Ian Clothier: Making History

Title:

Making History

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Medium:

Online voting form, vinyl digital print and installation

Artist Statement:

Making History sets out to add a moment of Irish history to the history of the Internet micronation, the District of Leistavia. The project has become a celebration of moments of unity in Ireland’s long history. The audience will vote for one of four moments…

1 November 190BC, the Samhain Festival (Gaelic ‘samhraidhreadh’ which means ‘summer’s end’) which involved a great gathering of tribes on Tara Hill, at the midpoint between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. The last harvest is celebrated along with the cycle of life, and spirits passed.

21 April 1006. 1006 was the year in which Brian Boru completed his circuit of Ireland, attempted two years earlier. Ireland was united by Boru in 1002. This was a period of unity in Ireland and the Easter date a time of significance for him and Ireland in later centuries.

10 August 1976. This was a day of tragedy – three children of Anne Maguire were killed after an IRA fugitive was shot dead at the wheel of his car by soldiers. Within a week, Betty Williams, who lived nearby and rallied a call against violence, Mairead Corrigan (later Maguire) the sister of Anne Maguire who made a plea for peace, and Ciaran McKeown a journalist and nonviolent activist, would form the movement known as Peace People.

12 March 2009. Following the killing of two soldiers and a policeman, on the 12 March this year, Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist church leaders urged the people of Northern Ireland to wear purple for peace at St Patrick’s day services (Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig). This moment perhaps represents a watershed in Irish history as the killings were widely condemned in post-cause Ireland.

ianclothier.com/makinghistory