When I first started working as a copytaker for this newspaper back in the 1980s, James Hemmings, a correspondent from Bunbeg in Co Donegal, would file a report each day. He ran a newsagency in his area which served all the national newspapers at that time. Nearly all his stories were about Tory Island.
Inevitably he described the stormy weather and the hardship endured by the islanders, but he also phoned in stories about the music, the singing and the dancing, the corncrakes (still extant on the island) and the Tory painters. Sadly, he died some years ago but his legacy continues in the publication recently of Tory Island, a remote and historic outpost. Ostensibly a visitors' guide, this paperback is a bilingual insight into Tory, its people and culture.
Tory is the most remote of Ireland's inhabited islands, lying 12 kilometres off Bloody Foreland on the north Donegal coast. Generations of islanders have wrung a living from its exposed and windswept soils and fished out of its imposing coves. The island supports almost 200 people and retains the tradition of appointing a king, the only remaining place in Ireland to do so.
I can recall James Hemmings filing stories about a young man called Patsy Dan Mac Ruaidhrí back in the 1980s. He was one of the leading campaigners against the Government's plans to resettle the islanders on the Donegal mainland. His strong lobbying saw him emerge as a highly efficient organiser and in 1993 he was chosen as King of Tory. He now plays an active role in promoting the island and was a driving force in the publication of this book.
I paid a visit to Tory Island recently. There is an atmosphere of bygone days, as though time had stood still. Occupied cottages stand beside ecclesiastical remains from the early Christian period. Rowing boats and currachs bob in the harbour. Irish is spoken as the first language. There is a vibrant tradition of local music, song and dance. The day I arrived the boat was met by Patsy Dan playing the accordion. He led us to our abode and promised to play again for us that night. In fact he organised a céilí and sang and danced. Pól Mac Ruaidhrí, a formidable accordion player and singer, entertained us as well and the fun continued into the early hours of the morning.
James Hemmings filed many stories about the Tory artists. Described in art terms as "primitives", they owed their fame to the late Derek Hill, the celebrated English portrait and landscape painter who first visited Tory in 1956 and returned regularly to paint the island and its people. An honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, he donated his art collection and home by Lough Gartan near Churchill, Co Donegal, to the Irish nation in 1981. It has been developed as the Glebe House and Gallery by the Office of Public Works. In 1999 the President, Mrs McAleese conferred honorary Irish citizenship on him. He died in July 2000. His visits inspired a number of islanders to take up painting. James Dixon was the first and the one who became the best known.
His first meeting with Derek Hill was related to me by Antóin Ó Mionain, one of the present generation of Tory painters.
Seemingly James Dixon had been watching Hill at work and remarked that he himself could do better.
Hill offered help and the appropriate materials but Dixon preferred his own, which were household paints, shoe polish and brushes made from donkey-hair. Derek Hill was impressed with his work and thus began a long association with Hill and the island's artists. (In 1999 James Dixon's work was exhibited in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin.)
There is a small art gallery now in the home of the late James Dixon and Antóin is the curator. The house was purchased by Derek Hill and an American woman, Dorothy Harrison Therman, who wrote a book about Tory, Stories of Tory Island. She had enjoyed the company of the people of the island so much that she wanted to repay them for the warmth and hospitality shown to her during her many visits to the island. The gallery was officially opened in 1992 . It houses two of Dixon's works, a portrait of Derek Hill and paintings and model boats by local artists.
Derek Hill painted in a Radiobeacon hut owned by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. When he died Patsy Dan made representation to the Commissioners and the hut has been renovated with help from Údarás na Gaeltachta.
It is now a studio where the second-generation Tory artists go to draw inspiration from their friend and mentor, Derek Hill.
There are now a number of artists who make their living on the island from painting. They produce work that depicts island life in a unique naive style that is also described as primitive or unschooled. They exhibit regularly and their work sells well. Next March four of them will have the opportunity to exhibit to a wider audience. At the invitation of Prof Mick Moloney of Glucksman Ireland House at New York University, The King Patsy Dan Mac Ruaidhrí, Ruaidhrí L. Mac Ruaidhrí, Micheál Fionbarr Mac Ruaidhrí and Antóin Ó Míonáin will travel to New York to open an exhibition of their work.
No doubt James Hemmings will be keeping a watchful eye.
... Tory Island, a remote and historic outpost, is published by Comharchumann Thoraí Teo, Oileán Thoraí, Na Doiri Beaga, Co Dhún na nGall at €5.