runs from 8 to 16 July. A chance too to see some of the famous Achill yawls in action. These are the traditional wooden hulled single masted boats from Achill and the Mayo coast. They are still built at Mulranny on Clew Bay, and the first races of the annual yawl regatta coincide with the Achill seafood festival.

This is just an excerpt. The full text of this article is not yet available to members with online access to hidden europe. Of course you can read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 2.
Related article

A Russian diversion

The Imperial Russian Standard, with the double-headed eagle so intimately associated with the Romanovs, still hangs in the living room of a wooden lodge on the bank of a river in southern Finland. We visit the former holiday home of the Russian tsars.

Related article

Boat-shaped Graves

Lozenge-shaped graves, fashioned in the form of a ship, are a distinctive element of Bronze Age visual culture on the Baltic island of Gotland. Do these unusual graves, known as 'ship settings' have a deeper cosmological meaning?
Related article

Beyond the Small Homeland

Mishar Tatars and Lipka Tatars have been quick to assimilate into the communities to which they migrated. We discover how they moved through the Baltic region, settling in Lithuania and Finland, with some moving on to Sweden and the United States of America.