About this Event
A free public lecture in the Oak Room of the Mansion House, hosted by Dublin City Council Heritage Office with grant support from the Heritage Council.
About this lecture:
In 2016 Séamus Nolan attended a site visit for a prospective public art work, during the drive around the neighbourhood earmarked for regeneration the tour guide echoed the arts organisations openness to engage with as diverse a range of organisations and participants as possible before pointing to the group housing scheme and declaring ‘that’s the Travellers, you don’t have to engage with them’. Since then Nolan has initiated and been invited to work on a number of projects with Traveller communities in Ireland. He has focused his Masters in design history on the discourse surrounding Traveller material culture and is currently conducting his PhD research into Traveller participation in contemporary art and heritage practices. Séamus will be joined by Traveller and disability rights activist Rosaleen McDonagh to reflect upon this question of why it is necessary for artists, educators, and activists to engage with Traveller history, culture. and social participation. To present some of the projects that have emerged and to ask what it is that non-Travellers can do to support the enfranchisement of Travellers and other marginal groups.
Dr Rosaleen McDonagh is an author play right, feminist, Traveller and disability activist. She was appointed to the Irish human rights and equality commission in 2020, and is a member of Aosdána. Her first book Unsettled explores racism, ableism, abuse and resistance as well as the bonds of community, family and friendship. Her plays include The Baby Doll Project, She's Not Mine, Rings, The Prettiest Proud Boy and Mainstream. Some of her most recent commissions include Walls and Windows for the Abbey Theatre, Contentious Spaces for the Project Arts Centre and Night Shift for the Misleoir festival in Galway's Druid theatre. She has written for the Irish Times, and produced work for RTÉ radio and forthcoming television series as well as a new book in the pipeline and a second commission with the Abbey Theatre.
Séamus Nolan is a visual artist currently conducting a PhD with the School of Visual Culture in the National College of Art and Design, the School of Art History and Cultural Policy in University College Dublin in conjunction with the Collection Department of the Irish Museum of Modern and funded by the Irish Research Council. Recent work includes Hereditas, with Cairde Sligo Arts Festival and the Sligo Traveller Support Group 2023/24. Curator in residence for GUIDES, an Arts Council collection exhibition in the Linenhall Arts Centre Mayo, 2023, Traveller Collection at the Hugh Lane Gallery a collaboration with Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre 2018, and 10th President a campaign for the nomination of William Delaney 1957 -1970 as a candidate for the 2018 Irish presidential elections.
Image credits:
Image 1: Image 2: Collection of stainless steel objects made by Tinsmith James Collins, Dublin 2018. Image courtesy of The Hugh Lane Gallery
Image 2: Image of artist Martin Folans ‘Take away the Stone’ as part of the Third National Pilgrimage from Limerick to Gougane Barra circa 1985.
Accessibility: The Oak Room is fully accessible. ISL interpretation will be provided.
The talk will be recorded and made available online at a later date.
The Oak Room Heritage Talks are an action of the Dublin City Strategic Heritage Plan 2023 - 2028, and have received grant support from the Heritage Council.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Oak Room, Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
EUR 0.00
