Publicity to be effective should always be true. And it has to be said that Ireland of the Welcomes, Bord Failte's magazine, not only rings true but is attractive in its message, often compelling. In the current issue, January-February, there is a liberally-illustrated article "A Walking United Nations", about an annual four-day walking event based on Castlebar, Co. Mayo, which brings people from twenty to thirty countries each year. Paddy Dillon, who wrote and illustrated the article mentions some 1,500 walkers. One of the photos, a steep slope and as he puts in, "one moment, an empty hillside, the next hundreds of walkers from all over the world surge downhill in an incredible kaleidoscopic flow". A striking picture indeed. This year's event is from Thursday June 28th to Sunday July 2nd. Contact Elaine Devereux, phone fax at 094-24102.
A lovely two-page picture sets off the article and similarly a lovely two-page photo starts off an article on craft workers in Leitrim `From Dreams to Reality". It is an overlooked county: "like a walled garden lying at the heart of an estate to which the key has been lost." writes Eivlin Roden. "Once found and the door opened, it is a place to return to, again and again." It starts with two printmakers, Conor Byrne and Natacha Loyer, whose studio is at Ballaghnabehy. An etching of Four Fields, stands out. Next, the most individualistic chair you have probably ever seen, made from ash and photographed in the open, seems to reach out a curving arm to get you to sit in it; wood shiny, veined and beckoning. It is by Eugene Finnegan who makes unusual and inspiring furniture from local hardwood trees. He likes, we are told, the natural shapes of trees, and very often leaves them as near to that as possible, only sanding and smoothing them to a satin softness.
Colette Langan in Carrick-on-Shannon creates lively, individualistic stained glass windows for religious and secular use. Seamus Dunbar in Manorhamilton, shows a nice touch in his sculpture with a lovely limestone hen pecking at a stook of limestone corn, and also an enormous elephant head, destined for Roscrea. Photos: Lucy Johnston. Those are only two glimpses at the country but we have also Daniel O'Donnell's Donegal, and four remarkable pages by Jan de Fouw from the Song of Amergin; then, too, Christopher Moriarty, and Mary Sullivan on books. Y