“Story Archaeology is delighted to be part of an exciting and International Arts competition.”.
“The Competition is the idea of Professor Ralph Kenna, Irish mathematician and theoretical physicist, who leads the statistical physics research group at Coventry University. Over the last 10 years, its ‘Maths Meets Myths’ research project has investigated Irish and other mythologies from a unique quantitative perspective. Most recently they published a very exciting paper on the narrative structure of A Song of Ice and Fire, including how it compares to Irish myths and other epic narratives. “
In the spirit of Sinann, who in the search for an all-encompassing inspiration and vision, became a woman of many skills, the competition welcomes submissions from visual artists, story-tellers, writers, poets working in any medium. It is open to adults and children alike, on any theme inspired by the story of Sinann. You can read about the competition including where and when to submit your entries here.
The story of Sinnan has been the myth and metaphor that has flowed through my work for many years, especially with children and young people. It is one of the stories that lead to my meeting with Isolde and was the topic of the first ever Story Archaeology podcast.
For Isolde and myself, the story of Sinann represents a symbolic reminder that the source of creativity , the world of the imagination, must be free to flow to into the world of our everyday life, just as, in the old Irish stories, it was the role of the storyteller poets to encourage an open channel between the ‘Otherworld’ of memory and wonder with the mundane world of work and action.
Of course when we delved deeper into the story, we discovered that the original Dindshenchas telling had an even greater relevance to our current world. If you want to find out more, you can listen to one of our Sinann podcasts and find out some of the little known secrets of this fascinating story. If you would rather begin by reading a modern telling of the Sinann story you can find one here.
The story of Sinann is one that speaks to us, today, and to all the challenges we face together. We need the voices of our poets, writers, story tellers and artists in each and every medium. Every voice and artist’s eye is needed to form a river that, like our great river Shannon, will become green and growing, ‘carrying the Salmon of Wisdom, once more, on their way to the spakling sea’. Welcome to ARTS FOR SINANN.
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