Celebrated poet Eavan Boland passed away during 2020. To mark her passing and to the reflect the Coronavirus lockdown reegulations, we selected her poem, Quarantine, as one of two poems we asked people to record themselves reading and send back to us. The followin film was presented and debuted at the Festival’s digital #LIF2020 launch on 15 Oct 2020.
Quarantine
Eavan Boland, born Dublin, Ireland 1944-died Dublin, Ireland 2020.
In the worst hour of the worst season
of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking—they were both walking—north.
She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.
In the morning they were both found dead.
Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.
Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:
Their death together in the winter of 1847.
Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
As part of our Lockdown Lights project, we selected two poems and invited people to record themselves reading them, so we could geneate a film, to share as part of this year’s digtal launch.
Active, positive and full of creative hope, Stephen James Smith’s poem We Must Create was selected in counterpoint to Eavann Bolanf’s Quarantine. We thank Stephen for allowing us to use the poem and share his version below. Loo jout for our film from 15 Oct 2020.
We must create to know who we can be
I say this for you, I say this for me
We must create to know who we can be
Early beginnings, heart beat warmth and you
First breath, eyes open a new point of view
Hands touch, ears hear, clocks ticking I am who?
We must create to know who we can be
Screaming out from within with a voice here
Notes flowing on air lulling the fear
Melody all around this atmosphere
We must create to know who we can be
Hearing truth in onomatopoeia
Boom, boom, belch, zoom, zap, playing with grandpa
While cookie cutting, baking for grandma
We must create to know who we can be
From scrawling with crayons to Lego bricks
From knitting needles, soft textile fabrics
To air-guitaring auld Jimi Hendrix
We must create to know who we can be
There are creative accountants, CVs
Tinder profiles where you look the bees knees
But best not to force it, it comes with ease
We must create to know who we can be
We heard a song sung, it helped ease the pain
We didn’t feel so lonesome as we sang the refrain
We forgot that feeling until we heard it again
We must create to know who we can be
From nursery rhymes to white collar crimes
What have you to say in uncertain times?
Have you a chance to change the paradigms?
We must create to know who we can be
Do you remember the time you heard an opening allegro
Or when that beat dropped and how it made your head go?
Some things make no sense unless you’re in flow
We must create to know who we can be
You may rise then fall, or fall then rise
An arc of a story contains no surprise
But how you tell it, therein the art lies
We must create to know who we can be
Artistry gives rise to community
We’re all part of a changing tapestry
There’s art history in identity
We must create to know who we can be
If you do it for the money you’ll be called a fraud
If you think you’re great company and you might be God
Delusions of grandeur aren’t that odd
We must create to know who we can be
There’s all sorts of forms, disciplines, levels
To challenge yourself in the intervals
Where you’ll find rivals and reasons for approvals
We must create to know who we can be
If it’s saved you from yourself
And now there’s no other way
It doesn’t matter how it moved you, welcome to the ballet
You’ve just found the peak of Parnassus, fair play!
We must create to know who we can be
I say this for you, I say this for me
We must create to know who we can be
We must create to know who we can be.
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
Lifting, carrying, hoisting, heaving, we were mid-move when Boris Johnson announced the UK-wide lockdown on account of the coronavirus. Settlers, we made new turf our own, and filled our áít shona nua with colour, kindness, curries.
There is no one good word for my community. It hasn’t filled the corners of the city. It doesn’t contain heroes, or monsters. Maybe some ghosts. Just two of us alike and different, together and apart, feeling for the fluid and changing needs and expectations of the other. I have never felt the need to define so firmly what we are, and just being there, in tandem, in two, almost always feels enough. I cast around for different words, “buachaill”, “partner”, “boyfriend”, “best friend”, “love”, “taisce”, but each of them are clunky and clumsy in and out of my mouth. A name is enough, but far from me to give it.
He has been my small and content world for the length of this virus. One eye on the bitter and the sweet that came before this, and one eye staring directly into the face of the new.
I have sat despondent, creativity gone, nothing but blankness and tools out of reach. He has asked me for thoughts, for opinions, for feelings and fondness. I have created again. He has accompanied me endlessly throughout the city, four soles meeting the historic dock over and over until they are firm fast friends.
The pull of home is strong in our community. A turn of phrase, a fluent ability to keep pace in a place where I repeat my name over and over. A knowledge of the bend and twist to fit into a different space, a slowing of speech, a recognition of the pain and guilt of leaving and the excitement of return. A sense of what it means to have somewhere to put this occasional disillusion, and longing for mo thinteán féín, the tidal force of the diaspora.
áít shona nua – happy new place
buachaill- boy
taisce – treasure, something like an endearing name
mo thinteán féín – my own hearth
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
Back in old glory days, long since forgotten,
The flags here were smothered in snowy white cotton.
