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Introduction
There are many artistic features located throughout the school. The various projects were funded by the 1 % DES Capital Art Programme and the slight overspend incurred was taken care of by the School Board of Management. The whole venture was incorporated into the extension of the school which was carried out between 2006 - 2008. All of the work is unique to our school and was put together by a wide variety of craftsmen and craftswomen. Indeed, two of those craftsworkers are native to the Clonaslee area and have strong ties with the school. The artists in question are Tom Joyce (Painter and Metalworker) and Bill Sinnott (Weaver). We appreciate the work of all our contributors.
The Welcome Wall
The idea for the curved stone wall along the entrance path to Scoil Bhríde, came from a desire to create a link from the car-park / drop-off area to the school entrance. It was envisaged that the wall would offer protection and some degree of shelter for the children during periods of inclement weather conditions.
The wall is curved to reach out, arm-like, to the children and guide them into the school,- thence the name “Welcome Wall”. The wall varies in height in a random fashion to represent the growth of the children during their years spent at Scoil Bhríde. This corresponds with the inspiration behind the stainless steel entrance sculpture which is located on the opposite side of the path.
It is intended that there will be interaction between the children and the wall,- thence the unusual nature of its design and the random openings sited here and there which allow the children to run through, hide behind and look through the various gaps. In this way, the wall attracts their curiosity and stirs their imagination. In the mind of a child, the wall can be magically transformed into the battlements of a fairy-castle or the decks of a pirate-ship.
During excavation and construction, stone artefacts found around the grounds were preserved and built into the structure. It is hoped that these will also tease the mind, whilst also retaining memories of the history of the site. Although the official title of this artistic feature is “The Welcome Wall”, it is often referred to by all at Scoil Bhríde as “Peter’s Wall” in honour of our wonderful architect, Peter Lyons, who designed it for us. Indeed the whole building is testament to Peter’s unique talents.
The Entrance Sculpture
The entrance sculpture is constructed in ‘316’ stainless steel plate (6mm thick). This material was chosen to represent this modern age, requires less maintenance, will reflect light well and is strong,-relative to the same thickness in other plate metal.
The sculpture has seven elements of varying size, giving the impression of simplified human forms. It can be interpreted as a group of children; children with an adult; a family group; or as a symbolic representation of the progression of classes through the Primary School. The surfaces of the figures are textured reflecting diversity of creed, culture and tradition. Each figure has a diagonal band at either 30 or 45 degrees. This band may be interpreted as indicating gender or as a sash representing team, religion or ethnicity.
The six elements are linked to each other by solid bars to provide the structure with greater strength (representing the strength of the group or community compared with the strength of its individual members). The sculpture is assembled in a parabolic curve,*-the focus of which lies in the path leading to the door of the school. The focal point of the parabola is marked with a stainless steel pin set into, and flush with, the surface of the path.
Apart from its artistic function it is hoped that the sculpture will also act as a resource for elements of the Primary School Curriculum that deal with Mathematics and the use and application of materials. It is intended that the parabolic reference (specifically chosen here to acknowledge education through communication) be linked culturally to the Greek amphitheatre at Epidavros and Mathematically to the construction of modern communications dishes.
*A parabolic curve has the property that light or sound radiated from the focal point and reflected off the curve is broadcast away from the curve in a concentrated beam. Conversely, information collected by the curve is reflected in a concentrated beam to the focal point of the curve. This reference may be interpreted as a teacher (pin) broadcasting information to pupils and then in turn, pupils broadcasting that knowledge to the community. Or it may be seen as the wealth of community information, tradition and heritage reflected back to the pupils/teacher.
Bronze Sculpture “Treasure” by Liam O’Neill
Inspiration:
A treasure is something precious: something near to our hearts.
As a child I thought that treasure was gold or silver, buried by pirates and waiting for me to discover.
As a teenager it became the lifting of the Sam Maguire as captain on All Ireland Final day, or headlining the National Stadium as front man for the greatest rock band ever.
In my twenties, it became the most beautiful girl in the world as my wife. (I got that one,-one out of three isn’t bad!) Then I discovered the greatest Treasure of all. In the Bible, in the book of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verse 7, we read; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us”.No matter what religion you are, if Jesus is your friend and Saviour then you possess the greatest treasure there is. I discovered that this treasure cost me nothing. He gave it to me when I asked Him for it.
