Four decades ago, Ennistymon was a town of 52 pubs, one for every week of the year. Over the years however, the North Clare market town has been transformed from a town of pubs into a town of 52 galleries, cafés and artisan food producers.
The genesis of this unlikely transformation was in a year-long art project entitled Ennistymon 1984.
That project was the brainchild of Marian Fitzgibbon, the Mid-West regional arts officer at the time, and was originally focused on the town’s unique shop fronts.
It was spearheaded by Cork woman, Úna McCarthy, who relocated to North Clare for the year and, with massive support from the local community, helped to organise 100 different arts events and in the process reshape the destiny of the entire region.
Miss McCarthy now runs the Limerick City Gallery and also sits on the board of the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon. She believes that Ennistymon 1984 helped transform the town and how we look at art.
“The town started to go in on itself a bit from the 1950s onwards and by 1984 there was a feeling that we should see if we can do something,” Úna told The Clare Champion.
“That year we held a whole series of activities from kids painting murals, to artists coming down and practicing locally. The Arts Council then got involved and put their money where their mouth was and this all culminated in us commissioning 40 artists from the region to respond to the shopfronts of Ennistymon in their own style.
“It wasn’t about sticking a painting in the shop window, it was about really interacting with the shopkeeper and the artists responded to that. Main Street and Parliament Street turned into a gallery for three weeks in August of 1984. That kicked off a lot of things.”
Key to the success of Ennistymon 84 was the response from the local community, many of whom had no previous experience of art or artists.
“The buy in that came from the local community was key. The people who were involved in the CBS at the time were fantastic, we had a great concert up there with Liam Óg O Flynn and the Russell Brothers. The visual arts thing was a little difficult for some [of the locals] to connect with straight away, but the traditional music wasn’t,” said Úna.
“We were a group of young ones, and the local characters came out and supported us. I guess we were interested and committed. This was such an important thing for me to be involved in.
“Local people bought into it in different ways. Some people supported it quietly and gently and we had two great artists in the community who really caught the imagination of the local people.
“There was a sense of respect, even if people didn’t always get what we were doing. I remember one man who used to go into town each day and buy his loaf of bread and ten John Players. This man came into a space we had been given on Parliament Street and had turned into a kind-of a gallery.
“I will always remember him coming in one day in his wellies, he looked around, he was smoking away. The next thing he tipped the ash into his wellies, because he didn’t want to tip it on the ground. That to me meant that we had really arrived.”
The impact of Ennistymon 84 was far and wide. Directly or indirectly it helped shape art administration policy in Ennistymon, Clare and indeed across Ireland.
“A seed was planted in 1984. Katheryn Comber, who was on the original committee, along with her husband and the local historical society worked so hard after that to salvage the old courthouse and with the support of Clare County Council and the Arts Council they got funding to develop the Courthouse Gallery. Ennistymon 84 was a tributary running into that,” said Úna.
“It was a national project. The other really significant thing to come out of it was the appointment of the first Arts Officer in Ireland in County Clare.
“I feel that Ennistymon 84 led to that. The then county manager saw what could be achieved.
“There was no money in the county back then, we were broke, but they saw the potential in it. I think that appointment is so significant, not just on a local stage but on a national stage.”
An event to mark the 40th anniversary of Ennistymon 84 will take place in the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon this Friday, October 11.
Events to commemorate Ennistymon 1984 will start at 2pm with an informal gathering at the gallery which will be followed by a guided walk through the town, led by artist and musician Brendan P Lynch.
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and blogger who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.