Soft as a carpet beneath merchant feet
King Cotton was plenty, King Cotton was cheap
It came by the Mersey, it came by the seas
By white canvass aloft in the westering breeze.
By Liverpool sailors, nimble and yar
Tough as mahogany, weathered as tar.
It came from the rivers, it came from the mud
It came from the kick and the stick and the blood
It came from the work line, the whip, the plantations
It came from the fracture and breaking of nations.
For cotton is gentle, fragile and light
Cotton is pure and pristine and white.
But the commerce of cotton, darker than death
Would barter your soul and crush your last breath.
It went by the engine, the steam and the rail
It went by the hundredweight, bail over bail
It went by Manchester, Bury and Preston
Blackburn and Bolton, and Darwen and Nelson
Where there’s brass for the boss, and poor spinning Jenny
Works hour by long hour for less than one penny.
Where the air is so thick it smothers the lung
And thundering loom drowns the Lancashire tongue.
Cotton by boll, by bag and by bale
For smocks and for shirts, for duck cloth and sail.
Cotton for mills, for ships and plantations
Enriching mill owners, impoverishing nations
Cotton for tyranny, hardship and slavery
Cotton for unions, resistance and bravery
Back in its glory days, long since forgotten
It came by the Mersey, that snowy white cotton.
Written and provided by Greg Quiery (20 Aug 2018), poet, historian and author.
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
This poem was offered specifically in relation to the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020 following the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA on 25 May 2020. Black Lives Matter. Full stop.
Shenanigans Liverpool is an independent Irish bar in Liverpool’s business district, known for its warm friendly welcome, quality drinks, live music and sports.
They are back open now, serving delicious food and beverages, including briliant breakfasts and takeaway drinks. You can book a table by DMing the team or emailing [email protected]. Follow their social media pages:
During lockdown, owner Connor McDonald realised just how much people were missing a pint and a chat so oped up The Talk Hatch, inviting people to bring their milk botttles and take away pints of Guinness, cider and other draft drinks. You can hear him here:
This was his quote: “Fáilte arais arís. Welcome back again to all our friends after lockdown. Delighted to say we are now open again and look forward to seeing you! During lockdown we opened our Talk Hatch which proved very popular particularly for people living in and around the city centre, young students and older people alike. People enjoyed that little taste of ‘home’, the chance to have a chat, (socially distanced of course), discuss their worries, find out what’s going on, pick up a copy of the CARA Newsletter, enjoy some good food and a lovely ‘takeaway’ Guinness in a milk bottle.
“The Talk Hatch became a focal point that kept the community spirits up”, Conor Mc Donald.
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
The recent passing of Vin Finn was a heavy loss for the Liverpool Irish community. Vin took a great interest in Irish music, and was a stalwart of the Festival for many years. Those who have attended the history walks will have encountered Vin, taking care of registration, managing the mike, and generally lending a hand. For years he was the sound engineer for the popular ceilidh band Finn’s Hotel, based in south Liverpool. He was the guiding hand behind the scenes on many hectic nights at ceilidhs around the city, including the old Irish Centre, Mount Pleasant, parish halls, pubs and hotels.
But there are many other things for which this quintessential Liverpudlian will be remembered. From a north end Liverpool Irish family, in the sixties and seventies he ran music venues, first in his local parish hall, later on the Wirral, and eventually in the city centre, at the Blackie, in Hope Street and at Stanley House. These were packed houses, where you had to arrive on time to be sure of getting in. Vin and his partner Jenny together organised the music and comedy acts. They were the first to put Declan McManus – better known as Elvis Costello – on stage, at the Blackie in 71. Other acts they nurtured at a variety of venues included Craig Charles, Ian Hart and Clive Gregson.
In common with many Liverpudlians Vin felt a strong affinity with football – in Vin’s case LFC – and the sea. In his own small craft he sailed the Mersey and Dee estuaries, at times venturing further as crew on larger boats out of the Liverpool marina. Vin had a passion for the history of Liverpool mariners, and a hankering for tall ships. He was a key member of the team running the Merseyside Adventure Sailing Trust, which each year provided hundreds of young people the opportunity of adventure at sea in sailing ships. Vin and his colleagues brough them on voyages to Belfast and Dublin. He also acted as a mentor to young participants from both Dublin and Liverpool.
In recent years Vin organised packed houses at the Pilgrim and the Handyman’s, Smithdown Road. He was a regular at the renowned Edinburgh session on Sandown Lane. He was a frequenter of Fleadh’s and festivals, and enjoyed nothing more than a pint and good craic at a music session. He will be long remembered and sorely missed.
Greg Quiery, 2020.
