Seanie Barron
Sticks

A stick-maker and seanchaí from Askeaton, County Limerick, Seanie Barron has been working on his craft for decades; it is part of a longstanding Irish tradition that he enlivens with his own inventive features such as whistles for injured walkers and ‘ticklers’ to hold down wire fences.

The sticks take on unusual shapes that are directly related to the materials from which they are made, including various timbers, roots, and animal horns. Occasionally their handles take on strange and charming forms – a goat's head, a walrus, a badger – which seem to emerge organically and effortlessly from the wood. 

Published on the occasion of the Seanie Barron Sticks exhibition at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, 9 October to 2 December 2015. Includes a text by John Hutchinson and images of many of the sticks included in the exhibition.