James Watson could trace his family’s artistic lineage to York Minster and following his move to Cork he launched a new tradition to last a hundred years, writes Vera Ryan.
In the mid 1880s when James Watson first came to Youghal, County Cork, a new era in stained glass in Ireland was underway. The Yorkshire man (born c. 1860) was employed by Cox, Sons, Buckley and Co., ecclesiastical decorators commissioned to design an altar for St Mary’s Catholic church. The designer Michael Buckley, a partner in the firm, had strong ties with Youghal and had trained in Bruges. The altar was made by Dublin-based ecclesiastical decorators Pearse and Sharp. Englishmen James Pearse, father of PH and Willie, Joshua Clarke, father of Harry, and James Watson all came to Ireland at a time when there was a great demand for ecclesiastical decoration and an acute awareness of the need for enterprises providing employment.1 In 1889, the Manchester Guardian reported that ‘ £20,000 is annually sent out of Ireland for ecclesiastical ornaments’ and further commented that ‘a well known firm of ecclesiastical decorators ‚Ķ Messrs Cox & Buckley of Southampton Street, London have lately opened a branch establishment in Youghal. I cannot describe the pleasure it gave me to see Irish lads learning to paint on glass’.2 Adding drawing, glazing, firing, leading, installing and other necessary skills, ‘Irish lads’ in Youghal continued to paint on glass, as James Watson bought out the Youghal branch in the mid 1890s and his descendents made stained glass windows there until 2012.
Overcoming the slow down at home, Irish architects Heneghan Peng, Grafton Architects, O’Donnell+Tuomey amongst others have looked to international competitions, but overseas projects are not without risk, writes John McLaughlin
In addition to creating a likeness of her daughter, Geraldine O’Neill has in mind the age-old interrogation of representation, writes Robert Ballagh of this year’s recipient of the Ireland-U.S. Council/Irish Arts Review Portraiture Award
Michael Nolan’s images of a present-day meitheal invoke much older notions of kinship and identity, writes Stephanie McBride of the photographer’s festival sketches.