Orla Murphy visits Co Leitrim where the new regional offices for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, designed by the Office of Public Works, successfully connects staff with the community they serve
Drumshanbo was quiet on a still Monday morning in October. Perched on a drumlin overlooking Lough Allen, the town wraps the rising and falling ground. Many of the buildings in the town are vacant; a half-completed development commands views over the main public space. Drumshanbo presents a calm but rather melancholy beauty that recalls moments from John McGahern’s novel That They May Face the Rising Sun. Few authors assign such particularity to the tempo of place as a backdrop to the inherent rhythm of diurnal and seasonal ritual. McGahern’s depiction of the ebb and flow of time around the main characters succeeds in weaving their existence inextricably into the landscape of which they are a part
On the eve of his show at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, in Winter 2009 Joseph McBrinn considered the unique aesthetic Rudolf Heltzel has brought to jewellery design.
