Arts

Major new exhibition now open at Wexford County Council HQ

Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray, curated by Richard Malone, is now running at Wexford County Council, Carricklawn, Wexford, Y35 WY93.

Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray Curated by Richard Malone

Featuring work by Sara Flynn, Laura Gannon, Mainie Jellet, Nellie Malone, Richard Malone, Niamh O’Malley, Ceadogán Rugs and Mourne Textiles.

4thApril – 13th May, 2022 Wexford County Council, Carricklawn Wexford, Y35 WY93

Opening Launch: Friday 1st April at 6pm All welcome to attend.

Wexford County Council is excited to present Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray, a touring exhibition curated by award winning Irish artist and designer, Richard Malone. The group exhibition, which celebrates the work of Eileen Gray and the influence of Irish art and design worldwide, launched at Roquebrune, France in June 2021 and travelled to the National Museum of Ireland last September. It will run at Wexford County Council from Monday, 4th April to Friday, 13th May, 2022.

The exhibition ambitiously places equal importance on the artist, artisan and maker - observing the creative spirit present in developing an independent visual language; removing the rigid definitions and categories of art making, much like Eileen Gray’s own practice. Gray, who was born in Brownswood, Enniscorthy in 1878, was a pioneer of the Modernist movement and one of the most celebrated and influential designers and architects of the last century.

As part of this exhibition, Wexford County Council in partnership with Richard Malone and supported by Creative Ireland, will host a programme of workshops, talk and events for the general public and various communities of interest to engage with contemporary craft in Wexford focusing on work that is inspired by Eileen Gray’s legacy.

Artist and designer, Richard Malone, collaborated with Association Cap Moderne (the custodians of E-1027) to curate and exhibit some of Ireland's leading visual art makers. The exhibition is in celebration of Gray's phenomenal global influence across artistic disciplines - from weaving and rug making to metalwork and painting. Each artist and artisan has been selected for their multidisciplinary and experimental approach to making. The group represents an award winning selection of some or Ireland's most prominent artists with numerous accolades amongst them, such as the Royal Hibernian Academy commission, the Loewe Craft Prize and the International Woolmark Prize. Wexford’s award-winning designer Richard Malone's homage to Enniscorthy’s internationally renowned architect and designer Eileen Gray features in an exhibition Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray which is now running at Wexford County Council until 13th May 2022. n

Above: Richard Malone with one of the pieces on exhibit. Below: Eileeen Gray.

Maria launching new book

Maria Nolan’s new book The Shadow of Freedom, her second novel about the McDonald family and Enniscorthy, is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback versions. An official Enniscorthy launch will take place on Wednesday 20th April at 7pm in the company of authors and friends Carmel Harrington, Sheila Forsey, Caroline Busher, Annie Gilpin, Richie Cotter, Frank Corcoran and cover designer Larry Dunne. All are invited and Maria is “looking forward to seeing all my friends there. In the meantime if any of you read it on Kindle or in paperback I would really appreciate your comments.” The new book cover is designed again by local, talented artist Larry Dunne. Maria says, “Larry has done an amazing job as usual, and I am thrilled with it as I hope you will all be reading it.” n

One of the chosen few

The National Gallery of Ireland is delighted to announce that Enniscorthy Community College has been selected to participate in Your Gallery at School 2022. Following a successful programme in 2021, the Gallery will bring art to classrooms across the country once again this year, thanks to continued support from global aircraft leasing company SMBC Aviation Capital. This year, the Gallery will pair the six schools with lead artists to plan a package of workshops appropriate to students’ age and level, emphasising the importance of art education, creativity and innovation. For more information: www.nationalgallery.ie Sean Rainbird, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, commented: “Our hope is that this opportunity to learn through art will encourage creativity and curiosity amongst our participants in the future.”

A delighted Natalie Doyle of Enniscorthy Community College said: "We at Enniscorthy Community College are over the moon to participate in the Your Gallery at School programme. Our T.Y.s are super excited and feel very lucky to have this opportunity." n

Enniscorthy Community College –selected by the National Gallery of Ireland.

A foretaste of Wexford Literary Festival 2022

Wexford Literary Festival is delighted to announce that things are beginning to hot up for this year’s Festival weekend from 1st – 3rd July. The hard-working Festival Committee are busy putting together a comprehensive, all embracing, wide ranging, Programme of Events incorporating the many forms of literature – Poetry, Prose, Drama, Film, Visual Art, and Spoken Word.

This year the Festival will be a Room & Zoom event, allowing viewing and participation from right around the world. The Festival Committee is also developing and expanding literary links begun in 2021 with writers and poets in Savannah, Newfoundland, and Wales, further enhancing our international status and appeal.