Artists get their inspiration from life around them and from their own experiences. This piece of Sculpture represents the feeling that the greatest problem I could ever have has been solved. It is me, holding and cradling the greatest treasure I own. My faith..
Making the piece:
I first took a piece of Redwood and turned a large vase shape on a lathe. I then cut away pieces of the sides of the vase until I arrived at a shape which represented the main figure. I sanded and polished the wood and took it to a metal foundry in Dublin.
A foundry is where Artists go to have their ideas converted into reality. Lumps of Bronze are melted down in a huge pot called a crucible, and when the metal is runny it is poured into a mould. The mould is hollow in the shape of the object you want to make.
When the molten metal begins to cool, a skin first forms on the metal next to the surface of the mould. The mould is turned upside down and the molten bronze poured out again leaving the skin to cool in the shape of the inside of the mould.
When the bronze has cooled the mould is removed and you have your shape. The little round piece which represents the Treasure is made in the same way. Colours are chemically applied to the piece afterwards.
I mounted “Treasure” on a plinth (or stand) of Redwood. However, when the piece was erected in Scoil Bhríde, Declan McCann created a new and stronger plinth for it out of steel. Hopefully, it won’t be knocked over too easily as a result.
Relevance of the piece:
I have outlined my inspiration for the piece and what the Treasure means to me. It has another relevance to the pupils of this school however. One of the greatest gifts a child can get is education. It is the gateway to success in life. Whether you find it easy or hard, you should grab at it with both hands and nurture it. Treat it as a Treasure to be cherished. It will enrich your life, not just in monetary terms, but also in personal growth and fulfillment.
Every time you look at this Sculpture, imagine that you yourself are the figure and the little gold ball is your education which you are holding onto for dear life.
“The Ceremonial Bowl” by John McCarthy
The Yew is rare in the wild and occurs mainly in woods, rocky places and cliffs in the west of Ireland, especially the Burren in Co. Clare and all over Co. Kerry.
Almost every old churchyard in Ireland has a Yew tree. Even in pre-christian Ireland, the Yew was associated with religious sites,-a trend that obviously continued with the arrival of Christianity to these shores. It is widely held that the Yew would have been deliberately planted in these places in order to keep foraging animals away, due to the fact that the seeds contained inside the scarlet- coloured Yew fruits are known to be poisonous.
The Yew grows to be a large spreading tree up to twenty five metres tall with reddish peeling, or flaking bark. Its wood has long been prized for its durability and beauty. The oldest human tool ever found in Europe is a spear made of Yew wood, lodged in the ribs of a straight-tusked Palaeolithic elephant in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. In the Middle Ages the best bows were made of Yew wood.
The Scoil Bhríde Ceremonial Bowl was lovingly handcrafted by John McCarthy, who is a woodturner from Co. Cork. The tree from which the bowl is made grew in the grounds of “The Crescent” Cobh, Co. Cork . These houses were built in the 1800’s but it is likely that our Yew tree was already growing there by that stage. The tree died about 10 years ago (1998), the branches were cut off, but the trunk was left behind. The trunk was nearly four feet in diameter and is estimated to be three of four hundred years old. It certainly had witnessed some amazing scenes in Cobh!!
As can be seen in the photograph, John McCarthy went to great lengths to excavate the huge tree-trunk that had been left behind. Back at his workshop, the next job for John was to cut a piece of timber from the trunk roughly the size of the bowl.He then put this on the lathe. This spun the timber and the bowl was shaped to a thickness of approx. 2 – 3 inches. John then put it back on the lathe again and turned it to its final shape.
He did this a further three or four times to complete all the remaining decorative carving and finishing.
What John really liked about this whole process was that the original Yew tree can now live on indefinitely in the piece that he has created. He likes to keep the shapes simple and only decorates in a way that he feels enhances the natural beauty of the timber.
It is intended that our bowl be used on special occasions at the school eg. Religious ceremonies or commemorative celebrations. (When blessing the school crib each Christmas, the baby Jesus is carried in our bowl, all the way to the manger by one of the Junior Infants.) Aside from its obvious artistic appeal, the circular shape of the bowl reminds us of the constant circle of life-and particularly life at school. Only the school itself remains a constant throughout countless years of providing education for generations of children from the area. The circle goes on and on, you might say. Even then, as we all know, life is never perfect all the time and even in our bowl, one notices little imperfections here and there. These imperfections give the bowl its character, just as the bumpy experiences on life’s journey shape the character of the individual. Indeed it is at the Primary School itself that the child is chiselled, moulded and turned in much the sameway as our Ceremonial Bowl into an end product of unique beauty.
