'I think she was sent to us for a reason': Cork artist to unveil exhibition inspired by ghost ship

Artist Majella O’Neill Collins working in her Sherkin Island studio preparing for her debut solo exhibition, inspired by the ghost ship, the MV Alta, which will be held in the Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen.

To most, it’s a rusting hulk of a wreck, an ugly scar on the coastline, but for island artist Majella O’Neill Collins, the ghost ship MV Alta has brought inspiration and changed her life.

Thanks to a break in the weather on Thursday, the Sherkin Island-based artist managed to ferry to the mainland the final batch of her 33 oil paintings inspired by the ship ahead of the opening next week of her debut solo exhibition in the Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen.
The MV Alta was abandoned in 2018 and drifted across the Atlantic for 496 days before grounding in East Cork during Storm Dennis in 2020,