Talk to the Land

" On the one hand, you can identify with them. You can see the hand of a human being. But, on the other hand, the time frame is so huge that you can't really comprehend it." Barbara Knežević 's practice explores the meaning and purpose of objects. When she learned of the Lepenski Vir archaeological discovery on the banks of the River Danube in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and the curious mon...

"I like to think that pain has the potential to transform in some way, and it all depends on how you look at it."  Samir Mahmood reflects on his move from a background in medicine, particularly health promotion, to his practice as a visual artist, in which he explores the connection between the material and the transcendental, often using his own body as a starting point. From early collages, Sami...

"The thing that we can do as artists is to create public space so that the complex reality that farmers are dealing with can be heard and seen." Deirdre O'Mahony's intensively researched collaborative projects, which can encompass film, installation, performance, feasts, pedagogical platforms and more, engage with the politics of land and landscape, often through the lens of food and farming. Now,...

"My work is about people. It's being a companion to the artist and a companion to the public. To develop something together, in dialogue, across a long period of time, that enables our personal development, but also enables us to engage in the social discussion of the moment."  From volunteering at a festival in Coimbra, Portugal, as a politicised 18-year-old, to being the first ever Portuguese pe...

"It's this idea of needing to narrate your existence, and how you look and where you come from, and the complexity of yourself, and it's having to do that in circumstances where you're not sure exactly if every part of who you are is welcome." Alice Rekab's exhibition,  Clann Miotlantach / Mythlantics , is held both in the conventional gallery spaces of the institution and, for the first time, in...

 In the summer of 2024, works started on an extensive three phase restoration project at Sirius Arts Centre. Led by JCA Architects and Moroney Conservation, the works to the building began with restoring some of the features that architect Anthony Salvin designed for the RCYC clubhouse all the way back in the 1850s.  In the third and final instalment of Changing Tides, join conservation architect...

"The architects of these buildings are looking back to the Italian renaissance; this building is a revival of a revival, if you know what I mean.  This is an Irish building which is copying a Roman building of the renaissance, which is copying a building of Ancient Rome."  Historian Tom Spalding is the man whose meticulous research proved that the Royal Cork Yacht Club, constructed in 1854 on the...

"It was something that was broken, and I had to fix it." In 1987 Peter Murray, then curator at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork city, embarked on an extraordinary journey: his goal was to purchase and restore the then-derelict former Royal Cork Yacht Club building in Cobh and to transform it into a cultural venue. Over time, this vision crystalised: SIRIUS Arts Centre was to become an artist's residen...

"What is New Atlantic Triangulation? It's in my own experience as a black woman from Brazil with West and Central African heritage, who got Irish citizenship, reflecting on Atlantic triangulation historically has meant, and what I would like it to become. It's connecting these territories through my body and through experiences of people I know and share with."    Thaís Muniz's first solo show, 'R...

In this episode of SIRIUS Podcasts, we join artist Sarah Browne, whose practice involves film, publishing and performance, to discuss her film installation Buttercup , which utilises the accessibility tools of audio description and captioning to explore the poetics of language interacting with image. Buttercup focuses on a particular childhood photograph, depicting a child wearing a Communion dres...

"A harbour, because of its particular geography and how industry  has developed, and commerce and trade, lends itself to these bigger industrial and economic forces coming into play, and that´s what´s happening as you´re getting further down the river." Aoife Desmond on two of her films showing at SIRIUS, both exploring the relationship between humans and nature : one feature poetically tracing th...

After centuries of British rule and in just a few short years, Ireland gained independence. Join the final instalment of In and Out of Empire to find out what that meant for the people of Cobh, in the company of historians Kieran McCarthy and John Crotty. 

The Royal Cork Yacht Club is the oldest yacht club in the world dating to before 1720, and its members were bound by a seafaring code of honour. But its members were also a wealthy elite class of Anglo-Irish aristocracy. Join RCYC archivist Paul McCarthy to learn more about the tradition of sailing in Cobh and later, following the RCYC's move from its Cobh clubhouse, in Crosshaven. 

The lives of the women of Cobh, including members of Cumann na mBan, servants who worked for the Royal Cork Yacht Club and the affluent wives and daughters of members of the club are explored in this history podcast, which examines the building that Cobh's Sirius Arts Centre is now housed in.

Historian Tom Spalding gives a glimpse back in time at the building of the Royal Cork Yacht Club clubhouse, now the Sirius Arts Centre. Did English architect Anthony Salvin design the building? Why did Cobh change its name to Queenstown after a royal visit that lasted just seven minutes? And how did any of this happen in the immediate aftermath of a devastating famine and a cholera epidemic? Also...

This podcast series explores the history of the building that houses the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh: the former RCYC clubhouse, constructed with the aid of the Smith-Barry family on the site of the visit of Queen Victoria, has been at the centre of a town divided by class and allegiance, one that has a fascinating past both in and out of the British Empire. In and Out of Empire was commissioned by...

In Part Two of Landmarks of Rebellion, we stop at a street that was renowned for its Republican sympathies, discuss an ambush that had tragic consequences for an innocent man, visit a safe house with a secret tunnel, and discover what Cobh people thought of the famous James Connolly on two visits that he made. Landmarks of Rebellion is a Sirius Podcasts Production recorded, presented and edited by...

The town of Cobh in Cork Harbour is steeped in history. Every step you take, from its quaysides to its narrow winding streets and mighty cathedral, is a step back in time.  Landmarks of Rebellion is a two-part series by Sirius Podcasts where we are joined by local historian Kieran McCarthy. In Part One of Landmarks of Rebellion, the Cobh landmarks we visit give a fascinating insight into the Cobh...

A new two-part series on the history of Cobh landmarks is coming soon to Sirius Podcasts 

Having interviewed all four artists and many participants from the Creative Enquiry Arts and Older People residencies, Ellie O'Byrne takes a look at some common themes, from the importance of retaining our individualism in the ageing process to emphasising time, trust and process over product in creative engagements with older people. 

"Sometimes, working with older people, they've seen it all so they're often much more open than you'd expect them to be and really willing to try things and put themselves out there." Helga Deasy and Susan McManamon reflect on their movement and music work with Nazareth House nursing home and Mayfield Men's Shed as part of their Creative Enquiry into Arts and Older people with MusicAlive. 

"I said this isn't going to work, not with the crowd that we have. If you can imagine seventy-year-olds in a room and they've never done proper singing before and suddenly they're doing all this stretching and breathing." Noel Keohane of Mayfield Men's Shed Choir describes the ups and downs of working with Helga Deasy and Susan McManamon on music and movement workshops during their Creative Enquir...

At Nazareth House nursing home in Mallow, Co Cork, dancer Helga Deasy and musician Susan McManamon, who worked together on their Creative Enquiry Arts and Older People residency with MusicAlive, have returned after two years to give another music and movement workshop. Hear from Mary Curtin, who is married to Seán, also a resident, and from mother and daughter Sheila Sullivan and Margaret Aherne,...

Font size on printed materials, transport, the time that events are on, no-one to go with, weather, the cost of tickets: find out what artist Marie Brett learned about the barriers that prevent older people from attending arts festival events.  Marie worked with Cork Midsummer Festival on her Cultural Lore project to answer specific research questions on access to arts for older people. When it co...

Walking sticks, like traditional crafts, are often handed down from generation to generation within a family. Artist Marie Brett has all-too-real firsthand experience of how traditional skills can slip from our grasp: she comes from a family that were once farriers. Marie's Cultural Lore project was her Creative Enquiry residency at Cork Midsummer Festival. Join Marie, Eugene Trindles from Celtic...