Arts Festival parade a celebration of community, environment and folklore
Ciara Moynihan
There’s something fishy going on in Westport. In nooks and crannies all around the town and its surrounds, little hands are working on big ideas, turning waste into treasure, and breathing life into fantastical sea creatures. And soon – very soon – their work will form part of the much-anticipated spectacle that is the Westport Arts Festival Community Parade, which this year takes place on Sunday, October 2, at 1pm, and will once again see local children and members of the community taking to the streets.
The theme of the 2016 parade is ‘Seashore and Folklore’, inspired by the ancient tale of Cathal and Macha. It is the story of the first harp, and how it was made from the rib bone of a beached whale found by beleaguered husband desperate to make his cantankerous wife happy.
Chatting to The Mayo News, the parade’s production designer, Westport-based artist Nicky Dowd, explained that part of the idea of drawing on the old Irish story was itself inspired by the local landscape. “I think the islands in Clew Bay look like sleeping humpback whales. And then, of course, the harp is the national instrument, so when I found a piece of folklore that married the two together, I decided it would be great to focus on it.”
For Dowd, one of the most important aspects of this year’s parade is its emphasis on collaboration by ‘harnessing of all the talents in the community’, and its ability to make a powerful statement about tackling the pollution of our oceans.
“The parade is about lots of things. It’s a combination of celebrating heritage, educating the new generation to carry an environmental message forward, and harnessing the talents, skills, generosity of spirit and creative essence of Westport,” she smiled.
The children in of nine local national schools — Murrisk NS, The Quay NS, Carrowholly NS, Knockrooskey NS, Holy Trinity NS, Brackloon NS, Kilmeena NS, Scoil Phadraig and Gaelscoil na Cruaiche — worked with Dowd and multi-award-winning artist Ariel Killick to help create many aspects of what is shaping up to be a colourful, carnivalesque street show.
With a soundscape of waves, birds and ethereal harp as an aural backdrop, the parade will start off at the Mall, at the Bridge Street Bridge, with a huge net filled with all sorts of waste material found along the Carrowholly coastline, made by the children of Carrowholly NS. Next up will be a group of little selkies (Celtic mythical seal-humans) from Little Acorns Pre-School. Close behind will be 40 dancers, coordinated by Aoife Carr, wearing Wild Atlantic Way T-shirts and using pom-poms to create a feeling of sea surf.
Behind them, the parade’s theme moves deeper into the sea, with waves and fish. Dowd and many of the young students teamed up to produce this part of the spectacle using recycled materials, while an educational team from Leave No Trace - Ireland came to talk to the pupils about the taking care of the environment.
The waves were made using old CDs donated by the Westport Ladies’ Social Club, the Singing Sisters, local charity shops, singer Joanne Keegan, as well as hundreds of scallop and oyster shells donated by Seán O’Grady of Murrisk Shellfish. The local Men’s Shed drilled holes in the shells and secured them to the children’s sculptures.
The fish were created using plastic bottle tops donated by The Helm Bar and Connaught Creative Resource Centre, as well as many hoarded milk-bottle tops and jam-jar lids. The fish-shaped boards onto which the bottle tops are stuck were made using recycled election posters.
Next up will be an enormous eight-foot-wide, 20-foot-long,13-foot-high dancing whale, ‘Gráinne Whale’, designed and made by Mayo artist Tom Meskell, who has previously worked with Macnas. The eye of the whale will already be familiar to many from the front of the Westport Arts Festival programme.
Behind Gráinne Whale will be a parade of harps made by the pupils of Scoil Phádraig and Gaelscoil na Cruaiche, with the help of Ariel Killick, using willow, bamboo and recycled materials.
Finally, bringing up the rear, will be a maritime-themed spectacle from Westport Smarter Travel.
Winding its way up Bridge Street, the parade will snake along Shop Street to the Octagon, where the participants will be joined by Eriko Hopkinson and Westport Children’s Choir and a gang of musicians for a crescendo performance of ‘Ripples in the Rockpools’ – as well as a few surprises, Dowd reveals with a wink.
The parade was originally due to start at 4.30pm, but it was moved back to 1pm due to the All-Ireland final replay. “We’re pitching it as a celebration of the Mayo team coming home now,” Dowd laughs. And wouldn’t it be a fitting welcome for Sam?
The story of Cathal and Macha
Cathal and Macha lived by the sea and led a simple life, working hard to feed themselves from the land.
Cathal was sitting at the table eating his lunch when his wife came into the kitchen and asked ‘What are you doing?’. Cathal replied that he was having a rest from the fields and eating his lunch.
“Get back out into the fields,” she said, “you can eat as you work.”
“I’ll just drink some buttermilk then,” he said, but she snapped: “No, save that for later. We don’t have enough.”
So he went back out to the field and thought, ‘What can I do to make her happy?’. After his work he walked down to the beach and heard the most beautiful sound. When he climbed over the sandy dunes to follow it, he discovered the music was being made by the wind blowing through the ribs of the carcass of a beached whale.
Cathal ripped off one of the ribs and ran home to show his wife. But the music didn’t play like before, and she was really cross with him for wasting his day and was unhappy again.
That night he lay awake wondering why it didn’t work, and he remembered the sinewy dried skin that was stretched over the rib, so he jumped out of the bed and strung his fishing wire over it and decorated it with bird feathers from a tree and held it up to the wind plucking at the strings.
It played the most beautiful melody, and Macha was always calm and happy when he played the music for her … and that was the beginning of the harp.
