Cork woman’s debut film tells story of community

It was a race against time to save the old Knocknamanagh school building in Minane Bridge, which was built in 1836 and was shut down in 1951.

Filmmaker and artist, Lorraine Hogan, recalls how, more than 20 years ago, a letter from the county council to a local priest stated that the Georgian building was going to be knocked down within weeks.

The community sprang into action, and a committee was formed by the late Miley Collins to breathe life back into the building.

The former school was acquired in the early noughties, with renovation work beginning soon after.

Today, the building is home to the Tracton Arts and Community Centre.

Musicians such as Liam Ó Maonlaí, Luka Bloom, Martin Hayes and Clare Sands have played at the venue.

Legendary singer, Mary Coughlan, recently performed at the centre’s tenth annual Tracton Arts and Music Festival (of which Martin Hayes is the patron).

It was fitting that the anniversary celebrations also saw the premiere of Lorraine’s film, Seanscoil (Old School) which explores the legacy of that same building.

Making this documentary, a debut for Lorraine, had its challenges, not least the fact that it’s as Gaeilge, given the filmmaker does not speak the language.

Lorraine spent the first four years of her life in Fermoy before emigrating to London with her family in 1984, during the recession. Every year, at Christmas and during the summer, Lorraine returned to Cork.

She later worked as a leading hair stylist, working around the world for Aveda, including at the Imperial Hotel’s salon in Cork.

“After managing salons, I decided to go to Africa, where I climbed Kilimanjaro as part of the Pat Falvey Experience,” says Lorraine.

“I started documenting the experience, which brought me back to my original calling which is art. The climb was life-changing. It gave me time to think and sparked a desire to get on with the things inside me. I went to the Crawford to study art, using my photography work to get in. I graduated in 2015 with first-class honours and I was awarded the Cork Film Award for my installation from the Cork Film Centre. The installation was part of my degree show. While I got the highest marks in my year, it was hard. I didn’t even know if I could get through the degree, let alone do well.”

While Lorraine, a mother of two girls aged eight and four, started at the Crawford College of Art and Design as a painter and screen printer, she majored in video and installation.

Lorraine went on to make Seanscoil as part of a programme at WIT (Waterford Institute of Technology).

“I produced and directed the film, having gone to Waterford to study TV, media, and film in 2023. My first edit of the film was nominated in the National Student Media Awards. It was a huge achievement for me because when I went into the Ring Gaeltacht in Waterford, I didn’t have a word of Irish. I was also obviously a mature student. The WIT course was the only one I found that I wanted to do, and was delivered in a Gaeltacht. The woman who runs it really wanted me to do it and said I shouldn’t let the lack of Irish stop me. There were times when I wanted to quit. It was very difficult. There was a running joke as to how long I would last. But I was determined. When you have young kids, you don’t have time to mess about. At the end of each class, I’d be given a summary of what had happened. There were a lot of challenges.”

Keen to showcase Seanscoil at the Tracton Arts and Music Festival, Lorraine put the finishing touches to her fifteen-minute-long documentary.

“The story of the old school is an important part of the culture of Tracton, where I live (Lorraine’s husband, architect and farmer, Barry Good is a native of Tracton.)

“It’s about how the building was saved and its legacy. We now have this arts and cultural centre, which is thriving thanks to the committee that was formed. I wanted to tell the story of what happened to the school.

“As an artist myself, I filmed everything about the building. It was quite difficult to make the story come to life with just three old photographs. By pure coincidence, my husband got a camcorder and had images of the building. He is part of the committee, one of the volunteers who saved the building. All the old archival footage is from Barry’s camera.”

In order to renovate the old school, the committee raised over €1m, some of it through the local vintage festival. The committee members gave ten years of their lives to fundraise. People donated money. Barry, as the architect of the building, kept the original style with modern interiors for the state-of-the-art round theatre. It’s called The Inkwell and is very popular for performances.

Lorraine says that apart from not having the Irish language, making the film was “a real joy and a real journey.”

She says the local people are “over the moon” about the repurposed building, which serves the community.

“There are different things happening in the centre, from fitness classes to toddlers’ groups. It is consistently busy. My film is a way of honouring my community.”

Lorraine’s next project is an abstract art film based on the Mother and Baby Homes. It’s a long way from styling hair, but creativity is at the root of Lorraine’s ventures.

Seanscoil will be screened again at the Tracton Arts and Community Centre in October.

See https://www.tracton.org/