In Clodagh Emoe’s art practice, sculpture, performance art and philosophy hold equal sway, writes Peter Murray
At a festival of keening held in Mulranny, Co Mayo in May this year, the author Kevin Toolis compared the rituals that surround death in Ireland, particularly in western counties, with those that nowadays prevail in England. Quoting Homeric sagas, he described a traditional Achill Island funeral, one that he felt represented a tradition stretching back into the mists of time, but was no longer valid in a fast-moving and less caring society. Whatever the truth of his assertions, there is no denying that the traditions of keening and ‘waking the dead’ in Ireland have long held a fascination for tourists, sociologists, writers and artists.
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Anne Stewart selects The Nativity by Baldassarre Peruzzi from the Ulster Museum collection
Kenneth McConkey recounts the story of how two great Irish painters, John Lavery and William Orpen, recorded the greatest ballerina of her generation, Anna Pavlova
Marie Lynch celebrates the life and work of illustrator and watercolour artist Naomi Heather
