ARV-F-10-15062008_The Arts_Josephine de Courcey_15june2008

Mo West, also known as Margaret Irwin, was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award for her work as an artist. She is recognized as one of Galway's most distinguished and beloved artists. Mo's parents were from County Roscommon and County Cork, and she was born in India. She grew up with an appreciation for art and light, which influenced her painting and etching. Mo taught art at various schools and emphasized the importance of drawing skills in her classes. She enjoys the labor-intensive process of etching and finds joy in expressing herself through her artwork. we have to congratulate Mo on the award. It's a lifetime achievement award for Margaret Irwin, which it's the name she uses for her painting and lots more as you will hear is etching as we will hear as we go along in the program. And I'll just read a bit from the Cunnama Review and it's an article written by John Durning and it is to resounding applause and a standing ovation the renowned artist and Claddagh Doff resident Mo West was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the recent Galway Arts Awards. Surrounded by family relatives and friends Mo became only the second person ever in the country to receive this prestigious award. Mo was honoured for her life's work as one of Galway's most distinguished and best loved artists. That's very nice. And delivering the citation James C. Harold who was very well known to us here in Cunnamara from the arts officer said Mo is an infant terrible who will only do what takes a fancy depicting the indefinable, the inexpressible, her consummate skill, her goy-like ability to handle subject and lots and lots more and Mo you're very very welcome to Cunnamara community radio. Thank you it's lovely to be here. You were all excited were you about this great award. Fantastic it was such a shock in the first place and such an honour and privilege it was just amazing still is I can't get over it. Yes but I mean it's obviously you wouldn't have gotten it if you didn't deserve it. Oh well I don't know about that but they have to find somebody who's going to respond and be prepared to go along. Oh well you know we're going to come to the life of Mo West, Margaret Irwin as we go along this evening but you know let's start with Margaret Irwin as possibly is the name is it of your maiden name so that's where Margaret was born in India I can read from the article. Yes and so and your parents were of? My father was from County Roscommon and my mother from County Cork along the Blackwater. And how did they finish up? Well my father was the youngest of seven and he got a scholarship from Stoneyhurst to Oxford and he did quite well and he took the Indian civil service exams which were the British administration in India and he served there for 35 years which was half a lifetime. But that was amazing for let's say a West of Ireland man in that era you know to achieve that. But then you know it was a different kind of immigration but it was immigration and you always dreamed of County Roscommon. I grew up with stories of Roscommon. And Corrie you remember living in India? Oh yes yes you were there until eight. Yes I remember a bit you know. For me I've always I've I always feel it's such a colorful country you know that the lots of light yes lots of light and as well as that the ladies wear very colorful clothing and and they're so graceful yes so beautiful very beautiful very beautiful. And how many were in your family? Just me. Oh just you? Yes I was an only child. My mother and father married very late. Oh my goodness. A privileged child I would say. Well probably rather spoilt. Yes of course you would be. But your education started in India? Well I really wasn't educated at all when I came back from India. I had to have some coaching before I could catch up and start school because there was no school there really. So it was your parents really that was teaching you? Yes. And you know when you came back from India where did you come back to? I came back to County Wicklow. To Wicklow? Yeah. I grew up in Delgady in County Wicklow within sight of the sea. Oh yes. I've lived almost all my life within sight of the sea. Oh that's very very well once you live beside the sea it's very hard to leave it. It certainly is. So you you worked did you you went to school and that's what every youngster did? I was sent off to boarding school with the Sacred Heart and then the war came so I was brought back to boarding school in Mount Anvil. Where is that in? Just outside Dublin. Yes. And that was a long three years and then I went back to the old still Sacred Heart school in England and then I came home and I went to Trinity. And did you know when you were going to Trinity that painting and etching were going to be part of your life? Well I knew that I wanted painting to be but my parents thought that really art school was not a good thing it wasn't a proper education. So I went off and I did my languages and literature and but they my mother had got me painting and drawing lessons from a Royal High Burnettian academician in all the holidays called Lillian Davidson and she was a wonderful teacher and very strict on how to draw and how to create space and form and her lessons are something you'll never forget. So even though you were studying the languages just to keep the parents happy? Exactly yes. I mean how many actors and actresses decided you know that they wanted to do this but the parents said well let's have the education and have a decent job. A saleable qualification. Yes yes but you started from there then? Just from there and then after I finished university I went to Paris as part of an exchange and my mother's great friend in Delgini was a priest who was a gardener and a painter father Jack Hanlon and he had studied painting at a very modern atelier as they call them they were sort