The first phase of documentation and analysis of the NAR studies was funded by NTNU. UCD, Dalhousie University and the EU Eras - mus programme. It will be published in 2008 as Landscape: Form & Settlement and is funded in part by the Graham Foundation. Norway: Elin Corneil, Carmen Corneil, Eileen Garmann Johnsen, Are Øyasæter, Bente Skille. Ireland: Anna Ryan, Elizabeth Shotton. Iceland: Þorsteinn Geirharðsson, Steinpor Karl Karason. Canada: Ted Cavanagh, Roger Mullin.
7
8
Somehow it’s easier to see home when you’re away from it. There’s a clarity that you will never find up close. I guess it depends who you’re talking to but for us Ireland is the Celtic Tiger, the influx of Eastern Europeans and the hostility to George Bush’s war as much as it is our language which we wouldn’t dream of using at home, a political struggle that’s slowing becoming history, and dancing which really does only work when everybody joins in. Comparing it to the landscapes of Nova Scotia and to a small extent Norway and Iceland which are so similar to our own, highlights with amazing precision the differences in the cultures and occupations of these places and certainly made me think about the impact inhabita- tion has had on the shaping of this land, and in particular the defores- tation of the island [Ireland] which I understand happened over mil- lennia but was achieved comprehensively in the seventeenth century. In the light of some exposure to the Canadian way of life, it seems to have had a massive impact both on the physical landscape and on the way we occupy it today. There was a conversation with Roger about the bogs, which Nova Scotia seemed to have a plentiful supply of. The availability of timber in that region however made the idea of harvesting these wetlands for fuel completely foreign to him. Bogs are not something which are particular to Ireland but maybe, at least in part, some of the culture I associate with them is. In the early part of the last century Padraig Pearse described them as a major source of energy for Ireland, which would secure us economic independence and stability. It’s interesting that the same resource existed in Canada without ever taking on the level of cultural significance the bogs of Ireland hold. It is more than the existence of these bogs then, that gives them their power.
Similarly the karst landscape of the Burren [Ireland] was evoked by the rocky outcrop we visited in the headlands of Cape Breton National Park. It’s amazing the contrast in the feeling between the two places, in one instance the landscape so dominated by occupation, the other, for me, so eerie with the lack of it. It begins to describe in a new way, that sense that you always have when you visit the isolated parts of Ireland. The struggle of man to have forced an existence out of a place so unsuited to it. It’s not about a triumph of will in the manner you find in the great cities but rather a sad and lonely story resounding in the emptiness of the vast Nova Scotian landscape. Our declaration of independence as set out in 1916 declares ‘the right of the Irish People to the ownership of Ireland’, I guess it’s that obsession with ownership and the declaration of it that causes us to build walls around everything. I found it really interesting that the Canadians didn’t feel a similar compulsion. However the lack of walls didn’t mean there were no boundaries as I found out when ap- proached by a lady whose garden I was sitting drawing in. There were walls, my Irish eyes just didn’t see them. I didn’t realise before, that boundaries have a cultural expression. I’m really interested in landscape, the effect occupation has on the land but more interestingly the effect it has on us. I’m interested in how we perceive it, how we perceive ourselves in relation to it and how architecture might manipulate that perception, increasing our awareness of the land and trying to re-establish some of the broken threads which connect us to it. Understanding my own perceptions through visiting a place that was so physically similar to Ireland but significantly culturally different was really valuable.
Sinead Cahill, University College Dublin, 2006
on site review 17
17
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator