Welcome to the Neighbourhood 2022
Throughout June, Askeaton

Writer and artist Adrian Duncan has made a long-term investigation into the cultural impact of Bungalow Bliss, a collection of affordable house designs that resulted in thousands of new dwellings appearing in Irish towns and countryside since the 1970s. He grew up in one such house in Longford, and in 2022 publishes Little Republics: The Story of Bungalow Bliss, examining the influence and effect the Irish bungalow had on the housing market, the surrounding landscape, and individual families who lived in them. In a special partnership between Askeaton Contemporary Arts and the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin, Duncan will realise an accompanying exhibition in early 2023, and during Welcome To The Neighbourhood made initial sculptural experiments based upon the internal timber roof structures involved in building a bungalow. On our annual opening day, Duncan read aloud from his writings, divulging his own personal relationships to these structures and speculating about their continued legacy today.

Laurie Robins’ research interests span industrial development, agricultural practices and land use, and in recent years he has developed a particular interest in the mid west and Shannon region. Robins spent several days shadowing employees and filming the day-to-day activity of Cooper Hill farm, a large dairy farm with a computer-controlled automated milking parlour. Another venture saw him attend and record an open-day event in county Cork, where new robotic milking machines were demonstrated for potential use by midsize dairy farmers. He even got his picture taken and printed in The Farmers Journal, one of Ireland’s most popular weekly publications. Resulting video footage and a selection of related archival material loaned by Limerick City and County Library was presented, giving a sense of the historical basis, strategic policies and everyday activities that are involved in the contemporary farming world.

Another encounter saw a security officer accuse Robins of taking commercially sensitive photographs of a multinational pharmaceutical factory on the edge of Askeaton. Subsequently, he placed an image of the factory, which make and then export powdered milk as baby food to China, and a recollection of the exchange inside a framed illustration that sits in the foyer of the local community hall. The resulting montage, juxtaposing an image of Askeaton from 1586 (the first representation of the town) with its 2022 manifestation, speaks of the complex shape of economic and social histories that shape our collective existence.

Chloe Brenan’s new film and photographs took the life of Askeaton’s Deel River as a subject. In recent times, pollution and bacterial levels in the water have resulted in a swimming ban on the river, despite much of the Deel Estuary being a EU-designated Special Area of Conservation. This harsh reality contrasts with age-old traditions uncovered by Brenan’s research, where a daily ritual saw locals wash their faces with dew each morning to ward off ill health.

Her film records the still vibrant local boat club, teaching young rowers at high tide. Another key scene features local ecologist Mike O’Connor performing a ‘kick sample’ – a technique for gauging river health by turning over stone on the bed of the river and catching everything that is disturbed in a net. In a series of accompanying photographs, Brenan used out-of-date analogue film salvaged from a flooded basement caused by the River Barrow overflowing its banks in her native Carlow, exposing it at the Deel at low tide to create images with a seemingly melancholic tone and saturation.

With its historic medieval buildings, Askeaton features many unique stone carvings in its midst. Keeping alive this tradition, carvers Stephen Burke and Mark Ranalow demonstrated the skills of their profession, and over two days guided the public to try out and create their own stone carvings.

In ongoing visits to Askeaton, Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty have in ever surprising ways explored the impact of American culture on Irish identity. Continuing to search for moments of unrealized potential and solidarity, they presented a new short film and accompanying performance, I don’t believe in ‘isms’ I just believe in me. Acting as a form of travelogue, sites throughout the west of Ireland with an affinity with the United States intermingle with the artists’ own past experience as young star-spangled J1 visa travellers, all experienced upstairs in Askeaton’s old nightclub venue at The Top of The Town.

Michael Higgins and Juana Robles presented a special one-night only event, reflecting their artistic work in experimental film and gently referencing the history of travelling cinema that once frequented Askeaton. Now living in Askeaton, Higgins and Robles collaborated with Askeaton National School to create a lyrical approach on a new projected analogue film, one that foregrounds mood, atmosphere, visual rhythms, and the sensory interplay of sound and image. An installation of multiscreen analogue projection occurred behind the stage curtains of Askeaton’s community hall.

Folklorist Eddie Lenihan, artists Michael Holly and David Beattie, farmers Vincent O’Shaughnessy, Nora and Chris Foley, and researcher Keith Phelan all welcomed the public for an afternoon derive, encountering some of Askeaton’s historic ringforts sites and stone cahers. Much discussion occurred about the removal and destruction of several ancient and medieval monuments in the area with the impending construction of the Foynes to Limerick Road Improvement Scheme. Later that evening, Eddie Lenihan told stories that revealed why you shouldn’t be aggressive to hedgehogs, especially when you meet them on a bridge, and explained to a captive audience about a field close to Shannon airport that you can get into, but cannot find any way out.

Originally commissioned in 2014, Steve Maher’s Sentences now reappeared throughout summer 2022 on Twohig Supervalu’s electric signage on Church Street. Words from ‘The Limerick Rake’, an 18th-century folk song that tells of the life, loves and death of a young man’s exploits in the West of Limerick. Steve speculates what people might think of the installation, noting that ‘For some, they will be deeply familiar lines from a well-loved folk song tied to the area. For many more, they will be discordant and unsettling passages, almost in the realm of the occult, speaking of ancient gods, and mathematical concepts while resting on a bed of nettles and stones. For everyone else, these sentences will be passing subliminal phrases affecting the unconscious minds more focused on the cost of the fuel as they fill their tanks. “Agús fagaimid siúd mar atá sé” features as the closing remark in each stanza, roughly translating as “and that's all we'll say about that,” “and we'll leave it as it is” or “enough said”. The phrase is utilised as a coy remark, a means for the Rake to hint that there is much more to their exploits, beyond the border of polite conversation and plain innuendo, so instead it remains unspoken.’