Traditional Irish Basketry and Weaving Display by Bill Sinnott
Baskets have been part of the human story almost from the beginning of time. Studies have shown that people from the Early Stone Age had already mastered the art of weaving plant fibres into cloth, nets and baskets.
Bill Sinnott has been making baskets since he was thirteen. Having learned the traditional craft from his father and older brother, he has carried on the tradition to the present day. His knowledge of the craft begins with the whole process of growing and harvesting the willow, to actually making the basket. He has a sally garden (or “osier”) of his own in which he grows several varieties of willow including Common Osier (Salix Viminalis) a thicker willow suitable for skibs, and Flanders Red which is a thinner variety of willow. He also grows Golden Osier which are most suitable for shopping baskets and finer work. The term ‘sally’ is used by most basket makers to refer to all types of willow grown for basket making.
Willows are harvested during the winter months when the sap has fallen. They must be a year’s growth. They are sorted and graded into bundles suitable for whatever type of basket is being made. The bundles are left to dry and season, and then stored in a dry place until needed. Tools needed to make a basket are simple and consist of a good penknife and a secateurs.
Bill’s first baskets were mainly skibs or ‘ciseogs’ which had many uses and were part of everyday home and farm life. The skib is a low circular basket about 18 inches in diameter. These skibs were used to carry potatoes when digging and gathering-time came. They also carried pulped turnips or fodder beet to livestock. At other times they were used for bringing in the turf. A well-made skib had a great strength and durability about it, and as long as the skib was kept dry, it would last a lifetime.
Over the years his skills in basket making developed and his best known ‘Shopper’ shopping basket became very popular. He began to boil and peel the willow to reveal a lovely creamy-white rod. The gentle weaving and skillful shaping of these rods resulted in a useful handled basket.
Bill is also a member of the Irish Basket Makers Association, formed in 1994. This is an elite group of craftsmen and women who can make and create the most beautiful pieces from willow. The aim of the association is to facilitate greater contact between basket makers and further develop their craft. They meet once a year in a different venue in any part of Ireland. The weekend is spent swapping ideas, making baskets and having the craic! They also have their AGM and a basket raffle where everyone brings a basket which is included in the raffle. At the end everyone goes home with someone else’s basket.
Basket making is very satisfying work. Baskets are very natural,-no machines, complex tools or chemicals are used in their creation. The display of baskets at Scoil Bhríde gives you some idea of the craftsmanship of Bill Sinnott and his wonderful ability to go to a willow tree, cut a fistful of rods and make a basket with nothing more than a penknife.
Skib or “ciseog”
The most common potato basket in use in Ireland was probably the skib or ciseog. Skibs had many uses and were part of everyday home and farm life. The skib is a low circular basket varying from 18” (46cm) to 30” (76cm) in diameter. A well made skib had a great strength and durability about it and as long as the skib was kept dry, it would last a lifetime.
Famine Basket
The pre-famine population in Ireland depended greatly on the potato. In many cases potatoes were the only food they had, and this explains why these Famine Baskets were made for domestic use. These baskets were used for straining and serving potatoes and they also had an “inner basket” which would have held a jug of buttermilk, to accompany the potatoes.
The Shopper
The shopping basket is made from boiled and peeled willow. When peeled, the rods are creamy-white and make a finer basket than normal. These baskets were very popular with farmwives who used them every week to bring eggs to town and then bring home the groceries. A beautiful basket like the shopper will always be used in a variety of ways.
Earthenware Jar Cover
The earthenware jar was mainly used in transporting liquid,- be it tea to the bog or hayfield,- or porter for the threshing. It was rather important that not a drop of this liquid be spilt, -especially the porter. So a willow frame was made to protect the jar on its various journeys to and from the home.
