Walking Wisdom with Bernadette Divilly

Silent walking, memory maps and contemplative dance practice -tools to engage our intelligence and support ease and connection

between bodies, space and place.Choreography that supports relationship with every-body, city

spaces and the enduring wisdom of the body & place and memory.

Saturday 2 July 16

Saturday 2 July 16

SAUL:  Adap*ve  Governance  Lab  AUTUMN  2014  Designing  with  Communi*es-­‐  Woodquay,  Galway  Lecturer:  Rosemarie  Webb  MICROPLACE  MAPPING  WOODQUAY,  GALWAY  Overview  Making  urban  streets  and  places  is  increasingly  being  understood  as  fundamental  to  the  future  success  of  ci;es.

 Re-­‐introducing  place  as  an  important  factor  in  urban  areas  where  public  space  has  been  damaged  by  the  dominance  of  the  car  is  seen  as  intrinsically  linked  to  the  con;nuing  social  and  economic  health  and  vitality  of  urban  communi;es.  

In  the  case  of  Woodquay  in  Galway  City,  it  is  the  aspira;on  of  the  local  business  and  residents  associa;on  that  this  type  of  re-­‐balancing  process  will  provide  a  regenera;ve  effect  to  help  reverse  a  perceived  decline  of  the  economy  and  liveability  of  the  neighbourhood.  

Students attend dance labs -participate on silent walks and dance dates with community

Saturday 2 July 16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ydzx3QuaxtA

Gaitway to Woodquay

Saturday 2 July 16

Walking Wisdom With...• Design with Communities - City Architect

Rosie Webb and SAUL

• Ómos Áite, Mapping, NUI Galway, CKI and Centre for Irish Studies

• Woodquay Resident and Business Community

• Galway Rowing Club

• Galway One World Centre

• Town Hall Theatre

Saturday 2 July 16

Contested Spaces- Mobilizing Memory

“There is no age or place where knowledge of the body is without use” – Bodystories by Olsen and McHose.

Saturday 2 July 16

Mobilisation of MemoryAt this moment

Bodies

Stories

Places

Saturday 2 July 16

Past, Present and Possibilities

Mapping Woodquay 24th January 2015

This event was to honour local knowledge and memory; "This needs to be documented so that future generations of architects, city planners, and citizens of the city can be informed". 40 local residents crossing 3 generations gathered to put down their memories.

GIAF 2015 - First Thoughts

Panel  discussion  chaired  by  Nessa  Cronin  http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b16%5F20816726%5F2387%5F20%2D07%2D2015%5F

Saturday 2 July 16

Saturday 2 July 16

Saturday 2 July 16

Research Inside Out

Saturday 2 July 16

Saturday 2 July 16

Dance  Date  at  Galway  Dance  Days  with  Dance  Performance  at  Martin  O’Reilly    (1826  –  1911)  

Historical  Dance  House

https://vimeo.com/138729182Password: Woodquay2468@

Saturday 2 July 16

Saturday 2 July 16

34 February 16 2012

At the beginning of the 19thcentury there were so manypipers in County Galway that,

in England, the uileann pipes wereoften referred to as the ‘Galwaypipes’. In 1821 there were sevenpipers in the Aran Islands. Amongthe legendary Galway pipers wereMichael Egan, who died in New Yorkin 1860, Paddy Conneely, Patsy Tuohy,Dennis Delaney, who was blind, the‘Piper’ Reilly from east Galway, andStephen Ruane from Shantalla.

Another was Martin Reilly, who wasborn blind in 1829 and lived most of hislife in Galway city. He learned to playthe pipes and in 1852 travelled toLiverpool to buy a set, but he had towait five months for them to befinished. He married a widow namedMrs Moore. She already had a son,John, and Martin taught him to play thepipes. John later became a well-knownmusician in America.

Reilly apparently lived in Eyre Streetand ran a ‘dance house’ in Suckeen. It isthought it was the one-storey building

in our photograph, which was next tothe back of where the Goalpost pub istoday. It was a profitable venture and itmust have been exciting to watch youngpeople dance to the music of theuileann pipes, but it was too much forthe local clergy, who had the buildingshut down in 1880. Emigration and adecline in interest may also havecontributed to the closure. Sightlessand getting old, Reilly was unable tomake a living by other means thanmusic, and eventually he was forced totake refuge in the poorhouse. The 1901Census records him as living in theGalway workhouse.

