Institution
MTU Crawford College of Art and Design (MTU CCAD)
Medium
Design
Graduation Year
Class of 2025
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My final year project is rooted in the sean nós singing tradition of Kerry, exploring how the surrounding landscapes, especially those of Corca Dhuibhne, have shaped these haunting and powerful songs. Raised between Cork City and the Dingle Peninsula, this work is not only my exploration of song, but also a reflection on place, identity, memory, and the natural world. Through photography, music and design, this project is a quiet conversation with my dad. He lived in Corca Dhuibhne for many years, and since his passing, I’ve come to understand how deeply this place and its music connects me to him. Sean nós has become a way of being in dialogue not just with the past, but with him: his presence felt in the hills, the sea and the stories these songs carry. These songs are inseparable from the landscape, rivers, cliffs, wind, and ocean, and in listening to them, I’m reminded that nature itself is a vessel for memory. The land holds a quiet knowing, and when we listen carefully, we can hear it. The act of singing has become a way of listening to the land, to my ancestry, and to the emotions that run beneath the surface. Sean nós offers a way to hold grief and beauty at once. It doesn’t drown the loss; it holds it gently, lets it echo and makes space for it within something larger and older than myself. The project takes the form of a book, with each chapter reflecting a theme within sean nós, offering a visual and emotional response to the music through image, text, and design.And so, we sing the rhythm of the waves behind us.
