Anáil na Beatha

Coming Home is accompanied by a programme of events, talks and tours. Anáil na Beatha, a site-specific performance  by artist Allanah O' Kelly, was a particularly special event on our calendar. The new, live  performance,which took place Saturday the 21st of July, was held on the sepulchral grounds of Schull Workhouse.

Allanah O' Kelly is one of Ireland's internationally renowned multi-media artists. Her powerful multi-media piece, No Colouring Can Deepen the Darkness of Truth, along with her photographic panels of the landscape, A Kind of Quietism, both form an important part of the Coming Home  exhibition. O' Kelly is known for incorporating sound and image, praying and keening with photography and a kaleidoscope of scarred landscapes.

West Cork Arts Centre commissioned Allanah to create an event embedded in the community. Anáil na Beatha compromised of a sequence of performances, fragmented and presented on this highly-charged site. As someone who had previously never visited the Schull Workhouse, the atmosphere on the grounds was immediately striking. I am struggling to describe it as anything other than uaigneach, which is Irish for lonely or sad. This mood was intensified by the night-time setting of the performance. The event began in the late hours of the evening and continued on into darkness. The attendees were divided into groups and guided around the grounds to different performances. Some performances were brief while others seemed to narrate a particular story. All of the performances evoked a sense of cultural memory.

The ruins of the workhouse itself was central to the event. The building was strikingly lit against the night sky, which gave the effect of both beauty and melancholy. The audience sat, vigil-like, while the performers utilized the tradition of keening to lament and mourn those lost to this tragedy.

However, the artist emphasised throughout the event the sad fact that tragedies like these are happening today, albeit not in Ireland, but in the war-torn countries of the world. I left the performance thinking how shameful it is to see other people experience a similar plight to that  experienced by the Irish people nearly a hundred and seventy five years ago. Anáil na Beatha expanded on many of the themes and issues raised by the Coming Home exhibition and left the audience with plenty to think about.