of open schools in somebody's big studio and it was a cubist school and he told me I'm sending you to this place and don't tell your mother. Oh really? So that was fun. Oh yes. And I learned a huge amount there. But I mean I'm sure a lot of it you know we'll talk about what painting and etching is but it must have been right in your in your heart. Well I think that's the way it is you know. No matter what. You grow up with an appreciation vision and I'm sure the light and shade and colour as you were saying of India you know stays with you and it's something that makes you want to get involved in things that you can look at and that helps you to communicate your memories and things like that. So with all of the you know all of the classes you got and did you ever actually teach what you went to Trinity and did languages? Oh yes but later on I did a lot of teaching. You did? Yes for many years. You did in the different languages. Oh no not in language. I never taught language. No you did not. I only taught art. So that was your love. Languages became something that I really enjoyed for myself. Oh yes and you made use of them of course. I did of course because now it's essential because I have six bilingual grandchildren. Three in France and three here. It's very difficult well it's very important to be able to communicate with them. But so you were teaching art in Dublin and you went to Paris. I went to Paris three sessions with the skewers. Yes what a wonderful experience. Wonderful city Paris. It was a kind of whole new world and a shock of excitement. Yes after you know the kind of rather dreamy light of Ireland and dark winters and things all the colour and movement is something fantastic. Well for you it was. So maybe you'll describe now to us Mo a little about your your paintings and your etchings. I see a very unusual word here is chiaroscuro. Yes. Would you explain that to me please. It's not really terribly obscure. It's just a nice sounding word and it really means enormous contrast between black areas and white areas. The sort of shadow areas and the bright light and that's what I started off talking about that comes from my early recollections of being away abroad and things and that kind of light stays with you all your life. And that is what I was always somehow looking for when I was painting first and then when I discovered etching. It really is the ultimate material and means of getting that kind of effect. But the school that I went to in Paris that cubist school the master Henri Lot he translated the ideas of light and shade entirely into colour which was very exciting and unusual. And he wanted us to express shade with cold colours such as blues and greens and things like that and maybe purples if it's night time and the sunny areas with bright oranges and yellows. Those lovely warm colours are vital. Well for me when I look at a painting you know I love to see the warm colours in it. But I mean it scares you. Yes well what is the difference then with the etchings you know? Etching is a craft very ancient craft and it's really involved in making your image on a metal plate so that you can then work ink into the image, clean it off and put damp paper over that and put the paper and plate covered with blankets through a double roller which pushes the damp paper into the crevices and dots that you've made right into the metal which are filled with ink by this time. And when you then lift it up after it's gone through the double roller you get an image on the other side. And so you get really contrasting black areas and white areas but you can then use colour as well. You must really really enjoy your work. The actual process I really enjoy because it's quite labour intensive so you need to enjoy the process. Yes. It's interesting. Yes it must be a fabulous I mean you can't call it a hobby because a lot of people has it as their way of expressing themselves. Yes they're expressing as well as making a little money. Oh yes I hope making a little money. Yes it's important. Yes. Well it's a must really. Oh absolutely. But you know you're describing this to me and you were we were listening to the music and you were saying you know how the you know the water and this you know. How do you get that through to your students when you're teaching them? When I'm teaching? Well really I've mostly taught. I did teach in the secondary school system but I mostly taught in art school. And you are dealing with students who already know where they're going and they want to get involved. So you find yourself giving them quite basic exercises in order to increase their drawing skills. So then they have like doing scales of music. They have a means of actually making a picture because they need to have some kind of ability to make shapes and make lines and to be able to control them. And once you've got them involved with that you start talking to them about what they really care about and going to look at things and helping them to see what they didn't realize they could see. So there's a lot of talking through and experiment and using different materials and other means to make a picture. It must be difficult to teach art. It's not difficult. It's really getting involved and trying to see things through your students eyes. Yes. And that's the important thing. You need to give up of all of you to them you know. But then you learn from them as well because you suddenly discover that they've found a way of doing things that you haven't thought about. And maybe they've taken you up in a completely different sense to what you thought you were saying to them. And then that's very exciting. Yeah. I mean I think back to my school days there was very little drawing as as part of my early school days. And then of course we were at the nuns in Clifton and I mean they had us taking ankles on buckets and things like that. And it was just really just pencil and