The Spirit of Sliabh Beagh is a spoken word, soundscape, film piece that celebrates the rich ancient history from this area.
Drawing inspiration from the poetic names of town lands and the myriad of local stories the piece is a visual and audible honouring of this land as being full of hidden gems and treasures, inviting local people to explore its offerings...A stilted apparition moves through the mountain pass of Sliabh Beagh, from the ancient druid sites at Clogher, over the Blanket Bogs of Bragan in County Monaghan and settling in the moss clad forest of Doon, in County Fermanagh.
She is a personification of this wild, unique landscape, a direct descendant of Bith, the son of the biblical Noah, the first people who are believed to have settled in this area. Annie created a series of costumes, the narrative and digital content for the piece.
Look north toward the ancient site, at Altadavin Glen!
Where druids conjured many masks of local faded men,
where Patrick pitched his holy staff on pagans poetry.
Are we to start afresh anew beyond this legends ivy?
Walk Bragan into Mulaghfad,
barefoot through blanket bog.
Take shelter in the freedom there imagined through thick fog
Where intoxicated inkfly drew his jagged border line;
where is the foraged fiction thats been buried all this time?
Sliabh Beagh, Ballygawley, Barritatoppy, to the striking pines of doon.
Centuries preserved bog butter, corpse, clothes and celtic moon.
She's stirring ever since, Cessair; deluge invader,
poised mantle of the holy ark, grand-daughter of the sailor.
Spoken word by Annie June Callaghan
