Artist – Étáin Collins
On Country Roads
Dunmanway Community Hospital
On Country Roads is a stories and sound project created by Arts for Health participants at Dunmanway Community Hospital with musician Étáin Collins.
The project aimed to clebrate all the different types of love we encounter in our lives. Over 12 weeks the group discussed family, friendships, marriage, dances, pets, farming, card games, the circus, and life in Dunmanway!
Storytelling
Starting in September, each session centred around a different type of love. Conversation and anecdotes were shared in response to question prompts, or inspired by group discussions of poetry about love, family, and friendship.
‘I Will Go With My Father a-Ploughing’ by Joseph Campbell led to lovely sharings about working with family members, working on the farm, and the special connections residents had with animals on the farm. The following week the group chatted about friendship and read ‘A Time to Talk’ by Robert Frost. Thinking about the poem’s final line, ‘I go up to the stone wall for a friendly visit,’ residents chatted about visiting neighbours and friends, and the music sessions, card games, and dancing that would take place in kitchens across the countryside.
Recording
After gathering the stories, the group decided to introduce a musical element to the project. Together they discussed what a piece of music inspired by their stories would sound like and what instruments should be used to create it. The group tried out different percussion and melodic instruments, and then individually recorded their own section of music. Étáin brought the individual clips together to form one group piece.
The project came together in the form of a small book of stories with a QR code leading to the group piece of music. The residents decided on the name On Country Roads to represent the places the stories came from.
Listen to On Country Roads below!
Timeframe
The project took place from September to November 2024.
Testimonies
‘It brought back stuff that we’d all forgotten. All the stories are true. They’re not made up!’ – Participant
‘I found it very interesting. We never had anything like it before and people opened their thoughts to assemble a collection of olden times. Thank you so much for opening people’s minds.’ – Participant
This project was funded by Arts for Health Partnership Programme, West Cork.