Pandemic arts initiative that spans generations

To see things from other perspectives is important, and that’s one reason making inter-generational work is very important, because you are talking and listening and getting other perspectives.” So says actor, theatre-maker and storyteller Órla McGovern who is involved in Bringing It All Back Home, a new online initiative involving local artists and residents in nursing homes and care homes throughout Galway.

The scheme, which involved pairing 10 older citizens with artists who would distil key aspects of their lives in a creative way, was run by Galway’s Town Hall Theatre in association with Backstage Theatre Longford (the original architects of the project) and the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire. Bringing it All Back Home has been funded by Creative Ireland and Galway City Council.

Cluiche/Clocha is Órla’s contribution to date and is a nine-minute film based on the experience of 82-year-old Maura Howard, now living in Bushfield Care Centre, Oranmore. Maura was born on Inis Oírr, the smallest of the Aran Islands, and emigrated to Chicago aged 19, eventually returning to Renmore in Galway City with her Kerry-born husband John, where they reared their family.

Orla encapsulates Maura’s life, using images, song and story to create what she calls “an homage” to the older woman by capturing key moments in her life.

“She’s a lovely lady and there are some things she would talk about more than others,” explains Órla of how the story evolved. “Her eyes lit up when she talked about Inis Oírr and when I saw that, I said, ‘I’ll do a poem on it’. And I wouldn’t call myself a songwriter, but a song came too.”

Maura and Órla met during lockdown in the nursing home where Maura lives, having been connected by the co-ordinator of Bringing it All Back Home, Maisie Lee. Maisie is a freelance theatre and radio director with whom Órla had previously worked in Dublin. Originally from Galway, she has now returned West to live.

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