Strathnaver Museum & Mackay Country Community Trust Moving Times & Museum Tales
‘Gàidhlig as natural as sweet birdsong in spring’
Déirdre ní Mhathúna – Museum Artist in Residence
Biography
My previous work was a mixture of arts consultancy and development, festivals and events, notably the legendary Café Graffiti, Edinburgh, and theatre design all over Scotland, (1980 - 2002). My first professional engagement was as a costume design apprentice at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 2006 I graduated with a BA (Hons) Sculpture from Edinburgh College of Art. I’m currently finishing a Diploma in Gaelic Language and Culture through UHI Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic College on Skye.
Déirdre’s Residency
A’ sireadh son cridhe mo shaoghal ealain, gheibhear mo shaoghal Gàidhealach, ’s an dà fhear fighte-fuaighte ri chèile. Tron bhliadhna a tha seachad oirnn, lorg mi cothrom sònraichte sgeulachdan is eachdraidh sgìre Shrath Nabhair a thaisbeanadh ann an dòigh phearsanta, chruthachail. Thall ’s a-bhos eadar Am Blàran Odhar agus Dùn Èideann, mhothaich mi comharran nan Gàidheal air feadh na dùthcha. Lorg mi sgeulachdan nan daoine air gach beann is meall is abhainn, tro bheul-aithris agus tro na h-ainmean-àite ionadail. Lean mi rathaidean Wade air na suirbhidhean a rinn Roy às dèidh Blàr Chùil Lodair. Air craicnean fèidh, tharraing mi dealbh Gàidhealach, ach le fiosrachadh Roy na bhroinn. ’S ann às dèidh sin, le mo cho-theacs na àite, a lorg mi ciall guthan mhuinntir Shrath Nabhair a bh’ air an tasgadh ann an Sgoil Eòlais na h-Alba. Nise, tha dà shreath agam ri thaisbeanadh dhiubh – an sgeulachd chlaisneachd, bho beul gu beul, agus sgeulachd nam mapaichean. Tha an dà fhear a’ comharrachadh àm far an robh na daoine nas prìseile na fearann, far an robh a’ Ghàidhlig cho nàdarrach ri ceòl binn nan eun as t-earrach.
Seeking out my artist’s world my Gaelic one also emerges, intricately intertwined within. Over this past year I have relished the opportunity to discover and share the story of Strathnaver through my artwork. Up and down the route between Bettyhill and Edinburgh, I noted landmarks of the Gàidheal everywhere. On every mountain and peak and river, the story of the people is told through placenames and local lore. As soon as I found the deerhides, it was clear that I’d make maps on and from them. I followed Wade’s roads, through Roy’s Surveys made after the Battle of Culloden. On deerhides I drew a Gaelic image, but with Roy’s information at its core. It was only now, when the context was in place that I found the real value and meaning in the Strathnaver voices deposited in the School of Scottish Studies. And now I have two streams of work to show you: the sound-story and the tale of the map-drawings. Each marks a time when the people were more valuable than the land, when Gàidhlig was as natural as sweet birdsong in spring.
Déirdre ní Mhathúna,
ECHO
(For Déirdre Ní Mhathúna Lá Fhèill Mhìcheill 2012 Strathnaver)
Despite what Grimble has written
there was little English in the people
of Thurso in the time of Rob Donn
Caithness Scots & Reay Gaelic
flew like mallimaks
from Booragtoon to the Fisherbiggins
with the Beurla left to run like dogs
along the stone corridors of Thurso East
just like Isabel Mac Eachainn’s
sister Mary’s complaints against the Merkin upland
whose rough mart paled she thought
in comparison to the glories of Bull’s River
but she had forgotten the echo of the harp
as the wind blows through the trees
George Gunn, 2013: The Mackay Country Residency