A True Record – a creative response to Marlay House

An Cathaoirleach, Cllr Denis O’Callaghan has launched A True Record – a new art and poetry book celebrating the layers of history in Marlay House. 

Grace Wilentz, poet, and Jane Cummins, photographer were commissioned, following an open call, to create new work in dialogue with the house. Jane Cummins uses 19th century photographic techniques and focused on the story of Anne La Touche who painted watercolours of the house and grounds in the 1830s. Grace Wilentz’s poems explore the themes of time and memory, chance, devotion, a private home with a public future and unity coming out of fragmentation. Poems from the book have been broadcast on RTE’s Sunday Miscellany and published in The Stinging Fly magazine. The book also includes documentary photographs by Aisling McCoy.

An Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Denis O’Callaghan said: 

“This book is the outcome of an innovative project to commission new art exploring the history of Marlay House, and as the artist’s statement sets out – the creative work “allows the past to exist in the present.”

Marlay House, dating to the 17th/18th centuries is in the care of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. This project explored the role of art as part of a new interpretive programme which includes creative responses, personal narratives and multiple viewpoints.

The project was funded by Creative Ireland and the Heritage Council of Ireland and is an initiative of the Heritage Office of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.