Bere Island: Exhibition in old army hall shows off artistic talent of Cork islands
Mary K Sullivan organises the visual arts strand of Bere Island Arts Festival. Picture: Picture Dan Linehan
Anyone with a connection to West Cork and its islands will be intrigued by a new exhibition that opens this Thursday (Sept 19) at Bere Island Arts Festival. The 7 Islands Art Exhibition runs at what is surely the most unusual gallery space in the county; the Drill Hall at Rerrin, at the east end of the island, which was built by the British admiralty in 1915 and is now owned by the Irish Army.
The 7 Islands exhibition is curated by Mary K Sullivan, one of the three Bere Island women who launched the festival in September last year, with each taking charge of the artform closest to their hearts. Sullivan, a graduate of the DIT Sherkin Island BA Visual Arts programme who won the RDS Taylor Art Award for her degree show in 2018, organises the visual arts events; Beara Community School principal Pauline Hurley organises the literary talks and workshops; while Wild Atlantic Glamping proprietor Caitríona Hanley organises the musical performances.
One of the festival’s main sponsors is Creative Places West Cork Islands, a project established by Cork County Council to promote arts programmes across the seven islands of Cape Clear, Sherkin, Heir Island, Long Island, Whiddy, Bere Island and Dursey.
“That gave us the idea of an art exhibition that would represent the seven West Cork islands, all in one room,” says Sullivan. “So we put out a call. The artists did not necessarily have to be from the islands, or living on them; the important thing was that they have a connection. Twenty-eight artists responded, with paintings, drawings, prints, mixed media, sculpture, photography and video.”
Many of those chosen for the exhibition, such as the painter Majella O’Neill Collins from Sherkin Island and the photographer and filmmaker Tomasz Madajczak from Skibbereen, are well-established in the art world, while others will be showing for the first time.
Some travelled to Bere Island to drop off their work in person, while Sullivan collected the rest. “I drove down to Baltimore in my van last weekend,” she says. “It was a very exciting trip. There was a great buzz about meeting the artists, and picking up their pieces. Most of them will come down for the exhibition.”
The Drill Hall will also be the venue for Building the Boat, a performance by poet Keith Payne, dancer Inma Pavon and sound artist Mick O’Shea, on Saturday. “It’s based on the construction of a currach at the Meitheal Mara boatyard in Cork,” says Sullivan. “It celebrates the sense of community around the meitheal, and the language associated with the craft of boatbuilding, going back generations.”
The festival will also feature a solo exhibition – the 53rd - by the Allihies-based painter Bill Griffin at Wild Atlantic Glamping. “Bill’s partner Deirdre is the former principal at the primary school here on the island,” says Sullivan. “Bill was always very supportive. He’d write plays for the children, and make backdrops for their performances at Christmas. He’s made a lot of new work for the show, and he’s giving an artist’s talk on Culture Night.”
The festival will also feature pinhole photography workshops with Harry Moore, along with screenings of Mieke Vanmechelen and Michael Holly’s film Hungry Hill, which documents the lives of a community of sheep farmers on the Beara peninsula, and Sullivan’s own short film, The Fine Line, which will be part of her solo exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 2025.
The Fine Line documents Sullivan’s life on Bere Island, and has had great success over the past few years. Already in 2024, it has screened at the Irish Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Achill Island Film Festival, and it was chosen to represent the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork at the Artists’ Film International organised by Forma London.
“This is the first time I’ve shown The Fine Line on Bere Island,” says Sullivan. “In a few weeks, I’ll be taking it to Manhattan to screen at the New York City Short Film Festival.”
This weekend’s festival programme on Bere Island also includes a number of musical events, including Lisa Lambe’s Night Visiting project, with guests Claire Sherry, Tim Doyle and Mike Brookfield; Cork singer/songwriter Ger Wolfe; Island Voices Connect, a cultural exchange between choirs led by Dr Eva McMullan Glossop; and Dancing at the Crossroads, with traditional group Lorg.
There will also be readings by Peter Sirr, Thomas McCarthy, Séamus Harrington, Enda Wyley and Sinéad Gleeson; a movement and poetry workshop by Keith Payne and Inma Pavón; a video performance of poems by the late Fr Christopher O’Neill; and the announcement of winners of the festival’s poetry competition, for which submissions were invited on an island theme.
“There’ll also be a Pop-up Gaeltacht event on Saturday morning, with music, dancing and lunch, at the Bere Island Hotel,” says Sullivan. “It’s the first time we’ve hosted this event, and we’ve already had at least 30 people sign up for it.” The schedule on Saturday will also include a Military History Tour of the Lonehart Battery, a British Army installation that was operational during World War I.
On Sunday afternoon, the festival concludes back at the Drill Hall, with a Long Table Lunch, featuring a musical and literary collaboration between Cork author Conal Creedon and UCC Department of Music academic and performer Eva McMullen.
Plans are already afoot for a festival in 2025. “You have to think ahead,” says Sullivan. “Even now, we have a few people booked, so it will definitely be happening.”
- The 7 Islands Art Exhibition opens at the Drill Hall, Bere Island at 6pm, Thursday, September 19. Bere Island Arts Festival runs from September 19-22
- Further information: bereislandartsfestival.ie
