Cork legend John Spillane inspires art exhibition

ARTWORKS inspired by a John Spillane song will serve as the focus of a new exhibition being launched at County Hall.

The Mayor of the County of Cork, Independent Councillor Danny Collins, said he is delighted to welcome the exhibition titled ‘Roaming’ to Library Headquarters (LHQ) Gallery, Cork County Hall. 

The free exhibition includes artwork by Cork-based artists Mary Bowen Galvin, Colm Brady, Jaclyn Hargreaves, Catherina Hearne, Diane Magee, Seán McGuill, Noël O’Callaghan, Cliodhna O’Riordan, Latisha Reihill and Ben Reilly. 

It follows a call out to the artists who were challenged to respond to lyrics from the song ‘The Long Way Home.’

A verse from the song reads as follows: “And if you take the long way, if you take the long way home, down where the magicians and the dreamers roam, through the mountains of morning, through the valleys of night, searching for the island of your hearts delight.”

Mayor Cllr Collins is encouraging everyone who can to visit ‘Roaming’ and said: “This exhibition showcases the incredible talent our Cork artists and highlights the importance of art in our community. 

"It was especially interesting to see how the unique interpretations of each artist developed into a range of varied, magnificent artwork. 

"The songs, stories and poems of John Spillane encapsulate what it means to be from Cork so it seemed very fitting to use his lyrics as a prompt for this exhibition of Cork based artists.”

The exhibition will be opened by John Spillane himself on Thursday, March 2, at 6pm in LHQ Gallery, Cork County Library.

It will be a melting pot of artistic mediums including paintings, sculpture and mixed media.

‘Roaming’ runs until Friday, March 24, 2023. The gallery will be open from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5.30pm.

The LHQ Gallery is funded by Cork County Council and The Arts Council of Ireland.

‘The Long Way Home’ is just one of many songs from John Spillane’s repertoire. His most recent album As in Another Light was released in October of last year. It features songs from 1983 right up to his 2021 release 100 Show White Horses.

The album includes performances from Pauline Scanlon, conducted by John O’Brien and orchestrated by Kevin Codd, Paul Frost, Daniel Murphy and Robbie Pender.