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
I can’t remember a time Joan was not in my life, she is in so many of my significant memories. Being her bridesmaid when I was six, with my sister and cousin. Many visits to see her where she and Uncle John first set up home,in The Nook, Ullet Road. I thought it was so unusual and impressive that they lived in a park! She looked after me for two months when I became very ill in Liverpool aged eleven, this was just after her first son was born, and can’t have been easy for her.
One series of memories stands out above all others: large family meals in the hall of their eventual Mersey Road home. Saying Joan was an excellent cook does not come close to describing the way the food contributed to the conviviality of the occasions, arguments and all, that I remember very fondly. Particularly great were the times when my mother, Philomena, was staying and she and Joan between then produced some truly magnificent meals.
In between cooking all these meals and looking after a large family she taught at Otterspool Special School and St Charles primary school in Aigburth, making a lasting contribution to each.
Many years later I remember turning up at the pub she and John ran, as a holiday, in Castle Gregory in Kerry. I was on my bike, soaked to the skin after cycling from Tralee in a storm, Joan gave me a large bowl of soup, delicious, of course, a triple Gin and Tonic and told me as soon as I got it down me I was needed to serve behind the bar.
One other memory is very important to me. I was having Sunday lunch at Mersey Road on January 30 1972. When we put the TV on for the 6pm news the screen was full of images of Bloody Sunday in Derry, with 13 civilians already dead, killed by the Paratroopers, and a fourteenth to die later. I will never forget Joan’s reaction. She stormed round the house giving vent to her anger and frustration and then seized the phone and rang her MP, her local councilor, a newspaper and the television station, whomever she could. The news and her response had a lasting impact on me with its lessons about accountability and the importance of speaking up about events carried out in ‘our name’. I miss her tremendously.
Mary J Hickman
Lockdown Lights is an open source project, collecting community stories about people’s experience of the lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus restrictions. The project was funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme Covid-19 relief fund. We would like to thank all the participants and the Irish Government for their support.
The Liverpool Irish Festival are pleased to anounce that we have been awarded Cultural Recovery Funding from Arts Council England, under a project they have labelled ‘Here for Culture’.
In 2020, we have made almost 20 funding applications, far higher than we would normally make. Before today’s news, just five had been partially successful, so to receive this news is a valuable lifeline for us and indicative of our importance to the national programme. The success of the application vouches for our expertise, relevance and unique offer. It also places us among one of 30 organisations in Liverpool that made successful applications, bringing £5.5m in to the region.
Arts Council England and HM Government have stated:
“Here for Culture is a movement that unites the public, government and cultural organisations in support of our fantastic cinemas, theatres, music venues, museums, galleries and heritage.
“Whether on the global stage or quietly in our own lives, culture inspires, uplifts, comforts and entertains us. Now, in these challenging times, it’s our turn to provide a lifeline and show our support. The government is #HereForCulture with an unprecedented £1.57 billion of funding coming through on top of the furlough scheme, bounce-back loans and emergency grants. The public has been #HereForCulture as organisations have innovated online and outdoors.
“Culture creates jobs, supports livelihoods, and brings joy to everyone. The UK leads the world in the creative industries and we can all feel pride in that.
“Now, in these challenging times, it’s our turn to show our support for culture. With an unprecedented investment through the £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund, the government is #HereForCulture so it can weather the storm of coronavirus and come back stronger.
“We want people to make sure that where they are able to visit local culture venues in their communities, they do so in a Covid secure way. Plus, with more and more culture being curated online, there is no better time to support and enjoy all the new and exciting ways culture is available to us.
“By being #HereForCulture, we aren’t just supporting the people in the industry, we’re also supporting communities across the country.
“And we are #HereForCulture too”.
This funding will continue the work that the Liverpool Irish Festival does to share Liverpool, Liverpool Irish and Irish creativity, bringing Liverpool and Ireland closer together using arts and culture. To see shining examples of this work, we highly recommend you joining us for our festival, which kicks off this week. Please, come along to one of our exceptional events – www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/events
As Coronavirus swept the globe and organisations planned what their next steps would be, a new Liverpool network of Irish service providers emegered called CARA.
Spearhaded by colleagues at Irish Community Care, numerous organisations came together to reach in to communities to make sure we and they were networked, supported and heard. The exchanges this network developed revealed opportunities to share skills, enormous compassion and friendship across the region. It has been exemplary and shows what can be achieved when we really communicate ideas with one another and collaborate.
CARA: Irish Communties Together
CARA, the Irish word for friend. What happens when friends all across the North West join together with an aim to keep their communities safe, well and connected during Covid-19? The answer, CARA: Irish Communities Together.
