Cóitheach is a multi-disciplinary artwork, a series of sound installations and a ceremony; an exploration of oral transmission of the meteorological knowledge and language of weather local to the Mullet peninsula and the Erris Gaeltacht in North Mayo.

The sound installation comprises a layering of different sounds: field recordings made by the artists around the Mullet peninsula, a poetic reading of a horde of 82 phrases for the weather as described in the Erris dialect of Irish (Gaelic) spoken in Irish by Uinsionn Mac Graith and in English translation by Treasa Ní Ghearraigh, and additional recordings of historical weather description, informed by lived experience of the North Mayo coastline by Uinsionn Mac Graith and Padraic Murchú.

Background:

Cóitheach is the project which resulted from Noah Rose and Selma Makela‘s residency for the Tír Sáile residency 2017.  For more details about Cóitheach and Tír Sáile North Mayo Sculpture Trail, click here, click here.

The overall Cóitheach project  comprises three separate but connected artworks:
1. Sound Installation: ‘Cóitheach’ permanently installed in the Light Room at Blacksod Lighthouse.

2. Sound installation: ‘Cóitheach’ at Áras Inis Gluaire, Oct-Dec 2017, then on tour to various locations around North Erris in 2018.
3. Ceremony: ‘Keepers of the Weather Words’.  Part 1: 10 October 2017.  Part 2: October 2042 (exact date TBC).

   

Blacksod Lighthouse:

Built in 1864, Blacksod lighthouse lights the approaches to Blacksod Bay and has played a pivotal role in world history, being the location for the transmission of the weather report that determined the date of the D-Day landings in June 1944.  Selma and Noah worked with Lighthouse Keeper Vincent Sweeney, Assistant Lighthouse Keeper Gerry Sweeney and film-maker Fergus Sweeney (Gerry’s son) – the descendants of Ted and Maureen Sweeney, the 1944 Lighthouse Keepers who sent the weather report – as well as the Commissioners of Irish Lights to plan a permanent installation.

In the Light Room, which houses the actual lamp and optical mechanisms of the lighthouse, the artists have installed a permanent version of the sound installation, Cóitheach, which can be visited on request by contacting the lighthouse.  To see and hear a short edited video of the installation, click here.