‘Culture is about sharing; Nationalism is about ownership.’ Hughie O’Donoghue encapsulates the chasm between the two concepts, in conversation with Brian McAvera
Brian McAvera: Your father was born in Manchester, of Irish stock; your mother was Irish and emigrated in 1937, and your grandfather emigrated to England in 1911. Family holidays were regularly spent in Mayo in the 1950s and 1960s. You are British and so described in most of the catalogues, but what do you consider your identity to be?
Hughie O’Donoghue: I’ve never had any ambiguity about that. My origins are Manchester/Irish. I am English by birth but grew up steeped in Irish culture. I feel that I have had a strong sense of origins. The family originated in Ireland and I think that that was deliberately passed on to me by my parents. Looking at the photographic records, some of my father’s photographs are knowing, for the time, and I am placed in the landscape of Mayo rather than Manchester. My father was a very intelligent man, and my mother also wanted to make me aware of my heritage and background. There’s also my own free will. In 1995 we moved to Ireland, house and studio. It was my conscious decision to do that. I’ve always been focused on what I would see as cultural rather than national identity. Culture is about sharing; Nationalism is about ownership.
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