The CARA programme has brought Irish community groups throughout the North West, including GAA clubs, academics, Irish community centres, festivals, music clubs and more to join forces and help their communities through Covid-19. The journey that lay ahead for all CARA partners was unknown, these were and remain unprecedented times. However, this did not phase an enthusiastic and passionate bunch of partners and volunteers, who knew many people within their communities would need a helping hand and a listening ear.
The programme set its sights on helping all community members, whether this was collecting prescriptions, shopping for groceries, or having a friendly chat over the phone with a likeminded volunteer.
CARA sought to recruit a team of volunteers to help with the tasks ahead and were blown away by the response they received! Volunteers came from all around, all ages, locations, interests and most importantly a shared aim; keeping their communities safe, well and connected.
The CARA programme has -to date- recruited over 70 volunteers, who are continuing to engage in weekly conversations or lively debates depending on the topic of conversation! Volunteers have also organised and delivered weekly shopping and prescriptions for over 45 isolated community members. The CARA programme didn’t stop at just local community support, but reached further to work with prisons across the North West. Phone credit, stamped postcards and reading material were supplied to 140 Irish community members in prison.
CARA monthly newsletter reaches over 1,000 homes across the North West and many more online. Each newsletter is jam-packed with stories, updates, quizzes and important announcements. CARA partners have even managed to take the newsletter articles and turn them into an audio letter! Irish communities can listen to the newsletter articles at any time on social media, a fantastic way to experience the stories coming to life. If you would like to receive the CARA: Irish Communities Together newsletter, contact [email protected]; +44 (0)151 237 3987 or follow us on social media: @IrishCommCare.
A recipient of the CARA monthly newsletter got in touch to share her joy at learning new digital skills during the Covid-19 lockdown, a tale involving an iPad, weekly Mass and a bit of luck!
‘Blessed is the iPad’
Bridie, from Cork, is a regular churchgoer who has missed attending weekly Mass since Covid-19 came along. She has lived in England for over 60 years and has a grown-up family, grandchildren and great grandchildren and was missing them even more. She was introduced to an iPad -bought by her family- and at first she thought she’d never get the hang of it! She persevered with telephone support from family members. Not a one to give up, she surprised herself and -not without a struggle- she discovered the magic of Google search engine. Well, with regular use for a few hours each day, Bridie is now attending Mass in every county of Ireland – you can imagine her delight. Bridie says if she types “live Mass in Ireland” or “RTE live Mass” into Google it gives her details of churches all over Ireland; you can take your pick of the priests!
This has given her great comfort, remembering too all the hymns she sang as a child growing up in Ireland. Bridie is delighted to be learning new skills, with all that new language. Some days she can’t quite work her magic and other days she amazes herself and is often not sure how that happened! She regularly thinks “What did I press to get this information and will I find it again” She’s a devoted fan of Joe Dolan and you can find her singing and dancing round her kitchen to his music on her iPad. She is proud to be digitally included and still flying the flag at 82 years young!
The impact of the CARA project is felt far and wide, from learning new digital skills to creating lasting friendships over the phone or during doorstep shopping deliveries.
A huge word of thanks to all CARA: Irish Community Together partners; Brian Boru Club in Wigan, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, GAA (John Mitchels and Wolfe Tones), Institute of Irish Studies at University of Liverpool, Irish Community Care, Irish Community Care Manchester, Liverpool Irish Centre, Liverpool Irish Festival, Mersey Harps and Shenanigans – their dedication to the welfare and empowerment of Irish communities is unwavering.
A note of thanks to all CARA volunteers and supporters, without your hard work, goodwill and compassion it would not have been possible to achieve the amazing community network that continues to grow. We are indebted to the many GAA teams across the North West for the tremendous support they have given to CARA and our communities since Covid-19. As well as volunteering their time to help the most vulnerable –from completing shopping tasks, collecting prescriptions to making befriending calls- they also found time to put on their running shoes! St. Peters GAC, Liverpool Wolfe Tones GAA and St. Lawrence’s GAA organised a sponsored ‘Virtual Run’ competition over the 2020 May Bank Holiday weekend. 80 runners took part, collectively running over 1300 miles. Members of Liverpool John Mitchels GAA organised a very successful July Sports Day. Collectively the teams raised over £3000 for CARA, what a fantastic achievement!
We extend our sincere thanks to our funders the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme, Covid-19 Response Fund and the UK Government’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund (distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund). This support has enabled CARA to grow and develop and continue delivering services until early next year. We look forward to sharing exciting plans in the months ahead. If you would like to get involved as a volunteer or know someone who is isolated or likely to need a bit more support during the coming months, please help spread the word to them or contact us directly on +44 (0)151 237 3987 or [email protected]for further information.
Annually, the Liverpool Irish Festival sets a theme and a creative brief.
