Intertale/Eutopia Stop 18: Counties Donegal and Leitrim/Eire

With the ArtLink team in their community garden (Fort Dunree)

Guided by Julie Griffith, I had great exchanges with folks from across the North West of Ireland.

On the Edge of the Ocean - we look outwards is the driven slogan at Artlink Dunree based in Inishowen Peninsular Co. Donegal. We may be remote, but we stay connected is another set of words that can be found on their brilliant website. Formed in 1992 their office, studio and workshop spaces are based at the historical and picturesque location of Fort Dunree - now a Military Museum. While the wind and heater are blowing their airs through the doors in opposite directions, we were all made rather comfy by the hearty food we got sitting in our thick jackets around the discussion table. Listening to the long history of the organisation, their mission is ‘to find imaginative ways to link artists to the community and the community to art’ in and around Buncrana. This can be evidence by over a 100 projects featured on their website. A new business plan is in the making, that draws on principles of social permaculture (a concept I came across frequently in recent times), where they draw on the agricultural seasons - including to build in a ‘Hare’s Corner’ for the unexpected.

In Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim my companion Julie and I met with four artists - Shane, Laura, James and Tara - who run Waking the Land from their town centre space. The small collective has been investigating loss of place and community, drawing from myth, ecology, place, and more-than-human elements of the Benbo Mountain, an important landmark for the local area and community. I love the idea of ‘waking the land’, combing walking with the rituals of an Irish wake. The artists I met with a much needed Hawthorn Tea in hand express it as a 'grievable' place, a place with unique personality that is under threat from mining and other industries. Also in Manorhamilton the renown Leitrim Sculpture Centre can be found.

In Ballyshannon I met with Bronah Gallagher and her friend Genevieve at the Wee Bakery Coffee Shop. The two young artists are in the process of setting up Rivermouth, here, an artist collective with studio spaces. Their enthusiasm was infectious. Soon they will open the doors for up to 20 artists from the locality. The nice thing about them was, that they compared to many others that I talked to have no intention to go for funding, a website or instagram. They just want to do it.

Thänk you all for the teas and inspiration.