Seeing the Hidden

A collaborative community project

For the Bealtaine Festival 2010, Maura worked with Sligo Arts Service on a project which explored the hidden heart of five lesser-known areas in County Sligo through interview and film.  The project was also expanded into words in an accompanying booklet.

The film shorts feature five areas in Sligo; Killavil, Skreen, Ballinafad, the Gleniff Horseshoe Area and Sligo Harbour. Artists collaborating on the project included Filmmaker Caroline Clancy, Visual Artist Catherine Fanning, Writer & Poet Dermot Healy, Photographer James Fraher and Writer Maura Gilligan.

Extract from the booklet ‘Seeing the Hidden’

SKREEN, Co. Sligo:

“Rabbits burrow deeply and daffodils still surface among the crumbled stone walls that were once a part of the original rectory of Skreen, where George Gabriel Stokes was born on August 13th 1819.  George Stokes became one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and physicists, who remained deeply connected to the land and seascapes of Skreen which played a significant part in the formulation of his theories.  Known for Stokes’ law, Stokes’ theorem and several other major works, his published works by no means reflect his services in the advancement of science, which were extraordinary in their breadth and application.

In this film we interview well-known physicist and astronomer Paddy Rolleston who lives in Skreen, and former European Commissioner Ray McSharry, who spent a large part of his childhood at his grandmother’s home in Skreen and unveiled a memorial to George Stokes at the Rectory in 1995.”