It's Common Ground Time again!

On Saturday afternoon, we gathered for the official opening of our 18th collective exhibition, Common Ground. Before guests explored the works on display, we were honoured to hear from our curator Trish Taylor-Thompson, who offered a moving reflection on what it means to seek connection in a fractured world.

We have spent a fair amount of time with Trish as she chose pieces, organised them and worked with James (and his trusty drill) to hang this year's exhibition. Trish knows our theatre pretty well as she had a solo show with us in March. You'll find more about her exhibition "Biophilia" here. In the address, she explored the complexities of shared experience — how beauty and struggle, harmony and discord, can coexist within the same space. She spoke of the courage it takes for artists to reveal their vision, and the equally important courage it takes for audiences to meet that vision with openness.

Her words set the tone for an exhibition that invites us to slow down, look closely, and recognise the threads that link us: our stories, our landscapes, our vulnerabilities, and our hopes.

Below, we share her full speech — a thoughtful and heartfelt introduction to Common Ground, and a reminder of why art remains essential to the life of a community.

Opening Speech – A Terrible Beauty, Birr Arts Centre

Good afternoon everyone.

It’s a pleasure to welcome you all to Birr Theatre & Arts Centre for the opening of this group exhibition, A Terrible Beauty. As Artistic Director of Nenagh Arts Centre—and as a painter myself—it is always a joy to stand in a room filled with the courage, imagination, and dedication of artists who have chosen to share their vision with us.

This theme, A Terrible Beauty, is not an easy one.

There is the 2013 movie, A Terrible Beauty - the story of the men and women of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, written and directed by Keith Farrell.

There’s the 2024 album by Christy Moore – A Terrible Beauty filled with Humour, rage, empathy, sorrow and joy. 

There’s a 1960 film of the same title (also known as The Night Fighters) starring Robert Mitchum, and Anne Heywood, a story about the IRA in Northern Ireland during the Second World War.

And then there’s Yeats’ poem ‘Easter 1916’.

Even though a committed nationalist, Yeats usually rejected violence as a means to secure Irish independence, and as a result had strained relations with some of the figures who eventually led the uprising. His words say it all:

I write it out in a verse— MacDonagh and MacBride And Connolly and Pearse Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

So yes, the theme, A Terrible Beauty, is not an easy one.

·        It asks us to look at the world with both tenderness and honesty. It invites us to recognise the strange dualities that shape our lives: the beauty in darkness, the fragility within strength, the wonder that can coexist with grief.

What did Van Gogh say about beauty?

·        "Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful”.

True beauty isn't always perfect. Sometimes, it's the flaws, the mystery, the untamed edge — that makes something unforgettable.

Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese writer and poet: "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."

The essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting."

Ernest Hemingway: "The echoes of beauty you've seen transpire, Resound through dying coals of a campfire."

So there’s an edge to beauty and when you add one word ‘Terrible” everything changes.

·        I want to acknowledge the artists here today for embracing that challenge so wholeheartedly.

·        You’ll find in this exhibition an unmistakable gothic undertone in several works—pieces that explore shadow, mystery and the quieter corners of the mind.

·        There are seascapes that capture both the serenity and the ferocity of the ocean, that ancient force that can soothe as quickly as it can overwhelm. Climate change is evoked.

·        And there are works that confront conflict, displacement and war—images that echo global struggles, including the ongoing devastation in places such as Palestine. These pieces do not offer simple answers; instead, they ask us to look closer and to stay present with what is difficult.

What binds these very different works together is the artists’ commitment to the theme and their ability to find resonance between beauty and pain, hope and darkness, devastation and resilience. Their willingness to engage so deeply gives this exhibition its power.

But beyond the artwork itself, there is something else worth celebrating:

·        the simple joy that any exhibition brings to a community. A gathering like this creates space for conversation, reflection, and connection.

·        It reminds us that art is not a luxury—it is a living, breathing part of community life. It gives us language when words fall short, and it brings people together at a time when togetherness matters more than ever.

So I want to thank the artists, the staff of Birr Arts Centre, and all of you here this afternoon for making that possible. Thank you for supporting culture, for showing up, for engaging, and for allowing art to continue to shape the life of this region.

I hope A Terrible Beauty moves you, provokes you, and stays with you long after this afternoon ends.

Thank you, and enjoy the exhibition.

 ~Trish Taylor Thompson