Podcasts
Joseph McBrinn University of Ulster, Ulster, Ireland.
This podcast is intended for educational use only.
Throughout the twentieth century any discussion of modern Irish craft has made reference to the production of Ireland's historic past. This held true for both Southern and Northern Ireland which were politically, and geographically, divided in 1921. In the 1920s both the Northern and Southern Irish governments attempted to reclaim Ireland's rich craft heritage, which stretched back to pre-Christian times, as their own and quizzically constructed opposing political identities based upon similar self-definitions in which craft was seen as a cornerstone. From the 1920s through to the 1960s the two Irish states actively, and competitively, promoted craft and strengthened its links with professional design and industrial manufacture. However, by the 1970s when the Troubles became a major vehicle of expression for fine artists many craftworkers also began to turn their work into a commentary on what was happening politically. It is this period from the 1970s to the 1990s that is least written about in histories of Irish craft although such a divergence of direction for craftworkers has today resulted in a lack of clarity as to their role in the post-colonial, post-conflict society of twentieth-first century Ireland. This paper seeks to address the changing definitions of Irish craft from a tool of state philosophy to entrepreneurial practice to individual creative expression, and to reconsider how craft has reflected the flux of war and peace in modern Ireland.
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L'auteur situe le travail des artisans Irlandais dans son contexte historique et politique – depuis la partition nord/sud en 1921, jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Il explore la façon don't les expressions artistiques ont été utilisés comme véhicule de pensée politique par les gouvernements du nord et du sud; et comme commentaries politiques par les artisans eux-mèmes.