Odysseys of Self - Inis Oírr
Tina was the Resident Artist for Aras Eanna & the RHA in July 2024. All the work seen here is what she made whilst living on the Island for this one-month residency. Tina used local resources to explore memories of her Grandfather and her father and his strong connection with the island.
My father was a talented self-taught carpenter and fisherman. In 1976 he built his first currach using fibre glass to finish it, which was unheard of in this area at the time. I recently discovered whilst here on the island that Paraic O’ Conghaile (Ned) purchased that currach in 1982 from my father and fished with it for 10 years. The currach now sits on the beach in Inis Oirr. There are photos of us on that currach in approximately 1980 when I was about 2 years of age sitting on Grandads lap.
Blackie my grandfather’s dog was frequently called ‘you whoro’. Well one day Blackie was getting wicked abuse from Grandad as he thought that Blackie had eaten his false teeth as they had gone missing. About 2 days later Grandad was cleaning out the ashes in the stove and there amongst the ashes were my grandfather’s false teeth. Did I mention he was fond of a drop of whiskey in the evenings and clearly when stoking the fire that night
In the 80’s/90’s when dad was fishing, we had a tiny little caravan where my sisters and I would work a few hours every week during the summer preparing and bagging crab claws/meat for dad’s customers, under the supervision of our mother. I call it the sweat shop not because it was child labour, as we got paid £20 at the end of summer, but because I remember the summers being so hot and we would be roasting inside the caravan and couldn’t wait for our mother to bring us for a swim to cool down
A hand, a rope and wood…. A man, a fisherman and a carpenter, my Dad, Micky Joe O’ Connell (1944 – 2014)
As dad was a fisherman, scallop shells were frequently brought home and were used as ashtrays. This shell has been carved from what I believe to be granite.
Created from memories of my grandfather Jerome smoking his pipe. This pipe has been carved from limestone.
A neighbour of my Grandad’s, she would walk past his house every day pushing her bicycle, with a scarf covering her head. One morning while my Grandad sat at the kitchen table, he decided to shoot the rats that had begun to infest the overgrown front garden by the road. Poor Maureen had the misfortune to be passing and my bold Grandad let off a shot from his rifle scaring the be-jaysus out of poor auld Maureen, making her scream out ever curse’d name under the sun.
Grandad always wore a cap, when at home he was always hung it beside the holy water fountain beside the door. Both the cap and the water fountain are carved from limestone and what looks like green granite. A small amount of water was taken from the holy well Tobair Einne to fill the fountain.