Wake of the Whale
It is a little-known fact that from 1908–1922, two Norwegian-owned whaling stations operated in County Mayo, not far from the area that would be at the heart of the Corrib gas controversy a century later.
Watcher has lived in Mayo most of her life. When she stumbles upon this fact she becomes, like many before her, obsessed with the whales. Reflecting on colonialism and the climate crisis, she asks, What is it that makes the men hunt them?
Mariner tries to answer this question. Through poetry influenced by medieval sagas and sea shanties alike, he tells the story of not just of one whaling voyage, but of the history of commercial whaling itself. He endeavours to give voice to the working Irish men of a community since dissolved.
Together the authors weave a conversation that challenges our deeply ingrained assumptions about human, and animal, nature.
A genre-bending book that blends history, poetry, and documentary, Wake of the Whale asks if the attitudes that brought whales to the brink of extinction are now threatening our own.
Wake of the Whale was selected as a Sunday Independent Book of the Year 2024 and won the Mayo County Council Cathaoirleach Best Publication Award.
Available here.
‘An utterly brilliant and visual-physical-poetical exploration of the fate and mortal beauty of the whale in Irish waters. All the pity and majesty of their existence, and ours, is laid bare in Alice Kinsella’s dreamlike work which, like Melville’s Moby-Dick before it, defies all description and arouses the deepest empathy.’ – Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, the Whale
‘A lucid and enthralling exploration of whales and whaling, while also a poetic, personal journey. Wake of the Whale is like no other book. Unpredictable and exciting as the sea, the pages permeate every aspect of our culture, personal and political. Reading it is like being in an enchanted dream. This is an important, enthralling and genre bending book.’
– Anja Murray, author of The Wild Embrace
'Kinsella & Wade's magnificent new book extends the tradition of sea-shanty singers, Melville's classic novel, and a deep history of whaling as cultural practice into the 21st century. Newsclips, archival photographs, poetry, & political challenges to preserving the Anthropocene all fuse together to tell us an essential new tale from “the sea [that] has a thousand spouts.”'
– Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary