The art of life after banking

AN Ennis native who spent over 30 years in a busy banking career has unleashed his free spirit through his natural flair for art.
Jerry Cahir, who is 69, grew up in Ennis and he was educated in the Christian Brothers and in St Flannan’s College. After school, he joined the Cadets and after a brief spell based in the Curragh Camp, he went to work with the Munster and Leinster Bank, the forerunner of AIB, in 1961. He worked with the bank in various towns throughout the region over the years eventually becoming manager of AIB in Swinford and later in Roscrea, where he saw out his banking career.
Fifteen years ago, Jerry suffered a very serious heart attack. He had a quadruple bypass and subsequently had eight stents inserted. This forced him to retire from his banking career and presented him with opportunities to find other activities to occupy himself. That’s when he found art, or as he says himself, art found him.
Jerry exhibits a selection of his work, including paintings and sculptures, in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, from October 12 to 15. By no means, his first exhibition, it is his first in his home county.
Jerry acknowledges the heart scared him and he really did see his life flash in front of his eyes. “My health scare really opened a new door for me and definitely brought me to another phase in my life. While lying on a hospital bed in semi-consciousness, I literally saw one door opening and another closing. It opened up a whole range of new possibilities for me and none more so than art,” he explains.
After his initial recovery, he went to an art workshop in Esker Monastery and it really grabbed him – he hasn’t departed from art since then.
“I partly went to the workshop for therapeutic reasons but partly also given that I’d retired, I wanted to find things to occupy myself. I had never done anything artistic before, other than DIY and a bit of carpentry, making furniture and other items for home. So I was what would be described as good with my hands. To be honest, with my career so busy for all of the years I worked in the bank, I didn’t have the time to get into art, or anything else much either,” Jerry adds.
“I can remember at the first art workshop I went to being given a piece of bog oak and the first thing I thought I could make from it, what I saw in it, was a rabbit but what I ended up creating was a beautiful tree of birds. I surprised myself with how beautiful it was and it really stirred me.
“What I loved about art originally was meeting new, interesting and some like-minded people,” he adds.
Jerry says he was told from early on that he had a natural artistic flair. “I know that must be right because I just don’t believe sometimes the things I create, especially sculptures. I do it mainly for my own pleasure and to show what I create and sell some pieces.”
Jerry grew up in Parnell Street, Ennis, and in Cusack Park and his family’s background was as publicans, grocers and cattle dealers. His father was Mick and his mother was Sistie (nee Slattery).
“I have lovely happy memories of my childhood and days in particular spent with my father buying cattle out near the Burren,” he recalls.
Over the years, he has untertaken residencies in Cill Rialing and in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. He has also attended workshops in the Burren College of Art, among other art centres.
He says that initially for him, art was therapeutic. He became competitive about it, not with others, but with himself to constantly get better.
“I’ve become very philosophical since being ill and through the way I’ve discovered things about myself through art. I’ve found myself through art. For me, art is also a spiritual thing it helps to open my eyes to things around me, allowing me to recognise shapes, form, beauty and natural things. I see some amazing things in simple things. For me, the Burren is my cathedral of thought, both from the memories connected to the Burren from my youth and from its own natural beauty. It’s so open to the universe and so much is possible there, in terms of nature and life,” he says.
“A lot of my sculpture is inspected by things Celtic. I’m now a free spirit and art has certainly unleashed that spirit in me. I feel that I can fly to the sky now,” he explains.
Jerry believes that if there’s a dialogue between the brush, or the chisel, with the creator within, wonderful things can happen.
“Art develops creative qualities within a person, which is someone’s true spirit and God working. This isn’t an institutional religion, it’s true spirituality.
“People sometimes think that artists are eccentric, we’re not – we’re just freer and not afraid of expression. My beliefs about art are quite simple but someone has to understand their own art and have belief in themselves. The key to being free is knowing and loving yourself firstly and then loving other things and other people. That’s the right pecking order. I also believe that if people change the way they look at things, then the things they look at change,” he says.
He loves doing art residencies because they give him more time and space. “There’s a certain amount of mental detox also,” Jerry adds.
He is a strong believer in the benefits of art to someone dealing with an illness.
“I’ve been at courses where there’s very elderly people, people who are seriously ill with both physical and mental illnesses reaping the benefits of art. Achieving some form of art is uplifting for someone who is sick, at a time when they feel they are losing control of other parts of their life. It also allows them time to forget their illness for a while. I know it has definitely helped me to get through my heart condition.”
Another source of inspiration and much thought for Jerry in his art are the theories surrounding Sheelagh na Gigs.
“This theme, the power of women, is in some of my work. Such theories go back to Druidic and Brehon times, when women were very well placed and highly respected. There was an intrigue about women, mainly surrounding a woman’s fertility power. This leads to questions like where would men be without women and the whole issue of which came first man or woman and all of these concepts are some way reflected in my work. I’m fascinated by such theories and there is strong female, powerful images in my work,” Jerry says.
Jerry’s wife is hugely supportive of his art and he says that she loves his work. His four grown-up children and 10 grandchildren are also fans of his art. The next generation too seem to be developing an artistic flair.
“Some of my grandchildren draw and paint for me and recently, one of my grandchildren gave me a painting and I’m so impressed by it that I’m going to progress it and use it as a model for some of my own work. What’s wonderful about a child’s art is that children draw what’s in them naturally and they draw the way that they see things, without external influences from society. There’s a lot to be said about that,” he adds.
Over the years both Jerry and his wife, Maureen, have immersed themselves in community activities in the Roscrea area, including charitable causes. He has been heavily involved in the development of Roscrea Heritage. He won a Roscrea People of the Year Award in 1992 and a People of the Year Citation in 2004, for his pivotal work for the Scart Famine Memorial Garden and as mentor to Roscrea 2000 artistic endeavours. He was also given a bursary award by North Tipperary County Council to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.
His artistic statement says his work may be considered as work-in-progress – a continuum. “It is a journey, which started some years ago with the desire to know self, thus allowing the subjective aspects to manifest – free from the constraints of conformity.”
His exhibition will be opened by former school pal Michael D Higgins on October 12, in the Banner Suite in the Old Ground Hotel and will remain on display for three days.
“Over the years, I’ve exhibited in other places, including Roscrea, Cork, Portumna, Portarlington and Birr. But this is my first exhibition in my native county and I’m delighted to get the opportunity to show my art on my home turf. I’m very much looking forward to sharing my work with the people who know the places where it all began for me,” he concludes.