Pearse medal

 I was at the lovely Pearse Museum again last year, specifically to see an art exhibition from the OPW Collection (which I blogged about here), but it is always nice to have a gander around the museum itself, which is dedicated to the Irish hero. The museum is situated in the boys' school that Patrick Pearse founded early last century at St Enda's Park (a gorgeous park to wander around). Seeing the image plaque again reminded me that I knew there was an error of some sort in the commemorative medal that I had at home, which had been given to me when my Mum died a few years ago.

When I got home I had a good look at the medal, which was commemorating Pearse having been born 100 years previously.

On the reverse side of the coin is an excerpt from the speech Pearse made at the graveside of O'Donovan Rossa in 1915, which is credited to being seminal to the Easter Uprising the following year. A member of the language police that I am, I spotted the spelling error on this commemorative medal. "Finian" is a boy's name, in his speech Pearse referred to the "Fenian" dead. Fenian refers to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the secret political organisation of the late 19th-early 20th century that was dedicated to the establishment of an independant Ireland. I wonder how many of these medals were made for the commemoration and if anyone else is a trainspotter?

The Skipping Project - Postcard 1916

I have mentioned before that I often use card making (for birthdays, special occasions) as sketches to help me work out ideas. Since one of my themes for The Skipping Project deals with the transformation of trauma into children's games I decided to submit a piece when I heard about Postcard 1916. This exhibition, curated by Eileen Ferguson, is of postcards created in response to any word in The Proclamation or The Proclamation itself. I chose the word "children".

The image I have been working with is from a photograph of children collecting wood in the rubble heaps that was Dublin after the Easter Uprising in 1916. The relevant writing in the background of the collage is excerpted from my paternal grandfather's Witness Statement, made for the government in 1950, describing his involvement in the Uprising and other activities leading to the foundation of the state.

I repeated the theme for some recent cards I made.

The Postcard 1916 exhibition will be displayed again in La Vielle Poste, Larroque, France in August and  The General Post Office (GPO), Dublin - which was the HQ of the rebels in 1916 -is interested in acquiring digital images of the works for their archives.