Stone, Sky, Syllable

A series of talks/interviews centred on the Sligo megalithic landscape; a world both strange and familiar, a scene of exploration, naming, renaming, transformation and translation. 

THE CURATOR

Pádraig Meehan

Pádraig Meehan is a Sligo/Leitrim based musician, songwriter, independent archaeology researcher, and author. He is a founding member, writer and guitarist with the celebrated Sligo indie/funk rock band Those Nervous Animals, and co-founder and manager of the independent record label The Knock Records. Meehan is an active researcher who has published books and academic papers on Neolithic sites such as the passage tombs of Carrowkeel and Carrowmore. He regularly presents at events such as the Sligo Field Club Annual Conference and Living in a Leitrim Landscape in The Dock Theatre, Carrick on Shannon. He is a dedicated advocate for securing UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the passage tomb landscapes of County Sligo, and is the current chair of the Sligo Neolithic Landscapes Group.

THE SPEAKERS

Isolde Ó Brolcháin Carmody

Isolde Ó Brolcháin Carmody is a writer and performer who moved to Co. Leitrim from Dublin in 1999. She has worked extensively around the North-West and beyond in community theatre and collaborative arts. Her practice is informed by Theatre of the Oppressed and aesthetic accessibility, drawing on the legacy of the Focus Theatre in Ireland. Carmody's "Mamó" is a one-woman show based on the life of her great-grandmother, Geraldine Plunkett-Dillon. She and her brother, Joseph Mary Plunkett, played central roles in the 1916 revolution which led to Irish independence. Isolde writes and translates poetry, enjoys dance and physical performance and writes occasional articles and fiction exploring the world of disability.

Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich

Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich was born and reared in Wexford Town.  He completed a PhD in the field of Old Irish and tutored in both German and Old Irish as well as various aspects of early Irish and early Irish literature. Conchubar worked as a Placenames researcher at the Placenames Branch (and Logainm.ie) since 2000. He is Chief Place Names Officer for the Department of Community and Rural Development and the Gaeltacht.

Frank Prendergast

Dr Frank Prendergast’s talk will be about "A Possible Solar Cult in Early Bronze Age Ireland" and will focus on his research on wedge tombs, a monument type strongly represented in County Sligo. 

He is a chartered geodetic surveyor and archaeoastronomer. He holds a PhD from the School of Archaeology, UCD and is one of Ireland's leading authorities on solar alignments in prehistoric monuments.