The idea of musical and literarycompetitions to promote Irish culturewas mooted in the 1890s, and the firstFeis Ceoil and Oireachtas gatheringswere held. Many of the old music anddance traditions were revived. Reilly’sreputation as a consummate musicianmeant he still had many admirers, andhe was taken from the poorhouse andbrought to Dublin where, out ofpractice and all as he was, he won firstprize in the piper’s competition at thefeis in 1901. A Dublin newspaperdescribed the event as follows: “Anotable incident was the playing of Mr.Martin O’Reilly, who played a selectionentitled ‘The Battle of Aughrim’,descriptive of the advance, thetrumpets of the British, the battleonslaught of the Irish soldiers and thewailing of the women. Aughrim was ofcourse a lost field, but nothing daunted,the gallant old piper, throbbing with a

spirit that might long to play hiscountrymen into battle, fired them witha stirring and strident version of thevictorious march of Brian Boru. Heplayed in perfect tune and producedmarvellous tones on his instrument.”The piper’s rustic ways often contrastedwith the decorum of the Dublin GaelicLeaguers and he was a source ofstories.

He was the central figure in variousentertainments around the country andmade a number of cylindrical records.Eamonn Ceannt was a great fan of hisand often put him up in his house inDublin. Sadly, this general interest inReilly waned and he died in GalwayWorkhouse of pneumonia in 1904, lessthan a mile from his home. He is buriedin Forthill.

Now a lecture series is beinglaunched in his name. The inauguralMartin Reilly lecture will take place onTuesday next at 6.30pm in Galway CityLibrary on ‘Folk music collecting inGalway before the Famine’. It will begiven by Dr Jimmy O’Brien Moran andis an opportunity for researchers andpractitioners to present ideas, to hearsome songs and tunes, and see somedancing. All are welcome.

Also on Tuesday February 21, at 8pm,the Western Archaeological andHistorical Society will host a lecture byDr Christy Cunniffe on the subject of‘Medieval Clonfert, the Genesis,Development, and Decline of a GaelicCathedral Settlement’, and again, allare welcome.

There were violent sceneswhen a large force of policebroke up and arrested some

of the organisers at a monster rallyat Woodford, Co Galway, onOctober 23 1887. It had been calledin frustration and anger with thenotorious Clanricarde evictionswhich were devastating the lives ofhundreds of families, leaving largetracts of land empty and wasted.

Following successive years of badweather, tenants on the Clanricardeestate had appealed for a reduction intheir rents. A parliamentary inquirylater upheld that the tenant’s requestwas justified. But the marquis ofClanricarde would not allow onepenny reduction. His agents, some ofwhom had been shot, and werereviled and ‘boycotted’ in the eastGalway area, enforced a policy ofruthless eviction. To add insult toinjury, they enticed Ulster farmers tosettle on some of the empty farms. Abitter struggle between landlord andtenant continued in east Galway for 30years, attracting widespreadpublicity.

The October 23 date coincided withthe Land League’s Plan of Campaign,launched by John Dillon MP atWoodford the previous year. The Planurged all tenants to stick together,and to refuse en masse to pay rent.The Land League guaranteed toaccommodate any tenant who wasevicted. It was an ambitious andcostly plan, and in fact was onlymodestly successful. It requiredconstant encouragement and renewal.This time William O’Brian MP was onthe platform, but the main attractionwas the presence of the aristocraticpoet and romantic champion of theunderdog, Wilfrid Scawn Blunt. Hewas accompanied by his beautifulwife Lady Anne.

Scawn Blunt had been attracted tothe plight of Irish tenants for sometime. He was a friend and admirer of

John Dillon. Dillon toldhim that he could servethe cause by appearing atthe Woodford meetingwhich would attractpublicity. However,Arthur Balfour, ChiefSecretary of Ireland, hadother ideas. Whilesympathetic to the plightof Clanricarde’s tenants(and a succession of LandActs would eventuallydestroy Clanricarde),Balfour was a stickler forlaw and order. He bannedthe Woodford meeting,and ordered a large forceof constabulary to ensurethat the peace was kept.

All this only excitedBlunt and the crowd whocame from thesurrounding counties.Blunt, to great cheers,came forward on thespeaker’s platform andtore up the public noticeof prohibition. ‘At this severalpolicemen dragged Blunt off theplatform causing him to fall severalfeet to the ground where the policepounced on him. In the ensuing mêléehis brave wife, Lady Anne, tried torescue him. The police roughed herup.’* Blunt was unceremoniouslyhauled off to Loughrea jail. Afterposting bail, he and his wife returnedto England in a blaze of publicity, toawait his trial in Portumna.