The Courtyard by Tom Joyce
The courtyard sculpture represents the story of the Slieve Bloom landscape, which has resulted from natural and manmade influences. Various materials used refer to the hidden geology, effects of glaciation and the influence of man through habitation and ritual. The courtyard design is laid out in an orientation which reflects the landscape of the Forelacka /Cumber Valley (southeast of the village of Kinnity). This heavily glaciated valley has been inhabited since man first discovered Slieve Bloom and has been chosen because, hidden in this seemingly “ordinary” landscape, is a wealth of evidence of habitation and ritual in the form of ring forts, burial mounds and standing stones.
The rivers of the Forelacka/Cumber Valley transport the glacial debris carried there by the ice sheets of the last Ice Age and this material still influences and shapes the landscape and its flora. It provided ancient settlers with the raw materials required to create the many ritual standing stones used to mark especially significant locations and intriguing alignments in the Slieve Bloom area. These alignments are central to the orientation of the courtyard design. The rainwater downpipes are located to feed water into drainage channels which match the location of the rivers on the actual landscape. Placed in these channels, one finds glacially eroded limestone cobbles from the Clonaslee area. Each child in the school was asked to collect these stones and under the supervision of their teacher, wrote their name, or the name of a loved one, on the stone with an ultra violet marker. After a few minutes the writing faded but can still be read under ultra violet light. Placed in the ‘river’ channels they form a commemorative link between the school and its pupils.
The Bronze Age standing stone,known as ‘The Fiddler’s Rock’, is represented by a Bronze pin set into the ground, and two weathered limestone standing stones by stainless steel pins. The Bronze Age Forelacka Tumulus is represented by a stainless steel dome, circled by small quartz pebbles and is sited exactly as it appears on the landscape,-in a straight line taken from “Fiddler’s Rock” through the aforementioned twin limestone standing stones. Whilst these pins and dome are aligned as they are found in the actual landscape, they are also aligned with the entrance doors of the school. Ringforts located in the area are represented by raised circles of quartz pebbles gathered from local river deposits.
The precise location of the original ringforts was especially chosen by their creators to maximise the strategic defence of the valley they protected and were deliberately erected in triangular orientation for optimum observational purposes.
The ringfort located on the summit of Knocknaman is marked in the Courtyard with another tall, stainless steel pin set into the ground. Interestingly, the line taken from “Fiddler’s Rock” through this point runs directly in a North/South alignment,-again highlighting the intelligence of the ancient settlers who first inhabited this area. Visitors to Scoil Bhride are invited to view this phenomenon through a “spy-hole” located in the wall at reception. From the “spy-hole” one can see clearly the two pins representative of this North/South alignment that physically exists between “Fiddler’s Rock” and the summit of Knocknaman.
To create a link between the seemingly ageless land and the short span of human existence, a Vertical Declining Sundial has been specially designed and manufactured for the courtyard wall. Though this type of dial is the most complicated to calculate, the design appears very simple,(as a pupil would draw an angle in a Maths class)-hiding, as nature does, the complexities of the physics governing space and time.
It is intended that while the ‘time’ has initially been set,(13/8/’07) the times and dates of other events (eg. The official opening of the school; a school celebration; major local event) will be recorded and new markers fixed to the wall. Using such a natural, ‘timeless’ clock to record community events, hints at megalithic calendar stones like the entrance stone to Newgrange Burial Chamber. In conjunction with the sundial an explanation of its mathematical construction has been drafted in a style reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s codices and this has been framed and displayed inside the school and adjacent to the courtyard. It is hoped that this display will prompt investigation of da Vinci’s amazing work.
It is hoped that these artworks will provide a stepping stone leading pupils to an awareness of self, place and time in the context of their local environment and that they may also act as a resource when teaching elements of the National School Curriculum.
“Growth” By Carmel Leonard
The stained glass window for Scoil Bhríde, Cluain na Slí, Co. Laoise, has been made in the traditional manner of stained glass window construction. However, for greater strength, protection and ease of maintenance, it is encased in a double glazed unit.
To reflect the intellectual, social and educational development of the school-children, the chosen theme for this window was “GROWTH”. To emphasise the ‘growth’ theme, the flowing design of the lead beading holding the individual sections hints at the organic structure of a plant stem,-while the stained glass sections themselves are leaf-like in shape.
Being a special commission for a Primary School, vibrant glass sections in the three primary colours of red, blue and yellow were selected to dominate the piece. The darker tones were placed at the bottom and the lightest at the top to symbolise growing enlightenment through education.
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