It is a seemingly timeless landmark on the banks of the majestic river Blackwater in Co Cork, with a history stretching back over 400 years.
But in recent months, Mallow Castle has been home to a surprising contemporary change: part of its stone facade has been graced by a mural.
Joyce Luseba smiles broadly from the huge monochrome image, while on her back is her daughter, seven-month-old Bénie, who slumbers, wrapped in a traditional Congolese pagne sling.
For Joyce, granted refugee status in Ireland in 2018 after two years in a direct provision centre, her patterned pagne cloth is one way to retain a connection to her former home, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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“People get very tense because they think I’ve painted onto the building, but it’s actually paper and a biodegradable glue, so there’ll be no trace left on the building whatsoever”
“There are shops here that sell food from home, even though it’s not always fresh,” she says. “That keeps me connected, and the music as well. There are some Congolese people who I met in direct provision, and we’ve stayed in touch, even though after people get their papers, they find themselves in different places. We still talk.”
There are an estimated five million internally displaced people in the DRC, and one million international refugees of Congolese origin. The DRC is the “most neglected” refugee crisis in Africa, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned this June. But for most of Joyce’s life, the DRC was home.
“Sometimes, even if a place is not safe, there are things that we hold dear about our home,” Joyce says. “That sense of knowing where I come from is there, and it still means something.”
The Mallow Castle mural is part of a project called A Story of Home, where street artist Joe Caslin teamed up with 35 women from the Cork Migrant Centre in UCC’s Glucksman Gallery to explore ideas of home: what it means, what it feels like when “home” is not a safe place, and the invisibility of many in the Irish asylum system. Many of the women involved are living in direct provision centres, while others, like Joyce, have left.
Having held workshops with all 35 women and taken photographic portraits, Joe chose two for his murals, which were revealed last June as part of Cork Midsummer Festival: the image of Joyce and Bénie in Mallow, and another portrait of a woman called Salamah for a Cork city mural on Sullivan’s Quay.
For Joe, well-known for similar projects on themes including mental health and the marriage equality referendum, A Story of Home will stay with him as a life-changing experience.
“I was blown away by the kindness and trust the women gave me,” Joe says. “There were seven workshops, that started with me telling the women what the project was, but then it was very much about sitting back and listening to them. Being a man, and being a white man, I did not want to take their story and then mansplain it. It was very important that I listen and gain their trust.”
“I think it’s one of my favourite projects that I’ve ever worked on. It was a joy. It is something that will live with me for a long time.”
“Being a white man, I did not want to take their story and then mansplain it. It was very important that I listen and gain their trust”
Joe’s process is similar for all his large-scale artworks: he makes pencil sketches of his subject and then prints them, scaled up, onto large sheets of paper, which are then applied to buildings using a technique like wallpapering.
“People get very tense because they think I’ve painted onto the building, but it’s actually paper and a biodegradable glue, so there’ll be no trace left on the building whatsoever,” he says. “They are completely removable.”
Workshops held as part of A Story of Home included exercises such as bringing in objects that reminded the participants of their country of origin, but this could be emotionally fraught at times.
“It was brilliant, because they got to speak about their home and their tradition and their culture, but at the same time it evoked memories that were sometimes sore,” he says. “Some of the women had no object to bring, because they left with nothing and had nothing.”
Joecashlin.com; glucksman.org; corkmigrantcentre.ie
A Story of Home, by Joe Caslin and the women of Cork Migrant Centre, ran at The Glucksman gallery in association with Cork Midsummer Festival, and was funded by The Arts Council while a talk detailing the project formed part of National Heritage Week, which took place last August.