07/10/24 11:44
PALIMPSEST (2024)
- by artist Pauline O’Connell is an artistic and cultural project that creatively intertwines history, music, literature, sculpture and social engagement.
The project draws on the history of the Mayfair Ballroom from 1943 to 1973, a period marked by significant social, political, and cultural changes following World War II and Ireland's entry into the European Union. By revisiting the Mayfair Ballroom's legacy and its broader cultural context, the project has many layers of meaning that not only preserves and honours the past but also encourages the audience to reflect on cultural identity and the role of history in shaping contemporary society.
The concept of PALIMPSEST was directly influenced by the popular music of the era as reflective of the time. It comprises a permanent indoor wall sculpture consisting of thirty-two life-size bronze books. Each book features a song title referencing the most popular musical number 1 hit of that year (1943-1973). These are arranged (haphazardly) on seven beech wood shelves, each inscribed with selected quotes gathered from those who danced at the Mayfair Ballroom. Interspersed throughout the sculptural installation are previously banned books from the same era, such as Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls, J.P. Donleavy’s The Ginger Man, and John McGahern’s The Dark. These books, strategically placed in the ‘gaps,’ highlight the tension between the era's outward cultural aspirations and the inward censorship prevalent in Irish society.
Pauline O’Connell
Pauline O'Connell is an Irish artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans theory, film, photography, sculpture, text and sound. She studied sculpture and photography at IADT (1993) and holds a first-class Master’s Degree from Limerick School of Art in Social Practice (2012). She is currently finishing her practice-led PhD at The University of Amsterdam. Throughout her thirty-year career, she has engaged with micro-histories and personal narratives, often presenting her projects within the communities from which they emerge. Her work aims to create spaces where new subjectivities can surface, bridging the gap between art and lived experience. These projects have been exhibited and commissioned both nationally and internationally, in London, Paris, Vienna, throughout the USA, and in Ireland in galleries, fields, crossroads and community halls.
As part of this project, the artist has invited cultural experts to respond by hosting workshops and talks in the library that aim to foster new dialogues and connections on various topics:
Blacklists and Whitelists: censoring reading in Ireland – a workshop by Dr Aoife Bhreatnach
Date: Saturday, October 19th 2024
Venue: Mayfair Library
Time: 2 pm-4 pm
This interactive workshop will engage groups in a hands-on exploration of literary history, where they'll unwrap parcels of books to discover and debate the complex world of censorship. By examining books once banned or freely circulated, participants will step into the roles of customs officers and censors, uncovering the stories behind the names linked to the Censorship Act. This engaging activity not only brings history to life but also sparks critical discussions on the impact of censorship, offering a unique and thought-provoking experience.
Dr Aoife Bhreatnach is a writer and podcaster. Since March 2020, she has written and presented Censored podcast, which explores the censorship culture of twentieth-century Ireland. Her historical writing includes a monograph Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State (2006) and, with Ciara Breathnach, an edited volume Portraying Irish Travellers: Histories and Representations (2007). She has held post-doctoral fellowships at Oxford and Maynooth universities. Her research interests include reading cultures, poverty, marginalisation, death and burial.
Booking is required as this workshop is limited to 20 people. For more details contact the library.
‘Wish You Were Here: The Redbarn Story’ (2017)film - a talk by Michael Twomey
Date: Saturday, November 9th 2024
Venue: Mayfair Library
Time: 2 pm-4 pm
Michael’s film will be screened daily at the library the week previous and on the morning of the talk.
Michael Twomey will explore the dynamics of change brought to Irish society by the ‘soft revolution’ of the dance halls in the 1960s and 1970s. Showcasing clips from his film, ‘Wish You Were Here: The Redbarn Story’, Michael will discuss how the new wave of American and British music, and its peculiar Irish hybrid of Country and Rock ‘n’ Roll, inspired a change in attitude among the younger generation coming out of the political, social and religious stagnation of the 1950s. He will explore how the sweaty dance halls became epi-centres for a cultural phenomenon that danced its way into modern Ireland.
Michael Twomey is a writer, filmmaker and historian. He has written for the Evening Echo and the Irish Examiner. He began his production company Complete Control Films in 2010. In 2012, ‘Another Way Home’ tells the story of a mother who saved her daughter from the revolving door of the mental health system and featured Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons and was screened at several film festivals. The History Press published his book, ‘Irish Heart, English Blood: The Making of Youghal’ (2014). His short documentary, ‘The Printer’ (2016) – is an observation of a Victorian-style printing house that is still operating and was turned into a two-month exhibition at Triskel Art Centre, Cork. In 2017, ‘Wish You Were Here: The Redbarn Story’ had three sell-out screenings in Youghal and Cork and has sold over 1,000 DVD copies to date. He has written and directed two radio plays, ‘The Last Days of Dominic Collins’ (2019) and ‘The Gravediggers’ (2023). His commissioned Film-Poem ‘Heart in the Stone’ premiered in 2022. His most recent film, ‘The Horgan Brothers: Princes of the Picture Theatre’ is currently screening at the Global Network Film Festival in Paris 2024.
No booking is required
Borrowing from the Past: Censorship and Sociability in the Public Spaces of Kilkenny – a talk by Dr Gerry Kearns.
Date: Saturday, December 14th 2024
Venue: Mayfair Library
Time: 2 pm-4 pm
The hushed library and the exuberant dancehall share more than the coincidence of a library inheriting the building of a dance hall. The library is obviously a place where some treasures of the past are conserved for the present, but the music of the dance hall likewise drew selectively upon musical history to make the fleeting present of the top ten. Likewise, both are not only selective - only so much shelf space, only so much time to fill - but the power of their hold over imaginations have invited heavy-handed regulation from church, state and market. This talk by Dr Gerry Kearns explores these relations and parallels for the space that was once the Mayfair Ballroom and is now a sparkling new Library.
Dr Gerry Kearns is a Professor of Human Geography at NUI Maynooth. He holds Bachelor’s and PhD Degrees from the University of Cambridge, UK. He has published widely including a recent book ‘Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis’ (2014) in which he focuses on ‘spatial justice’ as a cogent entry point into debates around austerity and social justice. Recent journal publications include 'Posthumanist Materialism and the Encounter with Art' (2023); 'The Catholic Footprint in Victorian Dublin' (2023); The geopolitics of queer solidarity' (2023); and 'Irish Literature in Transition' (2022)
No booking is required.