This year’s Festival’s theme, a century from the formation of the State, is historical, and our innovative Committee plan to incorporate the historic events of one hundred years ago into our Festival weekend.

The Battle of Enniscorthy, between the Free State garrison at Enniscorthy Castle and Anti Treaty snipers at St. Mary’s Church and the Courthouse, raged for four days on the streets of the town from 1st – 4th July, exactly coinciding with our 2022 Festival. We are currently engaged with developing a programme telling Enniscorthy’s story and the part it played in the birth of the Nation, through literature, visual art, and drama.

So, watch this space for further details of this exciting concept. Our 2022 Programme will also include events at the Wexford Arts Centre and Red Books, Wexford, and our annual Children’s Bookmark Competition kindly sponsored by Eason of Enniscorthy. Over the coming weeks and months, we will have details of the myriad of events planned for WLF 2022 but in the meantime, we are inviting submissions for all of our prestigious competitions:

n The Colm Tóibín Short Story Award, n The Anthony Cronin Poetry Award, n The Eoin Colfer Children’s Short

Story Award, n The Billy Roche One Act Play Award n Meet The Publisher Event.

This is an excellent opportunity for all you Scribblers out there to dust off that manuscript, or half-finished manuscript, that has been lying in the shoebox under the bed, or on top of the wardrobe and book a slot with the wonderful Paula Campbell of Poolbeg Press –who knows you could be the next Colm Tóibín, Eoin Colfer or Billy Roche.

Maria Nolan, Secretary, Wexford Literary Festival

So, get those entries into us now to be in with a chance to be among our 2022 award winners – details on our website www.wexfordliteraryfestival.com

– Maria Nolan

Presentation Centre Enniscorthy |

Friday 8th April | Creative Writing Workshop with Sheila Forsey | 10:30am Exploring the possibilities of memoir writing with best-selling author Sheila Forsey. Memoir writing is simply putting your memories down. It can be just one memory, or it can be a collection of them. It can be from any time in your life. Allow yourself to go back and rediscover your past through the power of memory writing. This session will explore how to begin and can often take you on a path of writing that you may not have thought about and open all sorts of writing possibilities. n

Pic: Maria Nolan

Open Call at The Presentatio

Almost two years exactly to the day, a very excited Lisa Byrne and Larry Dunne were delighted to throw open the doors of the beautiful Presentation Arts Centre, Enniscorthy, to welcome work from no less than 139 artists from all over County Wexford as well as Wicklow, Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Dublin, Galway, Cork, Kerry and more. Having attended all of the six Open Calls to date, I would have to say that this, in my opinion, is the best yet, with a magical blend of established and new artists and their wonderful art.

It is gratifying to enter an art exhibition and immediately recognise the work of many of the artists, and this more than anything else typifies what the Presentation Arts Centre and its innovative staff have done for the general public, here in Enniscorthy and its hinterland. Over the past number of years, they have brought local, national, and international artists to our doorstep, giving them a forum for their work and us an exquisite venue to view and appreciate the visual arts, heretofore absent from our landscape. All of my old favourites were on display at the exhibition: Zane Sutra, Marja van Kampen, Larry Dunne, Eva O’Donovan, Nadia Corrigan, Nikki Cogley, as well as work I was not so familiar with from Elita Kousiete, John and Judy Gregan, Lily O’Hara, Eamonn Sheridan, Dick Donohoe, Avril Buttle and child artist Ruth Hayes, definitely one to watch for the future.

I had the pleasure of conversing with un-

Above left: Lisa Byrne, Emma Roche and Marja van Kampen. Above right: Larry Dunne and Lisa Byrne with Larry’s piece ABISMO. Bottom left: Ruth Hayes with her prizewinning work The House at the End of the Lane. Bottom centre: William Brew with his painting Border. Bottom right: Nadia Corrigan with her work New Beginnings. assuming Dublin artist William Brew who, shall we say, is not in the first flush of youth and has never exhibited before. I was delighted to view and hear all about his magnificent piece titled Border. This excellently executed work is a scene on the American-Mexican border, where the artist has very cleverly worked in the red, white and blue of the Star Spangled Banner to one side of the large painting and the green and white of the Mexican flag to the other. The people in trouble in the painting are faceless, whereas the expressions and attitudes of those in charge are clearly visible, a most interesting, thought provoking and astute work, well worth viewing, as are all the pieces in this striking exhibition. Artist Emma Roche officially declared the 6th Annual Open Call open and presented prizes to winners Ruth Hayes and Marja van Kampen. Do drop into The Presentation Arts Centre and allow your senses to be pleasantly assaulted by this marvellous medley of visual talent, on display daily until 7th May.

