OPINION (AN COLÚN): A great Birr exhibition about one of Ireland's most special places

IT WAS a real pleasure to attend the launch of an exhibition of oil paintings in Birr Library on Wednesday evening; a pleasure because the paintings were of a very high standard and were a delight to behold.
The artist is Crinkle man Christopher O'Donoghue and he has created a series of works which are a tour de force, a deep dive into beautiful feelings which remind us that for all its horror and nightmarish qualities life is still a wonderful thing and worthy of praise.
Over a huge period of time Chris has painstakingly created canvases of the highest quality. He has poured decades of devotion to the painter's art into these pieces. Through hard graft and profound dedication, these pieces have emerged, combining impressive skill with a spiritual atmosphere.
The exhibition was launched by one of Birr's leading lights, an artist himself, John Joyce. John summed it up nicely when he told the small gathering that this exhibition deserves a much wider audience; it deserves to be known through every region of this beautiful island of ours. Sadly, life often doesn't work like that. Often, great art which deserves to be extolled, remains obscure and overlooked (sometimes even cruelly looked down upon); whereas art of lesser quality, even art that is banal, stupid and vacuous, achieves reverence and praise (I am thinking not just of painting but of all the arts). I urge you therefore to visit Birr Library and view Chris' exhibition, before it closes at the end of January.
During his speech Chris took us back to the late 1970s in Birr when Carmel Joyce put a notice in The Midland Tribune telling people that she would like to set up an art group and was anyone interested? The response was good and Birr Arts Group flourished. It welcomed all and wasn't an exclusive group. However, it did attract some very talented artists, including Chris, Alison Rosse and the late Frankie Gallagher. The group was driven and ambitious, holding two major exhibitions every year, one during Christmas and the other during Vintage Week. Members came from the wider Midlands region, including Tipperary, Galway and Laois. It kept going for over two decades until sadly coming to an end in 2000.
During his speech Chris said he studied architecture when in Leicester University and he drew our attention to the building we were standing in, which was designed by one of the world's great architects, Augustus Welby Pugin. We are very fortunate to have such a fine library in our midst.
Chris' exhibition is called “The Legend of Skellig Michael” and each of the thirteen paintings depict the Skelligs in a number of different moods. John pointed out that the stunning, soaring shapes of the Skelligs have an “unworldly” presence. It was this unworldly atmosphere which attracted the monks all those centuries ago. Chris pointed out that when you visit the Skelligs you feel as if you have come to Finisterre, the end of the Earth. The visitor feels he is on a threshold between this world and our next stop - Heaven. He urged everyone to visit this very special place, if we haven't already done so, adding that it should be on our top 10 list of places to visit before we die.
Rosalind and I visited the Skelligs 25 years ago. We loved it. However, getting there took some perseverance (I am told that there's a long waiting list nowadays and it's quite expensive). Sea conditions meant our voyage was postponed three times. Finally, on the fourth weekend the conditions were good. We went over on a very small boat, which felt as insignificant as a cork bobbing on the waves. Our boat driver was a middleaged man with a very strong Kerry accent, an earring in one ear and a cigarette perched between his lips as he steered. Our boat broke down halfway across (it's a distance of twelve miles). The driver opened the engine hatch, with his cigarette still in his mouth, and fiddled away with this and that. After several minutes the engine kicked back into life. A welcome sound. When we arrived at Skellig Michael we took the famous stone steps up to the beehive huts. As we ascended we paused many times to look at the wonderful seabirds, including the puffins, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants and gannets.
The monastery on Skellig Michael was founded in the sixth or seventh century. It was perhaps founded by St Fionan and lasted for over 600 years. It was attacked by the Vikings on a number of occasions. An anonymous poem written by a monk in the mid 9th Century said, “Bitter is the wind tonight. It tosses the ocean's white hair. Tonight I fear not the fierce warriors of Norway, Coursing on the Irish sea.”
A famous Bernard Shaw quote encapsulated perfectly how we felt after returning from the Skelligs: “An incredible, impossible, mad place...I tell you the thing does not belong to any world that you and I have lived and worked in: it is part of our dream world.”