The secret life of the Liffey

FOR most people, the Liffey is Dublin’s river.

Hill-walkers and mountain lovers know it as a tumbling Wicklow stream. Few people know the middle reaches. There is little access to them, apart from a handful of bridges. In Kildare, the river mostly flows through private land, including stud farms, where the public is not welcome.

There are a few secret accesses, mostly known to anglers, and they reveal a remarkable river. The Liffey has two great things. The first is that, unlike most midland rivers, it avoided the ravages of arterial drainage during the last century. Another Kildare river, the Slate, is a tributary of the Barrow. It must have been very lovely once, but now it’s a big ditch flowing in straight lines between high banks.