Kerry

At the launch of my Lost Moments exhibition at The Courthouse in June, my friend’s Mum thought a specific monotype reminded her of Kerry, where she originates. I was able to tell her that, in fact, it was based on a photo of myself and my husband in front of the second house we lived in just outside of Portmagee in County Kerry. She bought the piece.

I decided to write a note of thanks to her, including some information about that time (1995-6) when we lived there. Here is the text of that note:

RE: Despite the isolation, we made the place our home, ink on Japanese mulberrypaper, 2023

August 2026

Hi —,

Thank you so much for coming to my Lost Moments exhibition in Tinahely in June, and especially for buying this monoprint. Indeed this is based on a photograph of James and I in front of the second house we lived in when we lived in Kerry. The house, Knockeen, was just outside Portmagee (about 2 miles from) down a boreen off the road leading to the Valentia Island bridge at Portmagee.

We did make the place our home, despite the isolation! We were there from the spring of 1995 to September 1996 when we moved back to Bray, to be closer to my Mum (my father had died in Sept 1995).

After getting married, the landlord in our first house (Kells Bay) wanted us to leave – we figured he was worried we’d have children and be hard to move out. Our neighbours and people we had met through winter set-dancing did not want us to leave Kerry (as we didn’t either) and tried to find accommodation for us.

It was while one of my nieces was visiting that we planned a picnic, but the day turned out very grey and damp. We drove up into the mountains (The Glen) and saw one beam of light shining down from the clouds and went to that spot. It was Portmagee. The sun was shining and it was warm. I went into the nearby pub to use the facilities, and while there met a couple we knew from set-dancing. On receiving the news that we still hadn’t found a place, they introduced us to the publican who knew of a few vacant places and asked me to ring the pub on the Sunday and he might have some news for me. So I did, and he had found us people who had a vacant place and were happy to show it to us and for us to move in. It was fate!

Before we moved in to the 2-up/2-down farmhouse, they painted the outside yellow and told us we were welcome to use up the huge pile of cut turf in the field in front of the house (which we did that winter!). The Grandfields were so accommodating and lived several fields away. We had no phone but they offered to take messages for us if there was an emergency, so we could give their number to my parents.

When we first moved to Knockeen, we decided to hang our various wind chimes in the tree outside the house. It was too windy and they were all getting twisted up. We thought they might blow away so we brought them in. Unfortunately the house was very draughty and it was too noisy so we packed them away.

That summer (1995) was idyllic. We just had to cross the field behind the house and we had our own private beach, Valentia Channel, with the island across the way. We had 5 “guard” cows that sometimes escaped from their field. Sometimes I thought we were in a Carl Larson cartoon, as those cows were prangsters! One day they all came sheepishly from behind the shed when we were trying to get them back to their field; I’m sure they were smoking and even one cow acted as a lookout! Another day they were in the wrong field and James tried to herd them back to where they were supposed to be but he wanted me to block the entrance to the boreen (and thus the road), which was fine until they came in my direction – much bigger than me – but they turned before they got to me. We tried to grow vegetables, but the cows either ate the produce, or trampled anything in the patch. Another time we returned from Bray to find we only had half a welcome mat. The mat was made of straw, so we figured hungry or mischievous cows had been visiting.

The house had no heat (fireplaces downstairs only) – in the winter we wore hats and gloves to bed – no phone, and of course no tv. But we have many fond memories of the place regardless.

Although we were sorry to leave Kerry, after my father died, we were travelling across the country every couple of weeks and our little jalopy could not accelerate on the roads (so we were often stuck behind tractors). The journey took us 8 hours each way, so we were becoming too exhausted.

We brought several Kerry wild roses up Bray, and one survives in our garden to this day. Our fuchsia hedge makes me think of Kerry, as fuchsia lined the roadways of which we were very familiar.

The Lost series of monoprints were all made in 2023. I amazingly had received an Arts Council Agility Award in 2022 to explore the “lost” theme and this specific technique of contact printing, that I had come across in an online course during covid.

Thanks again, —!