Feast your senses at this upcoming event in my neighbourhood. And if you are not about town here then simply enjoy wearing some linen clothes! How happy I am to bring this ancient craft into my life and yours… Touching the flax and twisting and shaking the seeds off… and today planting those flax seeds – is pure pleasure!
Meet Brian Lafferty from Craigmór Thatching, who teaches a the craft of thatching over in Portnoo, West Donegal. Highland Radio interviewed him recently alongside one of his students. Many’s a roof in Donegal could do with touching up and it seems the interest in thatching is growing. DIY returns!
Check out the middle bar (2nd audio) at 15 minutes https://highlandradio.com/2025/04/09/podcast-wednesdays-nine-til-noon-show-134/
And we’ll see you at our afternoon event Monday 5th May Moville Shorefront from 1pm – Bring a picnic & blanket and come hear about how flax turns into roof and clothing at 2pm! Enjoy a good ol’ chat at Bealtaine! Live music will be playing for the pure enjoyment of it all!
https://www.ticketsource.com/artlink/flax-to-thatch-linen/e-ddbqmb
Delighted with Artlink and this Art in the Parks Winnowing Basket exciting exploration project! Feels like we are onto something liberating!
Art in the Park IV
The Winnowing Basket: Art, Loot and The Commons
Outdoor Exhibition 1st-31st May 2025
Swan Park, Buncrana | The Bath Green, Moville | Barrack Hill Community Park, Carndonagh
Bbeyond | Denis Buckley | Marianna Bruno | Lisa Collomb | Sue Morris | Elaine Garde | Kathleen O’Hara Farren
Curated by Declan Sheehan
The Winnowing Basket, Art, Loot and The Commons, an outdoor exhibition produced by Artlink, transforms Inishowen’s public spaces into vibrant cultural hubs, making contemporary art accessible to all. This year’s edition takes place across three scenic locations – Swan Park in Buncrana, Barrack Hill Park in Carndonagh, and The Bath Green in Moville – inviting locals and visitors to engage with art in the open air.
A Winnowing Basket is a traditional farming tool used to separate grain from chaff after harvest. Symbolically, in terms of this exhibition, it represents the process of sorting, sifting, and reclaiming – letting go of what’s unnecessary to keep what nourishes. Declan Sheehan invited artists to use this idea to reflect on:
● Uncovering hidden histories
● Reimagining public spaces
● Shaking up the past to see what still holds value today.
Think of it as unsettling the present to reveal and declaim some barely visible telltale marks of history.
Harry Swan’s Legacy: A Park & A Collection
Buncrana businessman Harry Swan (1879–1970) bequeathed Swan Park to the town and amassed an eclectic antiquities collection, now held by Ireland’s National Museum. Artists can access records or request viewings of objects like a 19th-century “witch ball” or an engraved 1729 tobacco box.
Moville’s Bath Green: A Colonial Gift
This scenic commons was a bequest from the Montgomery family, whose wealth and position stemmed in part from colonial exploits within the British East India Company. Sir Robert Montgomery, a key figure in suppressing India’s 1857 rebellion against colonial rule, later governed Punjab—his family’s legacy embedded in Moville’s landscape.
Inishowen’s Global Entanglements
Frederick Young (1786–1874), an Inishowen native, founded Mussoorie, a Himalayan hill station, and introduced potatoes to the region.
Charles O’Donnell, a Carndonagh MP, fiercely criticized British rule in India, linking Irish and Indian struggles against empire.
Reimagining the Commons
The Winnowing Basket interrogates these layered histories—colonial loot, contested ownership, and communal memory—through site-responsive works across Inishowen’s parks.
About the Artworks
The exhibition features a range of site-responsive works. Bbeyond’s live performance at Swan Park explores collective presence, while Denis Buckley’s Loss Movement in 3 Parts gives voice to diasporic displacement. Marianna Bruno’s illustrations inspired by the Swan Collection delve into folklore and Irish heritage. At Moville, Lisa Collomb’s Súgán + Saris weaves seaweed and sari silk to reveal colonial echoes, and Sue Morris’s Commons navigates the intersections of empire and communal memory. Elaine Garde’s The Elephant in the Room: ‘Creach / Loot’ playfully critiques imperial plunder through a chest of golden coins, and Kathleen O’Hara Farren’s Flax to Thatch & Linen revives ancient skills of weaving and thatching. Together, these works unsettle the present to illuminate the past, reclaiming the commons through creativity and care.
SPECIAL ARTLINK EVENTS:
An Uncommon Tour of Inishowen | 2pm Saturday 3rd May – Starting at Swan Park, Buncrana Artlink is partnering with Tatter Jack’s Tours to offer a tour of the exhibition, across all three parks. The artists will be on the trip to talk about their work and Declan Sheehan and Louise Doherty (Tatterjack’s Tours) will be our tour guides.
Folklore Creature Hunt | with Marianna Bruno 11am Sunday 4th May The Angling Centre, Swan Park, Buncrana
Sun Printing Workshops| 11am Saturday 10th May, Barrack Hill Park, Carndonagh
Flax to Thatch & Linen | Kathleen O’Hara Farren 1-4pm Monday 5th May, Bath Green, Moville Performance | Bbeyond: performance art collective 1pm Saturday 24th May, Swan Park Performance & Film Screening Loss Movement in 3 parts| Denis Buckley 8pm Saturday 31th May.