Westmeath’s inspiring lakes and limitless sky
Artistic clusters in the towns Mullingar and Athlone are leading the creative initiative, writes Gavin Corbett
‘THE lakes have always inspired people. There’s something about the atmosphere, the light.” Paula O’Dornan, Acting County Librarian for Westmeath, offers this as “only a personal opinion” but it’s surely true — there must be a link between the unique geography of Westmeath and the legion of its artists who have given to the life of the nation and beyond.
Athlone-born writer John Broderick spoke of the “limitless sky” of the midlands, and Westmeath, with its flat pastures and swathes of bogland, is the nearest we have in Ireland to the epic openness of a Nebraska or Kansas. Then there are those lakes — the necklace of Ennell, Owel and Derravaragh, the latter the mythical home of the Children of Lir; and in the west, the lapping waters of giant Lough Ree, of which another Athlone man, Brendan Shine, sang ‘Where the Three Counties Meet’.
The ground here — so far from the sea — hardens under stubborn frost in winter and often blurs in the gauze of mist that creeps in off the lakes in spring and autumn. The haunting stone mansions and estates of the ascendancy that pepper the landscape have left their own artistic mark. Glasson, on Lough Ree, is said to have inspired Oliver Goldsmith’s
The Deserted Village; Levington Park has been home to writer JP Donleavy for over 40 years; while Tullynally Castle is the family seat of the Pakenhams, prolific scribes across generations.
But it’s the towns that are the engines of creativity. Westmeath is distinctive in having, in Athlone and Mullingar, two very large and equal-sized towns; of the other counties only Louth is comparable. The twin urban centres are clusters for the county’s arts infrastructure, and are leading its contribution to the Creative Ireland initiative. As elsewhere in the country, last year’s Rising commemorations quickened the purpose of arts practitioners, organisations and ordinary people, generating momentum for Creative Ireland.
O’Dornan remembers a conversation in a school last year about “the heroes of 1916, and also the other big figures of sports and culture of that era. We asked, ‘Who were the pop stars of that time?’ And the biggest pop star of them all of course was Athlone’s own John McCormack [the tenor], a true global megastar.”
Such grassroots involvement helped locals engage with Westmeath’s cultural history, and also honed everyone’s creative chops for the initiative ahead. “One of the stories that came out of the Rising commemorations that caught people’s imagination was the tale of All Sorts, the horse that won the 1916 Irish Grand National. Because of the Rising [the British commandeered all mechanical modes of transport out of Fairyhouse], it had to walk home to Westmeath! That was a story that tapped into the strong tradition of horsebreeding and -training here.”
Westmeath people are passionate story tellers. “What I love most about working in the library,” says O’Dornan, “is
seeing communities coming together to preserve their history. Recently, we’ve had a history written about St Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar, by the people who worked there, and that was as much about the people and their memories as it was about the institution itself.”
When it comes to the arts, it’s the county’s writers and musicians who command the most attention. In the first category, Patricia Gibney (whose debut crime novel The
Missing Ones is soaring in the Amazon charts) and the late Josephine Hart and Dermot Healy and are names of global significance, while an up-andcoming author is Mullingar’s Nicole Flattery, who recently won one of the world’s great short story awards, the White Review Prize. And in the field of music, the maestro McCormack, Foster and Allen, Joe Dolan, and Nialls Horan and Breslin have made the biggest noise.
But a glance at the projects greenlit for Creative Ireland shows that there’s much more to Westmeath culture than books and ballads. The visual arts is well represented with, for example, Artist Spaces, an event hosted by Shambles Art Studios in Athlone, in which the public will be invited to meet working artists, with the aim of promoting access to studios and exhibitions. A consultantled investigation is also being launched into the setting up of a Westmeath Visual Artist Network, again with the purpose of encouraging wider public involvement with the visual arts.
Other projects will highlight and benefit the county’s built heritage. Brotenstown and Ballinea ICA is to get funding for the production of a DVD on the history of its locale, with guild members receiving research and media-production training into the bargain. Meanwhile, Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society will host a major archaeological conference on the material history of the county, with Ireland’s top archaeologists taking part.
Creative Ireland’s focus on education is amply reflected in the county plan. In collaboration with the national Music Generation initiative — a music education service for young people — Westmeath and Offaly county councils will spearhead a project called Just Play, geared towards the establishment of a chamber orchestra; the project will also involve a week of music-playing activities by young people in both counties.
One of the most interesting projects taps into Westmeath’s rich tradition of amateur dramatics. Gayle Tarmey, manager of Athlone’s Dean Crowe Theatre — which recently hosted the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival, and which regularly showcases the talents of Athlone’s many stage schools — says that “from a young age to adult level there is huge participation” in drama in Westmeath, second only in numbers, perhaps, to Gaelic Games. Her experience of this very active scene, combined with her involvement with disability services, gave her an idea for a potentially groundbreaking scheme.
“When I looked at the core purpose of Creative Ireland, at the central pillars that form its agenda, it brought it home to me that there’s a section of society that doesn’t have full access to the great work I see in our very active arts community – not intentionally excluded, but maybe by default,” says Tarmey. “It’s proven that the arts, and activities surrounding the arts, help to minimise the isolation that people with disabilities can feel.”
With the assistance of Creative Ireland, the Arts Ability pilot will promote collaboration between the Dean Crowe Theatre, members of the wider arts community, and disability-service providers. Workshops in theatre and dance will be offered to pupils of St Hilda’s School in Athlone from September, culminating in a public performance weeks later. One of the things that most excites Tarmey about the scheme is its potential to be replicated for the benefit of other special-needs groups. “It could work well for those on the autistic spectrum or for those with physical disabilities, as well as for the intellectually disabled,” she says.
As Tarmey stresses, it’s vital that Arts Ability sets down firm roots for future development; that it isn’t just a flash-in-the-pan project that expires once Creative Ireland’s term passes in 2022. This is something that could be said for the arts in general in Westmeath — that Creative Ireland gives artists and educators the energy and infrastructure to thrive long into the future. The latent talent is certainly here, and with the right support, Westmeath should produce a Dermot Healy, an Eileen Coghlan or a Joe Dolan with every generation.
It could work well for those on the autistic spectrum