Donegal Artists of the Diaspora

R-M222: Contemporary Artists of the Donegal Diaspora

PhD researcher/artist Rachael Flynn is exhibiting work as part of this exhibition at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, from 8th July - 24th August. 

The R-M222 project brings together a number of artists of the first, second, third and fourth generation Donegal Diaspora. The exhibition features artworks in different media by a line-up of highly regarded international artists that will include Liam GIllick, Frances Hegarty and Padraig Timoney among others. The title of the project R-M222 refers to the Y-chromosome associated with people whose roots lie in the counties of Northwest Ireland, Ulster and Lowland Scotland.

In her memoir Why be happy when you can be normal, Jeanette Winterson writes:

“Where you are born–what you are born into, the place, the history of the place, how that history mates with your own– stamps who you are, whatever the pundits of globalisation have to say.”

The R-M222 project extends this argument further to the diasporic context of parents, grandparents and great grandparents.

Scottish artist Rachael Flynn’s mixed media exhibition is a creative exploration of the memories of migration handed down within the Irish Diaspora, in particular a celebration of the women’s stories. There will also be another opportunity to see the wonderful PEACE III funded Local People art and social history exhibition featuring the stories of 40 people from Derry and Donegal this summer. One of the biggest exhibitions ever commissioned in Donegal, Local People is an entertaining, informative and enjoyable experience. It is a great way to learn about a wide spectrum of life in Donegal and Derry over the past 50 years from people’s first hand accounts.