Ah, Blackwater. It’s a delightful little community nestling on a waterway in County Clare, in the Republic of Ireland. Most of the folks here know each other. Lots of them have a boat and enjoy spending time on the waterfront, in the hotels and restaurants. There’s even a distillery with a new Honey and Thyme whiskey coming out soon. But it’s a place of secrets, where some hold a grudge and others look the other way. Maybe because they’re scared.
DI Fia Lucey (Lisa Dwan) enters the programme all sandpaper. She breaks the nose of a drug dealer in Temple Bar – unnecessary force – and is sent back to Co Clare as a slap on the wrist. She wants to be here in her hometown, but not that you’d know it. Straight away she’s rude to her new partner, Garda Cian Furlong, played by Rory Keenan. He’s a quiet fellow compared to the fiery Fia, doesn’t seem altogether competent, but maybe there’s more to it because he looks mighty shifty at times…
The pair are assigned a missing persons case – that of local woman Róisín Hurley, the co-owner of a local hotel, a recovering alcoholic with a past. By golly, there’s enough going on just in the first episode to get your crime solving brain working overload.
Róisín was last seen having an argument with a young woman with long brown hair and a green sweatshirt. Soon, we learn that just such a woman is being kept captive in a caravan in the nearby woods. Apparently, the CCTV at the hotel was switched off – one of the many suspicious things about Roisin’s disappearance that don’t add up.
When her body is discovered in the water it becomes a murder investigation. She’d been struck on the head with a heavy metal object, such as an axe. The pathologist tells DI Lucey there was no water in her lungs, so whoever killed her took a boat out onto the lake to dispose of the body. They tried to weigh it down with something, but the ropes came free and it washed up on shore. Furlong is sent to find out which boats were on the water that night while Lucey sets up in the hotel to find out who took Roisin.
Then there’s the overbearing businessman Bill McGuire (Stanley Townsend). He’s the owner of the distillery along with other concerns, and is prying suspiciously on the edges of the investigation. Maybe he’s worried because his son had been involved with Róisín before she disappeared. Maybe it’s something else. Then we learn that he’s the other co-owner of the hotel and that Róisín willed her share to him. It’s surprising that Lucey isn’t all over this straight away because if that’s not motive, what is? Maybe she’ll get to it later.
After all, she does have other things on her plate. Perhaps the reason she’s so defensive – some would say offensive – is that Blackwater is full of bad memories for her. Something happened here when she was a girl that has left a deep scar, on herself and others. Early in the show, a woman gives her the death stare, and it turns out this woman’s daughter went missing when Lucey was 12 and has never been found. That’s just one family with a hate on for Fia Lucey.
Whatever happened back then brought bad publicity to the town. Many residents connect Lucey to that time and dislike her because of it, but this does seem illogical since she was just a child when this trauma took place. Thankfully, she’s not a pariah to everyone. Some warm friendships still remain and her aunt and uncle are pleased to see her. They took her in back then and they’ll take her in again now. Would you believe it – her room is just as it was back in the 1990s?
Blackshore was filmed on the Shannon in Killaloe, Co Clare and Ballina, Co Tipperary, taking us into parts of rural Ireland we’ve not explored in crime fiction before. Crá and North Sea Connection, for example, take place on the wild west coast. Here we have a tranquil backdrop for quite a spirited investigation, and a story with some dark, shadowy themes. It’s not as textured or moody as a show like Hinterland, set in Wales, but it is well made and the performances from Lisa Dwan and Rory Keenan are top drawer. Knowing there are eyes on her, Lucey starts a covert investigation. From early in the story you’ll feel a sense of menace, and start to wonder whether all of this goes far beyond the fate of Róisín Hurley.
Created for television by writer Kate O’Riordan and director Dathaí Keane, Blackshore originally aired on RTE in Ireland in February 2024. It’s in English and consists of six hour-long episodes.
