During the last two weeks of August, we travelled to Ireland alongside the artist Eulàlia Rovira as part of the second chapter of the residency exchange project The Pilgrim. This venture has brought Latitudes together with Askeaton Contemporary Arts’ Michele Horrigan and Sean Lynch, as well as artists Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty. Our collaborative exploration has been guided – haunted, perhaps, is a better word – by the tantalising tale of a Barcelona merchant laid to rest in 1784 within Askeaton’s Franciscan Friary. As our research has expanded it has led us to take diverse paths, including to the Spanish Armada shipwrecks near Sligo two centuries prior, the intriguing history of a transatlantic flying boat terminal on the Shannon Estuary in the 1930s, as well as explorations of megalithic passage tombs, Celtic stonework, medieval architecture, and a hydroelectric power station.

One of our notable stops was at Holy Cross Abbey, originally founded as a Cistercian monastery in 1168 and a revered site of pilgrimage since medieval times. Among its remarkable features is a reliquary said to hold a shard of the wooden cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the mid-17th century, the abbey fell into disrepair. However, in the 1970s, the local community rallied to restore it to its former splendour. One of the highlights of our visit was meeting Philip Quinn, a skilled stone carver and restorer who resides nearby with his wife Liz, a tour guide at the Abbey. Philip shared his expertise, pointing out the Abbey’s whispering arch, intricately carved owl, and the spot where a Sheela na gig motif had been hacked off. At his workshop, he demonstrated the art of carving simple letter forms in a piece of grey limestone. Handing the hammer and chisel to Eulàlia, with each gentle tap the word “P-i-l-g-r-i-m” slowly emerged from the rock.