We work with partners to develop work and engage artists. Bluecoat Display Centre has been a key player in developing design and craft in Liverpool, nationally and internationally, since the 1950s. Who better then to partner with each year to find an Irish talent? Supported by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, we make an open call for makers to respond to the theme and our panel makes a selection from the submissions. Last year we chose ceramicist Rory Shearer, whose Derry based work evoked the hills and turf of his country pottery.
Even during Covid-19, 2020s submissions were of a high quality. Ordinarily, we would try not to pick the same medium year-on-year, but Mike’s application was tailored so well to the idea of exchange and he challenged notions of Irishness so well in his statement, he was the finalist. Below, Festival Director Emma Smith, quizzes Mike on some of the concepts raised, along with some probing questions in to the materiality of pottery, high and low culture and stars of the future.
ES: As I read through your submission statement, I noted your mention of Irishness as perceived via “the Irish/cottage/shamrock/American view”. For some Irish people, these values are an intrinsic part of their Irishness, not to be besmirched by the likes of curators/artists /‘intelligentsia’. For them, these items depict levity, light and charm, drawing on Irish traditions that can be taught from these symbolic snippets. Seen as positive, transportable commodities, they help people feel ‘at home abroad’, triggering memories of hills and faces; times and places. For others, it represents a low-taste-level and a (mis)mannered caricature; a nonsense version of a nuanced and deeply emotional national character. I read your view of such items as ‘tokenistic’; do you think there is a place for this or do they take or detract from an understanding of Irish people and their identity? MB: I can see both sides of this argument; it does show levity, light and charm and appeals to Irish people abroad, particularly to those away a long time. It is an old fashioned, emotional look back at what they think they remember about Ireland. Apart from jumping around on a Saturday night in a Paddy hat, this is not a view taken seriously by Irish people at home and I do not think they represent contemporary Irish lives.
The EU, sojourns abroad for work or holiday, the digital age and a new prosperity have made Ireland a changed place; the old woman in the bed is no longer sipping porter, she is checking her emails.
I think these symbols/images are sort of harmless; there are new stories to tell and new ways to tell the old ones.
ES: Thinking through this brought to mind the William Morris idea that the destruction of capitalism would be necessary for art to flourish! This positioning of ‘low’ and ‘high’ art or culture seems frequently tied to concepts of Irishness, as demonstrated by shamrocks and novelty hats versus the written word, traditional fabrics and making methods.Ceramics often sits in that liminal space between ‘crafts’ and ‘arts’ with similar arguments surrounding it as having high and/or low cultural value. What are your thoughts? MB: I think there is a place for this material. As you said, it is a bit of fun and I can’t imagine it is taken too seriously. But take a new initiative: ‘The Wild Atlantic Way’; a notion that comes from the same emotional gene pool as the other material is a great success, eagerly embraced by all. I think this is a fine example of a modern take on this question.
If -when I was a tutor in Art school- a student expressed a desire to make products for the tourist trade (some explored niche ideas such as hill walking), I would advise them not to overlook the sentimental pull of certain ideas and clichés and to look at them from a slightly different angle adding a more contemporary slant to them.
I think a lot of the old representation of Ireland does not represent Ireland today, but I would not be beating my breast about it. It has changed from longed-for nostalgic memory to a bit of fun. There is a travel company here called The Paddy Wagon; it takes young foreign backpackers around Ireland. They wear the hats, sing the songs and they give them all the old blarney; they love it. On the other hand, the proliferation of shops in tourist spots -and in the major cities- selling Guinness merchandise (almost exclusively), little of it made in Ireland, can be disheartening.
Yes, Ceramics is in an interesting position. Somewhere in the half-light between craft, design, the decorative arts and art, but it is quite easy to position the various strands. Intent is all! The craft potter makes domestic ware; the designer designs for the industry; the decorative arts have their conventions and artists deal with many issues including social and aesthetic. The only common denominator is the material and the processes. Some see it as a kind of hierarchy. We all need someone to look down on!
ES: The materiality of ceramics seems to be part of what locates them. Would your work would be the same if you were making it with Mexican barro negro or Chinese kaolin? I don’t just mean the overall finish or surface aesthetic, but in the forms it leads you to? One cannot do with terracotta what can be done with porcelain, so does Irish clay imbue the sculptural form innately and does its historic content play any part in the form you take it to? Is there an exchange in this process between artist and material? MB: In my case, the concept comes first. The material is of course considered, insofar as it can do what the concept demands. Makers will choose a particular material like porcelain for what it will bring to the expressive outcome. As we don’t have exploitable clay deposits here, I use clay from Northern Ireland, where it is made using imported materials from the UK and beyond. It suits my work process well. It is a robust utility body, ideally suited to forms I make and the low firing temp I require. I cannot say that this particular clay influences my work conceptually.
