The Making and Unmaking of Stone

The Connemara region in the West of Ireland is crossed by countless dry stone walls, some hundreds of years old. These seemingly ubiquitous structures demarcate boundaries maintained by the inhabitants of the region. This work seeks to explore this laborious process of maintenance, repetition and demarcation as an analogue for the process of preserving the Irish language. A language which, despite this preservation, is endangered.

Through the examination of the materiality of these walls and the land they inhabit, this research unpacks the forces that have shaped the Irish language. The language, the dry stone walls and the region share a history shaped by colonial violence, depopulation and systemic linguistic marginalisation. The language and landscape have come to represent imagery of nationhood — a complex, manufactured image imbued with notions of ‘purity’ and ‘authenticity’.