An Irish evening

At the Centre Culturel Irlandais in the rue des Irlandais (where else?) a team of  people make sure that everything Irish becomes known to a wider audience. I have been to Ireland once when friends and I drove around for 5 days in the south western part of Ireland, and though there were amazing views along the coast, most of the trip drowned in rain......

Recently I watched a programme on French TV about trends in Ireland, and it made me want to know more.  Later this autumn I have therefore signed up for some Saturday lectures about Irish history and economy at the Centre. As it happens one of the artists portrayed in the TV programme is currently exhibiting some of his works at the Centre so last night I cycled over there to see the works before a theatre play at the same place.

Patrick o'Reilly (link) has his studio in a church in Dublin, so he has got space to make installations of considerable size. Last night I saw three of his works (I couldn't find the fourth installation): a big, blue car with a huge teddy bear, a pink doll's house several metres high, and on a staircase into the cellar hundreds of nuns made in crumbled paper. The works made me smile; the bronze crow sitting on the blue toy car with an arrogant posture, the rain running down the windows on the inside of the house, the anonimous nuns standing like pinguins on the stairs....

Marina Carr is the writer of the play "Woman and Scarecrow" which was shown last night at the Centre. In an intimate space with Marina Carr (link) sitting in the row just in front of me looking fabulous in low-cut jeans and with long, wild hair, no more than 100 spectators were holding their breath whilst Joan Sheehy who plays Woman took us through her final hours where she finally realises that because she has suffered, she has know passion (the word passion comes from Greek paskho which means to suffer). There are lots of references in the play to Greek mythology, and that might not be realistic considering the life that Woman would have had, but at least it is a challenge to the spectators. Here is an interview with one of the actors: link.

An Irish evening with lots of Irish women in the audience speaking with strong voices and reminding me of the strong women in Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.