– All words & pics by Maria Nolan

on Centre

with Maria Nolan

Book Review: The First Rose of Tralee

We all know the song and the glamorous international festival that has lit up our TV screens for as long as I can remember, but do we all know the story of the original Rose, the one the song was written for, Mary O’Connor, the first Rose of Tralee. Well now, thanks to author Patricia O’Reilly and her lovely book The First Rose of Tralee, there is no excuse for us. Ms. O’Reilly heard the story herself as a young girl sitting around her aunt’s kitchen table in Tralee on her summer holidays. The local women – her aunts friends and acquaintances discussed Irish history, as you do, over tea and biscuits every morning after 10 o’clock mass. Daniel O’Connell, the Whiteboys, the Great Famine, the curse of consumption and of course the renowned Mary O’Connor were some of the topics frequently under review. Ma was the daughter of a poor shoemaker from Brogue Lane, Tralee, whose beauty attracted the attentions of the young master of West Villa, William Mulchinock.

William, a poet and emancipation campaigner, fell madly in love with house servant Mary and wrote the hauntingly beautiful ballad The Rose of Tralee, for her.

The romantic tale stayed with the young Patricia when the summer vacations were long gone, always lurking in the creative crevices of her mind until years later, as an author, she discovered that the doomed love story had never been written in novel form.

So, like every good historical fiction author, she researched the facts, embellished them, added characters and intrigue, imagined places, events, and dialogue and came up with her charming novel The First Rose of Tralee. The story, without giving too much away, is set in the 1840s, during the time of Daniel O’Connell’s monster rallies for Repeal of the 1801 Act of Union. The tragic love affair between the master and the servant was doomed from the onset, the final straw coming when William Mulchinock is accused of killing a man, forcing him to flee for his life, ending up in India for five years. When William is eventually proven innocent of the murder, his plans to return to Tralee and marry, die a quick and poignant death. A lovely read and a wonderful social history of the period, and a must for anyone who ever wondered about the real story behind the song, or the real story according to the talented pen of Patricia O`Reilly, which is as real as it is going to get. Charming book and cover and a joy to read.

Hazel Gaynor – Maria Nolan

Apply now for Living Arts Project

Wexford County Council Arts Department, in partnership with Wexford Arts Centre and the Arts Council, is seeking applications from primary schools and visual artists to participate in the Living Arts Project commencing in September/October 2022. Deadline for expressions of interest is 4pm Thursday 5th May, 2022 Under this unique and very successful scheme, selected primary schools have the opportunity to host an artist in residence during the school year. The aim of the Living Arts Project is to provide children with an understanding and appreciation of contemporary visual art. Selected primary schools have the opportunity to host an artist in residence during the school year. Four Wexford-based artists will be selected and partnered with schools to create a body of work over the school year. The residencies prioritise the development of the artists practice within the project and encourage engaging work from the pupils. The project also offers teachers an opportunity to observe and learn creative practices for use in the classroom.

The residencies will culminate in an exhibition of work from participating schools at Wexford Arts Centre in April 2023. Pupils participating in the project have the benefit of detailed guidance from the artist over the period of the residency and the opportunity to see their work exhibited in a gallery for their friends and family to view. A total of four paid assistant artist positions are also available. Two mentoring session will be scheduled during each residency for assistant artists to get advice on their own practice. The successful applicants must be flexible in terms of contact hours.

Applications from interested primary schools and visual artists for lead and assistant roles are being accepted now. Joint applications for artists seeking to fulfil lead and assistant roles are welcome.

Established in 2013, the Living Arts Project is a long-term visual arts educational scheme which consolidates the existing partnership between the Arts Department of Wexford County Council (WCC) and Wexford Arts Centre. It makes engagement with the fundamentals of contemporary visual art accessible for young audiences.

For further information on the Living Arts Project including a full brief and application form please log on to: www.livingartsproject.ie or email catherine@wexfordartscentre.ie n

More success for Colm

Colm Tóibín has just been awarded the prestigious Rathbones Folio prize worth £30,000 for his recent novel The Magician, based on the life of the German writer, Thomas Mann.

One of the judges, Rachel Long, said: “Colm Tóibín’s The Magician is such a capacious, generous, ambitious novel, taking in a great sweep of 20th-century history, yet rooted in the intimate detail of one man’s private life.”

The Enniscorthy writer remains as busy as ever. As well as recently succeeding Sebastian Barry as the Laureate for Irish Fiction, he is also Chancellor of the University of Liverpool and Mellon Professor in English at Columbia University, New York. He is curating an upcoming James Joyce exhibition at New York’s Morgan Library and is writing a sequel to Brooklyn, set 20 years later. Winning the Rathbones Folio prize adds to an impressive collection for Tóibín: the Costa Novel Award for Brooklyn, the Impac Award, an Irish Pen award and the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2021. n