Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, from whom acquired by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
Possibly San Francisco, Maxwell Galleries, 1954

In 1951 in preparation for his solo exhibitions with Victor Waddington and the Maxwell Galleries, Gerard Dillon rented a cottage for almost a year on Inishlacken Island three miles from the popular holiday village of Roundstone, Connemara. The artist and the daily lives of the Islanders were dictated by the weather. In strong winds the small number of families could be marooned for over a week. Two thirds of a mile long from North to South and over a third of a mile wide, the Island is made up of a pattern of stonewalls with small green fields.

This composition depicts currachs by the 'new' and 'old' piers on Inishlacken Island. Built in the 1870's, a figure on the right in a navy sweater is towing a currach into the harbour along the original pier. It was repaired and a new one built perpendicular to the first in 1950. Similar to another work, Inishlacken in the Ulster Museum, both paintings depict views of the pier on a fine day with a figure carrying an anchor. Keen on pictorial effects Dillon has used limited colour and arranged the currachs in different angles to incorporate pattern, shape and design. In the distance, a group in a currach is approaching the harbour. Islanders arranged their trips to and from the mainland according to tidal times. The group are most likely children and their parents returning in a small four or six-oar currach with supplies from the grocery store or be making their daily return trip from school on the mainland.

In the foreground a currach is cut off at the picture plane. A symbol of island life, a currach was the only way to get across to the mainland. It consisted of a light framework of timber laths covered by tarred canvas. Without a keel, it was specifically designed for heavy weather, the bow and stern rising clear above the water enabling it to ride any wave. It's lightness made it manageable but it's frail construction made it liable to damage on rocky shores. In the summer when Roundstone harbour was busy, Islanders would have been returning from the Monastery or Ervallagh piers with their post and supplies.

Several friends visited Dillon on the Island, George Campbell, Nano Reid and James MacIntyre. Years later, MacIntyre recalled humourous tales with illustrations of how he adapted to island life with Dillon and Campbell in Three Men on an Island (The Black Staff Press, 1996). MacIntyre noted how the Islanders repaired their currachs, "One of the men explained that they were boiling up lumps of tar to recoat the currach...then a long-handled brush like a floor mop was swirled around the pot and a dollop of molten tar dumped onto the currach, and in no time a thick skin spread quickly the length of the boat...the shinny black skin was all that had been between us and a watery grave."

We are grateful to Karen Reihill, who is currently researching the life and work of Gerard Dillon & Friends, for compiling this catalogue entry.