paper you know. But now. There's no harm in pencil and paper. No. There was a sort of whole era where it was fashionable not to draw. But now the whole movement has gone back to drawing and it's lovely to see it. I've seen the pencil I don't know what you call it but I'm sure there's a name on it. A guy was he was traveling around last year and he was more or less in payment for his accommodation. He was giving those little pencil drawings. And oh it's lovely. Wonderful. Yes. Wonderful now. Yes. And you know so I mean there's I mean how many different types of art is there? Can you even guess? It's like the stars. It's like the stars. It's a great description. But you know you'd say that I mean if you went to the college in Dublin you were teaching them children that are already were going that line. But if you went into a national school now. Well yes. Yes. Well I had great fun last year down in Tadlis Huff School because Mary Barke kindly asked me to come and talk to the fourth, fifth and sixth classes about art history images that she was sent from the department as part of the sort of further education and broadening out of ideas. And so we did quite a lot of talking about the pictures that were shown on the screen from the sides. And then I got them to make some work from that. And through looking I could encourage them to see other things besides the actual story of the picture to see where there was something like a musical rhythm and where things seem to go faster or slower or be very still. And they picked it up so fast. It's a wonderful age to be learning and they produced amazing work. It's so amazing in the schools now who they invite people like yourself in to talk with the students. It's a great privilege. And it must be for you as well especially where your grandchildren at school and everything you know it makes it more. And I'm sure the children there were delighted with that. And there may be an awful lot of young artists out of standard school now. There's a certain they are not a talent in the school. Yes. Oh but it is. And it's only loads of talents it's just to get it out you know. And to give them a chance. Yes. Yes. Every child has a talent whatever it may be. But sometimes they're shy and they're quiet and you can't reach in there to them. But then Margaret of course you do some paintings then at home that you do a lot of shows as well. I've been exhibiting quite a lot over the years. Exhibition I believe is the word. Yes. I had at the invitation of Brendan Flynn I had a retrospective of the work that I've made since Rodney and I retired here in 91. And that was lovely because I had two very beautiful venues, two new shops down in Bridge Street. And I was able to show works together that I hadn't shown together for a long time. And it was lovely because everybody came in and schools came in and you know we just had fun. Well I mean again through the arts and Brendan Flynn and Clifton it has really opened it up for the artists here. It's wonderful. There's a lovely artistic community here meaning you know the musicians, the writers, the painters, everybody, the people involved in dance. There's just a feeling of all those things being important. And it gives the young artists an opportunity to display their work. It does indeed. You know they're at opening night and all. Yes the Arts Trail was a great success. Oh magnificent. So they're going to do that again. And of course it's becoming the artists is in Claddagh Duff and Hall as well. You know it's only in the last few weeks you realise the amount of artists there are in the Clegg and Claddagh Duff area alone. Yes and a lot of that is thanks to Coughlin O'Malley who got the classes started. Yes and the people who are doing it really enjoy it I believe. It looks as though they enjoy it because what they produce looks so happy. Yes doesn't it? When you look at the painting you can see it. If you see the dull colours you kind of think oh somebody's not in a good mood today you know. Or even in the dress or something like that you know. But you also exhibit at the station house or you did. We had a gallery for three years, Alanna, Robbins and it started with Laura Kyle and Mary Donnelly and then there was Alice Coyle and Sabina Springer who does all those birds and fish and it was lovely. We had a very nice group of people working there. And all young girls you know Alanna and Alice and all of those. They are all granny. Oh I see you spoilt them I see. No no it was very much a balanced effort. Because Alanna I know still does a lot of... Alanna does beautiful work. She was trained as a sculptor but her painting is beautiful. Yes yes and Alice is into interior design. Yes yes we sadly lost Alice because she went off still. So she'll be back. I'm sure she will I'm sure she will. But I think we could probably talk for hours and hours about the paintings and the etchings and the effect of painting has on people, the relaxation. I know Margaret Barlow and Anne Keneally spent last week painting in Roundstone and I think both of them are exhausted but they just had a wonderful wonderful week painting. But then Moe decided she was going to get married so where did you meet the great Leigh West? I met Rodney through opera funnily enough. I used to go and stay with friends in Glasgow and drive through to Edinburgh to the Edinburgh Festival and their sort of group that they went to the opera with included Rodney. And we used to meet each year and then gradually we got to know each other a bit better and I was away in Germany for a year working just to get more experience and see another country and things. And my friends brought a whole gang over to Ireland for Easter so we had a little bit more time and we got to know each other better and gradually it turned into something more serious. Yes so you married and lived in Scotland. I went to live in Glasgow to begin with and then his