Naturalist Gordon D'Arcy has brought together artists living and working in the Burren as part of a project that explores the social and environmental importance of stone walls, writes George Keegan
Visitors to the Burren and the Aran islands are often struck by the stone walls: their flimsy construction, pleasing styles, and remarkable variety. Writer and naturalist Gordon D'Arcy was constantly asked questions - who built them, why so much effort to enclose apparently worthless land, and what flora do they support? "So I decided to write a book on the subject," he says. The idea for the Stonewall Project was born.
D'Arcy points out that many parts of the country have stone walls, but because of the Burren's open limestone pavement, its terraced hillsides, upland plateau, and coastal flatlands with no trees to shelter the view, the landscape appears to be stitched together by the lines of walls. It's an image he says people hold long after leaving the region.
The Stonewall Project involves a new book The Burren Walls, an educational activity workpack specially designed for schools, and a mixed-media visual arts presentation by several leading artists living and working in the Burren, which opened at the Glór Centre in Ennis last weekend and was organised by D'Arcy and the Clare Heritage Forum.
From Belfast, Gordon D'Arcy worked with the Forest and Wildlife Service in the Republic, is a founder member of the Northern Ireland Ornithologists club, and has published several books on Ireland's birds and one on animals, including The Natural History of the Burren in 1992, with photography by John Hayward. He uses the Burren as his classroom, running courses for teachers and schoolchildren.
The booklet The Burren Wall (supported by the Heritage Council under the 2006 Publications Grant scheme and published by the Tír Eolas publishing house in south Galway), deals with the social history of the walls from the earliest prehistoric examples to the most modern.
It indicates how different styles may be attributed to specific periods of construction, and also celebrates the aesthetic qualities of walls in the area in photographs, illustrations, and quotations, and presents the walls as an important habitat for flora and fauna. "I set out to produce a book which would be of interest to adults, tourists, and young people; afterwards it occurred to me that a workpack for schoolchildren would act as a perfect compliment to it."
The completed pack contains a poster - painted by D'Arcy - a jigsaw, a nature "detective plan", where the pupil plays the role of the detective to find various items in nature, a template for cutting out a stone and building a stone wall habitat, and a cut-out for making different styles of walls using Plasticine or play dough.
Initially D'Arcy approached the Clare Education Centre in Ennis. Dr Kyran Kennedy, the director, liked the idea and agreed to help set up a pilot scheme in four national schools in the county.
The response, Dr Kennedy says, was very positive, from both teachers and pupils. Encouraged by the reaction, D'Arcy got in touch with ENFO in Dublin who took it on as a project.
Initially, there will be a run of 1,000 packs for distribution in the west. Depending on its success, they may produce a modified version of the pack suitable for distribution to schools throughout the country .
D'Arcy says the multi-media exhibition is a coming-together of artists whose work in the past featured the theme of stone walls through photography, painting, etchings and so on. He believes this strand provides an important backdrop or visual forum. Wide-ranging in style, the exhibition features 40 pieces by 18 artists, and was officially opened by the broadcaster, journalist and film-maker Lelia Doolan.
The Wonder of the Burren Walls is at the gallery at Glór, Ennis, until Apr 29. The booklet The Burren Wall is published by Tír Eolas
Aidan Dunne's review of visual art in the Beckett festival appears on Friday
