This article is from page 30 of the 2007-06-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
AN ‘X’ or more accurately, a cross, marks the spot in the Burren with the official launch of a community art project designed to highlight local farming and conservation issues.
The Cross Land initiative takes the form of the coppiced shape – each arm stretching 60 metres long and 1.5m wide – cut through an area of dense hazel wood just off the side of the Tubber road.
The shape was designed and creat- ed laboriously by hand by Kilnaboy based artist, Deirdre O’Mahony and volunteers as part of the Ground Up programme by the county arts of- fice.
It was launched at Cassidy’s Pub in
Carron last Saturday after a gather- ing in the Burren Research Centre and marked with the presentation of several aerial shots of the cross to lo- cal people.
“The shots had to be taken using kite photography 300 feet up be- cause the shape is only barely visible from a height on the road itself,” said Ms O’Mahony, a painting lecturer in the Galway/Mayo Institute of Tech- nology.
“The idea for the cross shape itself came from a conversation with the farmer whose land we used when he called the marginal scrubland ‘cross land’. The reference is really a part of the local vernacular so I suppose making it part of the land can sym- bolise hope.”
The Cross Land was the result of a two-year local consultation process, based at Cassidy’s, with local people and it highlights several issues ac- cording to Ms O’Mahony.
‘The original issue was the spread- ing of the scrubland and it wasn’t be- ing cleared by wild goats because of a lot of culling in the past few years but there were other factors. Another was the impact of part time farm- ing and the fact that marginal land, which used to be grave, is not any- more.”
She said that a recurring topic was the challenge faced by farmers based in a Special Area of Conservation, regulated by “so many different agencies’.
“I spoke to people and I was in Cas-
sidy’s two evenings a week. With the help of Robert and Michelle, I posted information up in a snug so it could be read by the customers. One other thing I noticed was the lack of com- munity focus because you would be lucky 1f two or three people showed up a night.”
She thanked everyone in the area and also Burren Life for their help with The Cross Land before adding, “I hope that it makes a tiny piece of the rich local knowledge and co-op- eration visible.”