firm he worked for Burroughs Machines moved us to London and we had two years just outside London and then luckily we were moved back to Edinburgh and we had two years in Edinburgh. Lovely city. Yes so I have a Glaswegian, a Cockney and two Edinburgh's. Is that what you have with your four children? Yes. None of them born in Ireland? None of them born in Ireland. No. We had five different houses in 11 years we were moved so much and so you were always painting the house rather than painting canvases. I bet it was. With four small children there wasn't much time for it but I mean it. I still was doing a bit but no. Oh no and you that you will always find time to do a bit but you know then how did it come about that you moved back to Dublin? We always rather wanted to and a job came up in a different firm with oh I can't remember the firm anyway we came back to Dublin and we went to live in Dorky. Dorky is beautiful. So the children really grew up in Dorky it was before Dorky became smart. Yes. It was still a village. But it was beautiful always and it was a lovely area to bring up the children. Yes it was old and informal and it's a very short road and it was all families so we all knew each other and we seemed to have children around the same age so you could swap and take everybody's children for a day and you have a day off and so on. Oh it was wonderful. It was a great place and they could ride their bikes so hardly any cars in the road. It was a dead end road. So how did it come about then or where how did Claddaghduff come into your? Well when my father died that was before we came back to live permanently in Ireland. My father my mother had died when my shortly after my eldest daughter was born and we always came back to Greystone to see my father they sold the house in Derby and then when he died I thought it would be nice to explore the west because I'd heard so much about it and various friends and relations sent us cuttings from the Irish times and we chose a B&B in Moyard and that was Bridie and Phil Coyne and it was the first time they'd had guests and was our first time. Oh my that was a long time ago. It was about Richard was born in 65 or 66 so it was about then because I was still expecting Richard yeah and they were the most wonderful people to discover Connemara through and they involved the children in making hay and collecting the eggs and it was a real farm yeah and then we discovered the beaches and then Rodney started going fishing he was keen on sea angling yes and gradually we kept coming back to the same place and of course when we were living in Dorky we came even more often. Yes when you moved to Dublin of course you were close to the water there as well so the water was calling you when you came here eventually to build your own house. Well no we never built um we uh through Kevin Conroy do you remember Kevin Rodney heard that the because one of the dwelling houses in the Coast Guard station was for sale so we bought that and we had that as a holiday house for 19 years yes and then when we retired um we had been looking at sites and not getting my permission and we discovered that the house behind Martin McDonagh's old house yeah was for sale and we came down on a wet St Patrick's weekend and it was dry as bones so we thought that's what we need. Yes and a lovely position there close to Ome and that exactly so you know but while you were still in Dublin and raising your own children you used to take children out as well from the orphanages and. Oh no no just uh one uh Halloween we were down here and um oh you know the neighbor priest uh um Father Fergus said um there's some children who have nowhere to go for Christmas and so if anyone wants to host a child you can go and see Sister Aloysius and so the children said oh please and so we came to know Jim and that has enriched our lives so enormously and Jim well I don't know about that but certainly ours and Jim uh is godfather to Richard my youngest child's um middle daughter Sarah and Jim comes down a tremendous lot and we all lean on Jim. Well is that of course uh Rodney when he did retire and live here permanently he became the real man of the sea didn't he? Oh absolutely. He loved it you know you'd see Rodney one man in his boat or the lonesome boat man or whatever you wanted to call him but he was out there with the real Scottish accents all And he knew all the uh right spots and he learnt all the um marks for avoiding the breakers from everybody in um coins or sweeneys he would speak to all the fishermen they'd say now Rodney you were too near that breaker and he would learn the marks by heart so he did know his sea. Oh he did and of course himself and Johnny King were sailing together yes they were great mates. I think it was a big slice of Johnny's life when Rodney I know it was for you and your family but Johnny missed him. Johnny was very close to all of us and still is but Rodney was a big part of his life too. Well I hope he's uh looking down on all of you and guiding the grandchildren through their lives and you're lucky enough that uh your son now lives uh here in Claddagh Doff as well and your grandchildren are here. And his three lovely daughters and his super wife. Oh isn't that lovely and uh we just have to finish up on the program I know we could talk for hours about it Mo but uh we just wish you continued success and again congratulations. That great achievement and I hope that Mo West will continue with her etchings and her paintings but especially teaching the young people. Well I enjoy that. Wonderful wonderful. It's tremendous fun. Art and that yes. And I want to just say a big thank you to everybody in Connemara because uh you know it's participation and if nobody'd asked me to do anything uh I wouldn't be getting the award and so it's really and it's uh all of us together. Well well I hope you have many more years of happy painting and etching.