Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn

(I'll Put a Stone on your Cairn)

Part 1 of workshops at Abbey Road

​

I’ll put a Stone on your Cairn is an exhibition of artworks created in response to an Art 

and Heritage workshop delivered by myself and local historian Gearoid O'Brien at Abbey Road Artists Studios, formerly the Athlone

Workhouse.

 

In the workshop, participants were guided through the histories of the building - the

circumstances from which it was built, the treatment of the people outside and within 

its walls, their work conditions and the catastrophic impact of the potato blight leading to The Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór), striking the country just 4 years after the building

opened its gates.

 

Connecting with our ancestors can feel intangible, but traditions offer us a language for remembrance. By practising traditional culture such as placing stones on cairns to honour the dead we can find a way to show a gesture of respect appropriate to past traditions and beliefs.

 

Inspired by the Gaelic blessing “I’ll put a Stone on your Cairn”, participants assembled

and decorated individual cairns, with each stone responding to events from construction

to the final closure of the Athlone Workhouse.

 

These small but potent sculptures acknowledge, respect and honour ordinary people

who, impoverished through no fault of their own and having no other option but to resort to admission at those gates.