ES: Ceramics have a role in all lives. It is likely that the nationality of the item is less important than the value of its aesthetic, function or place in a user’s world. Therefore, should Irishness play any part on the form and does it require such a connection? MB:I never think of myself, or my ideas, as being Irish while I am making. Ideas come and develop as things get made and are appraised. It is a never-ending chain of exploration, frustration and a little joy. I live in a small city near the west coast of Ireland. I travel up and down the coast often. I draw the landscape, collect objects; manmade and natural. I feel close to Ireland and am happy to be Irish and I am sure that this life influences how and what I make. I think attempting to build Irishness into the form would be a contrivance and could possibly muddy the waters in the creative expression or interpretation of the concept.
We would like to offer Mike our sincere thanks and congratulations for being involved in this year’s In The Window and recommend any Irish maker look out for our new artistic call in 2021. See more of Mike’s work here or visit his work in the real world at Bluecoat Display Centre from 1-31 Oct 2020. His statement is below the gallery for those who wish to know ore about this particular project.
This is exhibit is supported by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland.
Curious Action
Curious Desire
An Easy Setting
Standard Procedure
Always Neutral
STATEMENT: Exchange When in art school in the 1970’s, ceramic design students we were desperately trying to shed the Irish/cottage/shamrock, Irish/American view and imagery of Ireland, which dominated tourist products and literature at the time. The tourist market then far outweighed the domestic market for craft and design products and so, could not be ignored. While quality Irish craft and ceramics has developed in the intervening years, it has done so alongside a combination of persisting staged Irish product offerings and a secondary -perhaps more thoughtful, but still shallow- emblematic or caricature-like selection of products that outsells art and craft ceramics. So today’s stories, as far as products representing and reflecting Irish culture are concerned -it seems to me- fall into two categories: firstly, those that are driven by and trade on associations and imagery of a notion of Irishness or Irish tradition -for example reproduction Celtic iconography, Guinness t-shirts, visual representations of animals, landscape, Irish colloquialisms etc., on products and in prints; and –secondly- those stories that emerge through work that is conceived and produced by creative Irish individuals; stories and artefacts that carry with them an authenticity that finds a different type of audience; smaller, more focused; recognising Irish origin, but more concerned with the underlying ideas rather than with Irish tokenism.
At the time I studied at Limerick School of Art and Design all the tutors of ceramics were English and brought with them a long tradition of ceramic making from Medieval pottery to the factories of Stoke-on-Trent. The Irish do not have a continuous history of ceramics, and with British involvement in Ireland for so long, imported English ceramics became as common in Ireland as in any other part of these islands. So, the English tradition became the Irish tradition, prized cream jugs in our grandmothers’ dressers all carried the great Stoke trademarks. The diasporic exchange was essentially one-way. However, as students graduated from art, craft and design courses in Ireland over the decades since the 1970’s, they slowly began to develop and create identities for themselves through their output. It is difficult to argue there is any consistent cultural theme running through this work, least of all a particularly Irish one. However, it is true to say that that educational exchange in art and design, which occurred as a result of the developing Irish creative education institutions hiring staff from outside Ireland, had a deep and lasting impact. This exchange is now no longer one-way, as Irish artists, designers and craftspersons who benefited from the input of international educators, achieve success at home and abroad.
In an effort to boost the development of design and craft -and almost concurrent with the arrival of international educators into Irish creative third level education- the Irish Government established the Kilkenny Design Workshops (1963). Its aim was to improve the quality of Irish design. Each department of this design and development agency, including ceramics (where I was initially placed), was led by a designer from outside Ireland. I spent two years working at KDW and mixed with a wide range of designers in different fields from diverse backgrounds. It was very interesting to see how they, as designers, brought their experience and culture to bear on the work they did in Ireland. This exchange positively impacted a slew of young Irish creatives and contributed to a significant amount of the creative capability manifest in current Irish design.
Later, I taught on a ceramic design course. My students and I wrestled with the problem of Irishness in design, how to make work that felt like it came from Ireland yet looked beyond these shores to a modern Europe. Scandinavia was an obvious model where they used traditional materials, a combination of new and old processes and centuries of design development. However, it became clear that the quest to imbue our work with “Irishness” was not a premise upon which creative work could be based. Irishness, if it was something that could be a feature of a product or artwork (I personally doubt that it can be), would have to emerge through the work over a sustained period of time, through bodies of work by Irish artists, designers and craftspersons. After many years, I can say that I see enormous creativity, artistry, and superb craftsmanship all around, but it is hard to pin down a sense of Irishness in the work produced in Ireland. Clearly, in fine art -where Irish themes and landscape are the subject matter- there is a fundamental Irish connection. Some craft brands have become strong Irish brands such as Nicholas Mosse Ceramics, which draws on Irish flora and fauna themes in its decorative motifs.
