The end of June was an exciting and busy time, with two launches in less than a week.
The first, of course, was just me, for ‘things found on the mountain.’
The second was for the launch of the Ancient Connections Holy Wells project, which resulted in five chapbooks of different artistic media, together with an album by VOW – Voice of the Wells – made up of Jo MacGregor Messore, Dan Messore and their band.
It was particularly lovely to have the Irish contributors over here for the event, together with those of us on this side of the Irish sea, though, sadly, Flora McLachlan couldn’t make it.
We had the pleasure of hearing Michelle Dooley Mahon talk about her two encounters with Wexford wells. These are illustrated by cyanotype prints by Caitriona Dunnett, who told us a little about the process involved in creating these beautiful artworks. Christopher Power gave a summary of the life of St Aidan, whose travels across both counties link many of the stories. Then we were treated to an account in Welsh of Rowan O’Neill’s personal journey from West Wales to Ireland, in a quest to understand ancestry, roots and inheritance. And Phil Cope spoke about how wells have inspired many poets, with illustrations from his own photographs. Phil, of course, has compiled several books on holy wells, which are such an important source of information for anyone interested in the subject.
Finally, before the interval, it was my turn to read an extract from my story ‘A Pilgrim Wife’, one of the two contained in my chapbook, ‘Song of the Water.’ (This is accompanied by wonderful etchings by Flora, but, as I say, she was unable to attend, so we weren’t able to learn about her own special technique, involving copper plates, ritual and divination!) This story is a purely fictional tale of Gwenonwy, wife of Saint Gwyndaf, who founded the church at Llanwnda, a few miles from Fishguard.
The interval was an opportunity to talk to each other and the audience, answering any questions they might have.
Then the second half was the performance of Jo and Dan’s album based on the wells, and featuring the two of them, together with some musicians from Ireland.
Jo began with the song she wrote about my story, which was the perfect way to link the two halves. I love this song, and it gives me a real thrill when I hear it. I also love the fact that when she introduces it, she references my work and the visit we made to Llanwnda, where the well is.
All the rest of the songs were wonderful, too, bringing a great evening to the perfect end.
Throughout, introductions were made by Ruth Jones, who is the organizer of the project – quite a difficult task, when there were so many strands to unite.
And it was left to Ruth to bring the proceedings to an end, in front of an appreciative audience.
Thank you, to her, for all her hard work, and to all the other contributors (including the translators and cover designer, Heidi Baker), to Parthian, who produced the beautiful chapbooks and to Theatr Gwaun for providing the venue for the launch.
The books are available separately or together from Parthian.
