MY CULTURAL LIFE
Noelle Campbell-Sharp, arts patron
Noelle Campbell-Sharp is a former It girl and was the publisher of Irish Tatler and several other magazines in Dublin in the 1970s and 1980s. She retired to Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, where the once-fiery redhead — now with a bright wand of strong yellow — turned Cill Rialaig, the once abandoned pre-famine village, into an internationally recognised artists’ retreat, one which relies on the excellence of work rather than a rental payment for admission.
The singer Donovan will open Cill Rialaig’s famous and original ART250 art exhibition in a pop-up shop in Waterville on August 28 — where poor but keen art lovers can pick up an art find in return for a patron’s fee of €250. Enquiries on 066 9479277 or email crsiopa@gmail.com
Exhibition: Pink Floyd at the V&A
You’ve got to go see the Pink Floyd Retrospective at the V&A in London (running until October 1). Save at least half a day to get around the many rooms capturing different chapters of their amazing career, and if you’re not feeling ‘high’ by the time you’ve left, then you’ve been sleep walking! Entitled Their Mortal Remains, it chronicles their first appearance in the 1960s right up to their 50th anniversary — this exhibition truly rocks!
Artist: Camille Souter
My favourite artwork is Camille’s famous Two Nuns. In the year that I was born in Dublin, 1943, the Irish Exhibition on Living Art, of which Camille was an exhibiting member, set out to add a distinctly Irish extension to international art. Years later, when Camille came to visit Barrie Cooke in residence at our beloved Cill Rialaig, she told me that she wished I had ventured west instead of south west, as her beloved old famine village of Achill, which she used to see from her house in Co Mayo, was now surrounded by concrete bungalows.
Singer: Liam O Maonlai
Liam (left) sang Carrickfergus at Mark Redden’s opening at my Origin Gallery recently. He was wasted (not literally) on Hothouse Flowers, as his rendition of ballads would bring all your houses down. His writing, too, is pure storytelling, whether about happy times or tragic happenings, like that boat accident north of Spain or thereabouts, when their currach capsized, hit by what he described as ‘an awesome wave’ and he lost his pal and Kerry poet Danny Sheehy, not through drowning, but the shock on his heart.
Book: The Summer Visitors
Fiona O’Brien’s latest novel, launched recently by none other than Michael Healy Rae TD, tells the story of the Transatlantic Cable arriving in Waterville, Ballinskelligs and Valentia (the latter now seeking an UNESCO listing) whilst weaving a lovely, moving, romantic story. He’s from America seeking respite from tragedy at home. She’s healing her wounds after a split from a man.
TV: Mrs Brown’s Boys
For absolute light relief, you cannot beat Brendan 0’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys (below). You can’t help but laugh. I brought their somewhat more tame CD pack as a Christmas gift to my three grandchildren in leafy Surrey a few years ago, and watched my daughter Tara’s shocked expression as the boys roared laughing at the antics and ‘very bad language’ of this Irish pantomime-inspired levity.