Story Archaeology

The ÉIRÍ Project

What is ÉIRÍ?

ÉIRÍ (standing for Évoking Ireland’s Resilient female Ícons) has been an international arts competition in parallel with a participatory research project aimed to re-ignite awareness of inspirational female figures from Irish mythology and folklore who have all too often been forgotten, suppressed, or overwritten in the mists of time. Members of the public were invited to submit original art in any form, inspired by any female figure from Ireland’s mythology or folklore. The hope was, and continurs to be, that this project may lead to better representation of women in Ireland’s national iconography and identity documentation.

Now this competition is complete, it is expected that ÉIRÍ will continue as a group, seeking to widen and broaden its interests in the Irish stories with all their undoubted and relevant significance in so many areas.

Who are ÉIRÍ?

Professor Ralph Kenna, co-director of L4, an international collaboration of four universities including Coventry’s Fluid and Complex systems Research Centre

Professor Ralph Kenna founder of the group has been a keen listener to the Story Archaeology podcasts. He used to listen, he tells me, when he was out running. Back in early 2020, he got in touch with me to share a really good idea. He had been somewhat annoyed when his home town of Athlone planned to erect a statue to celebrate the Shannon and selected a male image based on the Dublin Custom house neo-classical river god. He was not impresses! What followed was the ‘Arts for Sinann’ competition and later ,the much larger ÉIRÍ arts competition and research project.

Of course, these competitions represent only a small part of his astonishing work combining network mathematics and world mythology.

Daniel Curley and the Rathcroghan Visitor Centre

Daniel Curley is an archaeologist and historian who is also the manager of the wonderful Rathcroghan Visitor Centre. and has been an active participant in the Arts For Sinann and EIRI project from its commemcement. We have worked together on many occasions, especially the Tain March Roscommon Schools projects which took place over several years.

Celtic Eye

Celtic Eye joined the group more recently, after the Arts for Sinann project had been completed. However as an arts group, they are enthusiastic promoters and supporters of ÉIRÍ. Celtic Eye have an inspiring history of their own. They came together as a self supporing group of artists in the South Roscommon area but rapidly became fully and edffectively engaged in some innovative and ongoing projects. The Karst Landscape project, in which they use their various artistic talents in conjunction with South Roscommon Farmers to preserve and celebrate a unique landscape is outstanding. I also love the simple seffectiveness of their Strive4live project which was so effectively designed to engage people during lengthy pndemic lockdowns

The Irish Post

The Irish Post has been an highly active participant and enthusiastic on-going supporter of both projects, Arts for Sinann and ÉIRÍ . As well as acting as the fund holders, Mal Rogers has given us interesting and regular coverage. It is thanks to the paper that promotion has been so successful. A large number odf articles published in the Irish Post can be viewed on Story Archaeology

Story Archaeology

Story Archaeology will continue to promote and nework helping to broaden the focus of the group as we go forward.

What will ÉIRÍ do next?

What we have all in common is our love of mythology and the early Irish stories in particular. But there is more to it. We all feel that the stories have more to offer than just entertainment, although they certainly offer that. The stories were originally intended to communicate cultural information in their telling and they do still carry messages and information that is relevent today.

Ralph’s mathematical work has demonstrated evidence that positive agency by women is more apparent in the early Irish stories than found in many other myth cycles. There were women poets, craftsmen, hunters, warriors and leaders. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all sweetness and light and being a high status woman certainly helped! However, the women were no mere background decoration.

Deeper research into the early Irish stories, as curated in their earliest forms, also demonstrates that they were intended to pass on equally important environmental messages as well. Both the Táin Bó Cúailnge and Cath Maige Tuired, for a start .include themes warning that if the struggle for personal power displaced regard for the environment and ‘natural law’ then the land would rapidly become a wasteland. We are looking forward the next exciting steps ÉIRÍ, which in early Irish meant ‘rise up’ , or ‘get up’ , is going to do just that. From out of this event has come a group of us who all believe that early Irish stories still contain ideas that are worth working with and there is much to do . So it is about time that we ‘rise up’, and be counted

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