`I don't know if I'll ever come back", grinned Stephen Walsh at the opening of his exhibition, Jah's Seed, in the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre on Tuesday night. He wasn't referring to the arts centre of course, he was referring to Ireland in general and his long-held dream of living and working full time in Jamaica. Stephen, who is hugely influenced by the work of Bob Marley and by Rastafarianism, made his first trip to the island in September in the company of his friend Michael O'Reilly.
Although there for only five days, Walsh managed to make lots of friends and go on a pilgrimage to Nine Island, the birth and burial place of Marley. Although the paintings in the exhibition, most of which were displaying red stickers within minutes of the opening, were completed before his trip, Walsh hopes to use the proceeds to work in Jamaica in the new year. The speeches of honour at Jah's Seed were performed by actor Daniel Day Lewis who arrived with his wife, Rebecca Miller, both wearing remarkably similar check coats. Daniel first met Stephen some years ago, when Stephen was one of a number of people with disability who advised him when he took the role of Christy Brown in the film My Left Foot.
"The advice Stephen gave me was not to do the film at all," laughed Daniel, after reading Stephen's incredibly moving artist's statement to the crowd. Although he knew that Stephen was an artist, he hadn't seen his work until earlier in the day and pronounced it wonderful. He had his eye on two of the canvases but was doomed to disappointment as they had already been snapped up. Day Lewis, who currently lives in Ireland, said he was working on "absolutely nothing" at the moment. Other guests at the opening night party included Stephen's mother, Phyllis Walsh, and his sisters Emma and Carolyn Walsh; student and development worker Gail Varian and a fellow student of hers from Cambridge university, George Katawala, who plays with the Mozambique band, Massukos and photographer Redmond Cabot.
Redmond is one of a small group of artists who have come up with an idea that might be a life-saver for last minute presents. On the weekend before Christmas he and artists such as Siobhan Wilmot, Joby Hickey and Cormac O'Snodaigh are putting on an exhibition entitled Tea Totaler in the art gallery on Rock Road, Blackrock. Tea, we are promised, will be served all day, which sounds a lot more calm and inviting than battling through Grafton St in pursuit of a Furby.
Video Verse
`I was a bit distracted by it all really", laughed Kathleen Watkins at the party to celebrate her new video, The Poetry of Ireland, in the Kilkenny Shop on Nassau Street on Tuesday. The video in question is an anthology of verse, from Patrick Kavanagh and Padraic Pearse to Seamus Heaney and Rita Ann Higgins, read aloud by Kathleen in various spots around Ireland. "I would have preferred it to be audio only. I wasn't too sure about the cameras but we had great fun in the end."
Kathleen, who admitted that the entire house was littered with poetry books as she made her final selection for the video, has no further plans for taking over the video world as yet. "My next task is handling Mr Byrne when he retires," she says. "He's been so busy and so much in the public eye, with all that entails. Now I really want him to take a slice of time for himself."
Gaybo himself is similarly looking forward to a bit of time after his last radio show goes out on Christmas Eve. "I'll have a few drinks with the boys, I'll walk down Grafton Street with my daughter and then we'll head off to Donegal for the new year." There's still the Late Late Show, which Gay will present until the spring and then "I'm looking forward to doing nothing for a bit."
It was Gay who sowed the seeds for the idea of the video in the first place. Video producer Hugh Hardy was at the Late Late Show with musician Acker Bilk, for whom he'd made a video. "Here's an idea for you", sez Gay, "a poetry video and I know the very person to do it: Kathleen Watkins, who happens to be my wife." After that, Gay was keen to stress, he had nothing more to do with it and the video is very much Kathleen's own project. Nonetheless, he's very proud of her, describing her voice as "particularly pleasing and mellow. She has always got up and spoken at drunken parties and hoolies over the years." Still, there's little chance that you'll get to see the video on RTE according to Hugh Hardy. "It has been bought by Canadian TV but RTE didn't take it. Didn't fit in with their schedule, apparently." Hugh raises a sceptical eyebrow.
Divine Rivals
After an up-beat production of Sheridan's The Rivals at the Abbey theatre on Wednesday night, it was hardly surprising that there was a very up-tempo mood. Many of the first-nighters came out singing the "theme tune" to the show, Generation Sex, and quizzed each other as to its provenance. It was by Divine Comedy of course, who are rivals to nobody when it comes to a good catchy tune. The music which filtered through the whole performance was the work of Today FM's Donal Dineen, who has truly earned the title of renaissance man with his move into musical consultation for "seeryus" theatre.
Among the youthful crowd on the night were a very chilled-out Michael West, and his wife, Corn Exchange Theatre Company's artistic director, Annie Ryan. The reason for playwright Michael's Zen-like behaviour was that he was just back from a stint at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, where he says he got tons of work done. In the main, he concentrated on a new play for TEAM theatre, whose artistic director Martin Murphy was there on Wednesday night with his wife, novelist Anne Enright.