One area where perhaps there have been significant international exchanges through traditional Irish design may have been in the textiles sector. In the emerging Ireland of the 1950’s, woven products from Ireland -Donegal Tweed, Foxford Woollens, Aran sweaters- had an international impact (especially in the United States). This exchange has continued to the present day and the cultural element -Irish traditional apparel and textiles- has found new connections and markets alongside its older markets. The “Irishness” of these products, unlike that of more recent design and craft output in Ireland, is, as in the case of the Scandinavian tradition, rooted in local materials and processes.
In my own work, sometimes intentional, sometimes accidental, my exploration of surface texture and colour seems to reflect the world around me. I believe that land and seascapes local to me, and unique to Ireland, drive the decision-making process that I use to build up the surfaces of my ceramics. Insofar as these surfaces derive their nature and energy from the influences surrounding me, they certainly reflect my Irishness.
The forms I have been making for some time now, upon which the above surfaces are developed, also have a certain Irish connection. Common domestic shapes such as pitchers, metal jugs and pourers have been creative resources for the shapes I have produced and new shapes that are evolving.
In conclusion, the exchange that took place during my education at LSAD and subsequently at Kilkenny Design Workshops has had a long lasting and deep influence on my work. What I make now, although it falls between utility and art, is neither. Yet it has its roots in my training, and in the influences of those I met from other cultures, during my education. As I exhibit at home and abroad, a new exchange is taking shape for me and informs my ongoing work.
Brian Dalton is the CEO of Irish in Britain, a membership agency representing Irish communities across the country, at local and national level. In recent months, our organisational exchanges have been based on shared advocacy, cultural collaboration and having Irishness understood properly within the context of policy, funding and BAME. On a more personal level, the exchanges have been about sharing concerns, affirming the challenges and being positive with and for one another. Here, Brian sets out Irish in Britain’s Coronavirus responses and hopes for communities in times ahead.
For so many of us, there is a sense of uncertainty as we adjust to new norms and practices in how we live and work. As a voluntary sector organisation, we have an obligation to promote a sense of hope and to imagine a future where our services are needed more than ever. We take comfort in the proud history of community organisations to know and meet the needs of their people and we at Irish in Britain salute the work of our member organisations during the crisis and beyond. Our priority now is to help ensure sustainable futures for these same organisations that made such a difference in keeping us connected and safe during the most trying of times.
Self-care and relatedness, conversation and kinship, the daily routines that keep us healthy and connected are made more difficult now; mental health will, without doubt, be the next public health challenge for providers, for services, for communities.
As an umbrella organisation for 120 Irish clubs, societies and centres across Britain, Irish in Britain has seen first-hand the impact the Coronavirus outbreak has had on the Irish community at large. Given that we have the oldest median age of any community here (53), the crisis has undoubtedly affected us disproportionately and as we mourn those who passed we also celebrate the incredible contribution of Irish organisations and the many Irish people in frontline and NHS care settings.
As a membership body for Irish community organisations, the Covid-19 crisis has meant that we have had to adapt quickly to a new operating environment and find a means to ensure we maintain close working relationships with those in our community.
We have shared fundraising opportunities with trusts, corporate aid and bespoke Covid-19 initiatives with our membership. Both furloughing schemes and the central government grants will support many in the short term, but the future of many organisations will depend on how quickly normal operations can resume.
For cultural organisations and those providing hospitality the social distancing limits upon groups of people will have profound effects on financial planning and resources. Organisations have adapted with incredible creativity, but it is footfall that is the lifeblood for community arts and culture. Patronage, membership, support and fundraising will be vital as organisations plan for a different future and new ways of engaging audiences. Many members will be managing disrupted financing this year as income from venues, community halls and fundraising events are limited because of the emergency.
However, we have been heartened by the sense of joint enterprise and collaboration that the crisis has fostered, and we have had huge engagement with our online forums over the last six months. This includes greater partnership and sharing between cultural organisations where so many of the challenges such as funding shortfalls are common. Though we support many welfare organisations with resources, policy and practice we are acutely aware the role that culture will play in our healing and recovery as we move into a post-Covid world. We will need restoration through our music, our art, our songs and writings. Irish people thrive in the act of the communal; working together to solve common problems, coming together for kinship and the meitheal (team).
There is of course a wider debate now needed about the role of voluntary sector and community organisations to meet the needs of their community. Our value in a crisis is no longer a debating point. The crisis has reminded many, if they needed reminding, that grassroots organisations are best placed to respond and adapt quickly. Our job is to now ensure that the goodwill and sense of community endures and is properly resourced.