Handsome and vainWilfrid Scawn Blunt (1840 - 1922)

was probably the last man who shouldhave become involved in the LandWar then at its peak in east Galway.He was an exotic figure in a cruelplace. He came from a privilegedEnglish family whose motherconverted to Catholicism. He was

educated at Stonyhurst, and after atime in the diplomatic service, he ranaway to follow in the footsteps ofother Victorian explorers. He went onthe Hajji to Mecca, lived with Bedouintribes, explored Persia and Iraq,writing books and poetry. He opposedBritish imperialism as a matter ofprinciple. He inherited Crabbet Park,a large estate in Sussex where he wasto later raise a famous Arabian stud.He was an extremely handsomeyoung man, very vain, and a wellknown womaniser. He married LadyAnne Noel, the granddaughter of LordByron. Together they travelledthrough Spain, Algeria, Egypt, theSyrian Desert, and extensively in theMiddle East and India. They bothdeveloped a passion for pure-bloodedArabian horses, and bought a largeproperty near Cairo, named SheykhObeyd, which accommodated their

horse breeding operation in Egypt.Blunt championed the cause of therevolutionary Urabi Pasha, andorganised his defence at a personalcost of £5,000. He was banned fromEgypt for a while. But not before heswept a young Lady Augusta Gregoryoff her feet in a passionate affair whenshe was holidaying in Egypt with herhusband, barely a year after hermarriage.

A common criminalBut if it was publicity John Dillon

wanted then at least Blunt wouldprovide that in spadefuls. Newspapersfollowed his trial with interest givinghim pages of publicity, while artistsprovided graphic coverage. His trial,at Portumna,‘if a trial it can be called’lasted a week. He described hisexperiences in his book The Land Warin Ireland.** A witness at his trialwas Lord Eversley who described thecounty court judge, Mr Henn, as aman who ‘has been long on the bench,and whose reputation among thetenants is of the worst. At Portumnahe was always lodged and fed at thecost of Lord Clanricarde. Theimpression left on my mind by thelong proceedings was that he (thejudge) was completely under theinfluence of the Crown lawyers;almost without exception he followedtheir direction or suggestion...’

Blunt was sentenced to two monthsin Galway jail as a common criminal.

At this stage, according toBlunt,‘the whole countryside was inemotion’. He was to taken to Galwayby train, accompanied by Lady Anne.There were two constables in thecarriage, but the Blunts conversed inArabic. In scenes that could havecome from a David Lean film Bluntmade an herioc procession to Galway.At every station ‘dense crowdsthronged around our carriage doors.’They had to be restrained by police.

At one station ‘a peasant girl brokethrough the crowd, and for an instantgrasped my hand and called out herblessing’...

‘It was a strange emotionalsensation to find ourselves thus theobject of passionate regard anddemonstrative affection among apeople embittered against our Englishnationality by centuries of wrongdoing, and once again the thoughtsurged strongly in me of how noble athing it was that I should have beencalled to suffer something, howeverlittle, of ignominy and pain inexpiation of my country’s crime.’

They arrived at Galway ‘long afterdark’. He and Lady Anne made theirgood-byes outside the main jail gates.Blunt was taken to his cell. He wasexhausted from a long day ofexcitement, and emotion.

And at last the goal - Whatstillness in these doors!

The silent turnkeys their boltshave shot,

And their steps die in the longcorridors.

I am alone. My tears run fast andhot.

Dear Lord, for Thy grief’s sake Ikiss these floors

Kneeling - then turn to sleep,dreams trouble not.

Next week: Life inside Galwaygaol

NOTES: *The depiction ofeviction in Ireland 1845-1910, by LPerry Curtis, published by DublinUniversity College Press.

**The Land War In Ireland - beinga personal narrative of events, by WS Blunt, published by Swift and Co,London, in 1912.

A romantic poet in the bitter Land War

Martin Reilly’s dancing rooms, SuckeenOLD GALWAY

TOM KENNYnews@galwayadvertiser.ie

RONNIE O’GORMANrogorman@galwayadvertiser.ie

Arrest of Wilfrid Scawn Blunt at Woodford, depictedin Illustrated London News November 5 1887.

GALWAY DIARYSaturday 2 July 16

• General  Web  Links

http://bernadettedivilly.com/classes/

http://www.muscailt.nuigalway.ie

http://www.barbaradilley.com

https://anniebrook.com

Culture  File  Review  of  Walking  Wisdom

http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b16%5F20816726%5F2387%5F20%2D07%2D2015%5F  

Dance  Date  at  Galway  Dance  Days  with  Dance  Performance  at  Martin  O’Reilly    (1826  –  1911)  Historical  Dance  House

https://vimeo.com/138729182Password: Woodquay2468@

http://bernadettedivilly.com/videos/

Saturday 2 July 16

Applications - Urban Design, cultural heritage, engagement with diverse and storied histories associated with urban landscapes in Ireland

Saturday 2 July 16

Thank YouEleanor Hough

Rosie WebbNessa CroninJohn CorcoranSheila FlanaganSheila GallagherSharon Murphy

Elodie ReinJackie Small

Willie HenryDoireann Carney

James HaroldCindy CumminsRonan BrowneRÍonach O Neill

Saturday 2 July 16