A big crew that flooded in to see their old mate Peter O'Meara acting in the play included dancers Jean Butler and Colin Dunne (who replaced Michael Flatley in Riverdance) actor Karl Hayden, video artist Alex Wood and comedian Brendan Dempsey. Other guests included art historian Dorothy Walker; playwrights Tom Murphy and Jimmy Murphy; Ann Marie O'Callaghan, head of RTE Radio 1; choreographer John Scott, and James Conway, director of Opera Theatre Company. After the show a number of actors from the current Gate show, Cyrano de Bergerac, popped over to share a few drinks with the cast, including Johnny Murphy and Stephen Brennan, there to congratulate his sister Jane Brennan who appears in the show.
Good Famine record
Everyone knows your family name is very important in Ireland - who hasn't had the experience of being in the most obscure of places and being asked something along the lines of "MacNamee you say. Now would that be the MacNamees of Ballyhuddart or . . .". However Brendan O Cathaoir, who hosted a party in the Solomon Gallery on Wednesday night to celebrate his new book, Famine Diary (Gill & Macmillan), is surely one of the few people who knows the real pedigree of a name.
Welcoming his guest speaker, Dr Martin Mansergh, special adviser to the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, he commented that he had first come across the name Mansergh on the Tipperary Relief Committee: "And in my opinion, a good Famine record is better than a good national one." Dr Mansergh returned the compliment when he described Brendan, whose book is a compilation of columns that first appeared in The Irish Times, as "the most courteous of scholars". The books were flying out of the gallery at the party, with many people walking out with three or four tucked under their arm, neatly solving that elusive Christmas present problem. So a good night for Brendan and a good night for Linda Longmore, managing editor of the press who had thrown another book party in Newman House the previous night to celebrate a new history of the temperance movement. Ironically, the last party the press had held in Newman House was also of an abstemious nature - a text on the legal limits for drink driving. Cardinal Newman would have approved. Guests who came along on Wednesday night to congratulate Brendan included archbishop Donald Caird, academic Kevin Whelan who is director of the Notre Dame college in Newman House, and artist Rowan Gillespie, whose Famine sculpture adorned the jacket of the book.
On the ball
After years out at the Ardmore Studios in Bray, the annual knees-up for the film industry, the Guinness Film Ball, went urban and moved to the RDS on Friday. Anybody who had waited for a bus home in the freezing cold, up to their knees in fake snow in previous years, declared the move a very good thing before the event got under way. Another very good thing was that the awards ceremony started and finished before the meal got under way at the behest of the MC, Michael Dwyer, who had the unenviable task of quieting the rebellious troops in previous years. The award for contribution to the film industry went to director Pat O'Connor (Dancing at Lughnasa, Ballroom of Romance) this year and he accepted his award from old friend Tom Hickey before returning to his table and his wife, actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who stars in the new John Sayles film that was made in Alaska during the summer. Actor Tony Doyle was next up and received his award for an outstanding body of work that includes Amongst Women and Ballykissangel. The surprise of the night belonged to 22-year-old director, Kirsten Sheridan. She knew in advance that she was to receive the newcomer's award for a number of short films and documentaries including Patterns, which won her Best Short Film Award at the Cork Film Festival. However, the Miramax award for the best script by a young Irish writer is always shrouded in complete secrecy and Kirsten little expected she would have to mount the stage to pick up the second award - and a cheque for £10,000 for a script co-written with Audrey O'Reilly.
Unfortunately her father, director Jim Sheridan, could not be there on the night but then he and his wife Fran Sheridan had already seen his daughter receive her diploma from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology earlier in the week.
Other guests at the ball, which kicked off in the Art Deco library before moving to the concert hall, included a bumper table hosted by Catriona Ward, one of the organisers of the event. Catriona gathered together Ron and Jo Wood; Bernard Fowler who plays sax with the Rolling Stones and Leah Woods, daughter of Ron and Jo and singer with the Stones; Harry and Rita Crosbie; artists' agent Teri Hayden and her husband, Brian Palmfrey; actor Liam Cunningham and Aisling Evans.
Laudate le Brocquy
It's a long time since quite such a fine collection of Louis le Brocquy's works on paper has been seen in public. When the exhibition opened at the Taylor Gallery on Thursday night, most of the guests simply wandered the many rooms oohing and aahing at the work.
Most of it was already sold and several of the pieces were from Louis's own collection. The man himself, together with his wife, artist Anne Madden, could hardly get beyond the door of the gallery with so many people wanting to congratulate him on the exhibition - which was curated by their son and agent, Pierre le Brocquy.
Particularly apt was a series of studies of poet Seamus Heaney - although Heaney was in Japan and could not make the opening, more than one guest remarked that all the Nobel fanfare for John Hume and David Trimble reminded them of famous Seamus's win three years ago.
Artists at the opening included Robert Ballagh, Dorothy Cross, Stephen McKenna and Chung Eun Mo, and spotted among the many guests were Dorothy Walker; novelist and academic Richard Kearney; actress Susan Fitzgerald.