If we have learned anything through this it is that community cohesion and development is now a task in which we can all participate – indeed it is our sector that will lead the rebuild and recovery. Irish in Britain has waived membership fees for all its member organisations during the crisis and has extended an invitation to all groups who want to be part of a “coalition for recovery” to join us. We will need all comers to help in the recovery – we all have some capacity, maybe even an obligation, to be community champions now.
In:Visible Women have long been a focus of the Festival. We’ve seen many unveiled over the years; often the equally strong partner of a famous man (such as Constance Markievicz or Maude Gonne). Alternatively, they have had their light diminished because they did not fit the social-stereotype (Eva Gore-Boothe) or threatened the patriarchal order (Kitty Wilkinson) or their time. Gradually they are coming in to the light. Here, Helix Productions offer some additional background to their play Mrs Shaw Herself, a production we are moving in to the digital arena for #LIF2020 and hope you will attend.
“I found that my own objection to marriage had ceased with my objection to my own death”
George Bernard Shaw on his marriage to Charlotte Payne-Townshend in 1898
Let’s face it, this does not sound the most romantic start to a marriage; especially if you throw in that the groom and bride were both over 40 with a disdain for -if not downright aversion to- sexual activity. Add further that the groom was one of the most famous men in the world, at that time, and an avowed philanderer (albeit more on the page than in the sheets) and we can but wonder at how this marriage lasted over 40 years, ending with Charlotte’s death. Shaw once said “I could never have married anyone else”. So how is it that we know so little about her?
Creators and performers of Mrs Shaw Herself –Alexis Leighton and Helen Tierney- have found that after performances of the show, audience members frequently come up to tell them they were in fact unaware Shaw was married. Yet Charlotte’s is a fascinating story. It was a mammoth achievement to stay married to the Nobel Prize and Oscar-winning Shaw, in itself, but Charlotte needs to be remembered and indeed celebrated for so much more.
Like Shaw, she played an active part in the early Fabian movement, but it was her money -and it is her name- which gave the London School of Economics their beautiful Shaw Library. She gave financial assistance to many women who were studying medicine and supported the suffrage movement. She not only assisted Shaw with secretarial work, but in his research for plays; notably St Joan. Shaw thanked her with a commission of a St Joan statue to grace their garden at Ayot Saint Lawrence. She read voraciously and enjoyed an intimate and frank relationship with T.E. Lawrence, taking on a quasi-maternal confidence with him in letters.
Shaw and Payne-Townshend’s story is the most maverick of Irish love stories. Charlotte was born in Cork to an incredibly rich family; by coincidence George had worked briefly as a clerk in a land-registry office, owned by her family firm. She had given up on marriage, after failed love affairs, when she met Shaw and our show tells of the twists and turns of their courtship, noted by eagle-eyed Fabian Beatrice Webb. The marriage had its challenges. Shaw could not resist a pretty face and whilst it hardly ever led to physical contact, Charlotte sometimes felt the need to take him on long holidays abroad just to get him away, especially from actresses. Shaw’s infamous affair with Mrs Patrick Campbell was a particular low point, but the marriage weathered it and if nothing else, Mrs Shaw Herself is a lilting (and sometimes keening) Irish song of praise to the long-haul of marital love.
The Liverpool Irish Festival’s theme of “exchange” is embedded in the story of Mrs Shaw Herself. Both Payne-Townshend and Shaw exchanged Ireland for England, but never lost a sense of their roots. They were prominent in support of a united Ireland and of Roger Casement. As Irish Protestants in a sea of Englishness their outsider status brought with it an independent, if not downright maverick stance to life and matters; it is this element that many love in Shaw’s plays. Charlotte exchanged -as did George- a life-long suspicion of marriage for a compromise in what seems to be a celibate, but ultimately loving and supportive relationship. He did not exchange, however, her feminist stance and her determination to use her fortune -in part- to better the lives of women and, most importantly, to create systems for that. The care she took in supervising her scholarships at the LSE and the London School of Medicine is quite astounding. Whilst researching the play, Leighton and Tierney were given access to the wonderful collection at the LSE of photos taken by Shaw. You get a real sense of partnership and affection through the pictures; this between two very independent people.
Mrs Shaw Herself has been performed in many locations; cathedrals, theatres, libraries, centres and even at the wedding of Charlotte’s great-great niece Elisabeth Townshend. It was good to hear Charlotte’s words ring out in the Shaw Library for a conference on women at our LSE performance and at the church in Shaw’s home village of Ayot at which the organ, which Shaw occasionally played, sounded at Charlotte’s funeral scene as described in Shaw’s letters. We have taken the show to various festivals including Bloomsbury, Edinburgh, Crouch End, Watford and Bury St Edmunds, but it is wonderful now to bring an online version of the show to the Liverpool Irish Festival. Do come and hear the voice of the woman who was not only Mrs Shaw Herself, but so much more.
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