The Westmeath Arts Office is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2024 Brinsley McNamara Bursary Award.
The Brinsley McNamara Bursary Awards are designed to help artists of all disciplines to develop their artistic practice. Bursaries are valued at €2,000 and are intended to support the practice of artists living and working in Westmeath. Bursaries can be used towards professional development, to ‘buy’ creative time, or to support the development of new work.
11 Westmeath artists were selected to receive the award; Amy Abdullah Barry, Brian Murphy, Emma O'Brien, Keely McLavin, Kenny Rabbit (Alp Luachra), Leah Moloney (Liadh), Mimi Seery, Paireac Keane, Paul Roy, Stephen Heffernan, and Stephanie Mc Guinness. Read more about the awarded artists below.
Amy Abdullah Barry is originally from Malaysia, she now lives in Athlone.
She is a poet, short story writer, facilitator & event coordinator. She is published widely including Cyphers, Southword, London Tribune, Paris Lit Up, The Poets’ Republic, RTE and elsewhere. Featured in Breaking Ground Ireland. Her poems have been translated into many languages including Irish, Arabic, Italian, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani & Spanish. Chosen for the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series 2022. A travel lover, she previously worked in the media, hotel & energy industry. Amy has been awarded literature bursaries from the Arts Council & Words Ireland. Her poems have been highly commended, shortlisted, long listed, as well as winning local & international awards. An Honorary member of the Pablo Neruda Association, Italy. Amy is the founder of Global Writers. She regularly organises poetry & music events in Athlone. She has performed her work in Ireland and internationally. She facilitated several creative writing workshops for Poetry Ireland (Poetry in a Van), the Irish Writers Centre, schools, and libraries.
‘Flirting with Tigers’ is her debut collection of poems published by Dedalus Press in 2023. Her collection received great reviews in the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Senior Times magazine, The Galway Review, Roscommon Herald & Amazon.
Brian Murphy is a Mullingar-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music educator known for blending his artistic talents with a deep commitment to community and social care. With a versatile career spanning live performances, studio recordings, and educational initiatives, Brian has earned recognition for his ability to inspire creativity and connection through music.
Brian's artistic journey includes collaborations with renowned acts such as Arrow in the Sky, Cronin, The Great Trade and GBYM. His work has extended into film and documentary soundtrack work also.
In addition to his performance career, Brian has integrated his music expertise into education and therapeutic contexts. He has led workshops and music programs for marginalized communities, including children and young people with additional needs. From summer camps to creative sessions, Brian’s work emphasizes accessibility, creative expression, and inclusion.
Emma O'Brien is a lens-based artist from Westmeath. Her work responds to themes of motherhood and personal identity, exploring the psychological and physical landscapes of motherhood through documentary and constructed images. Her current practice examines the intersection of motherhood, consciousness, and creative expression. O'Brien was selected as a talent with the FUTURES Platform for European Contemporary Photography in 2022 and was recognized as an emerging talent in Europe by FreshEyes in 2021. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is widely published. The Holding Place, her most recent project, was published as a photobook in 2023, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Keely McLavin is a multidisciplinary visual artist and writer based in Ireland whose practice revolves around themes of womanhood, language, intergenerational skill-sharing, and community. Her work often explores the lived experiences of women within patriarchal societies, blending the poetic and political to create empathetic protest. Through diverse mediums including craft, digital media, writing, and installation, she examines how traditions, stories, and skills are shared across generations, emphasizing their significance in contemporary life.
Central to McLavin's practice is a fascination with language as both a tool for education and a means of perpetuating societal biases. She subverts lexicons historically associated with misogynistic narratives, revealing their impact on collective memory and identity. Her recent work incorporates traditional crafts such as crochet and textile arts, not only for their aesthetic qualities but also as symbols of resistance and care.
McLavin’s projects often begin with research into historical archives, grounding contemporary issues in their historical context. Her work highlights the ongoing relevance of craft as a counterbalance to fast-paced, capitalist culture, promoting slow making and community-based creativity. McLavin’s practice is driven by a desire to celebrate women’s histories and advocate for the preservation of craft in a rapidly changing world, fostering empathy and understanding through art.
Alp Luachra is a trad/rock fusion band who came together in 2018 and have performed widely since then. Their musical influences range from traditional Irish, through Celtic rock to heavy metal. Band members, John, Kenny, Wayne W. and Wayne G. come from a variety of musical backgrounds and enjoy exploring both traditional and progressive styles.
In addition to performing well-known Irish tunes, the band’s repertoire features new and original music composed by Alp Luachra members. The band have enjoyed performing at The Festival of the Fires on the Hill of Uisneach, Electric Picnic, Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann and Temple Bar TradFest as well as regular gigs around Mullingar. They are aiming to complete a debut studio album in 2025.
Liadh (pronounced 'Leah'), is an Irish musician, songwriter and producer. With a background in psychology and a fascination for the human mind and behaviour, Liadh uses her music to create lyrically vulnerable work about topics such as sobriety, mental health and neurodiversity.
Liadh’s debut single ‘Can’t Face The Day’ is a synth pop bop, and her second single ‘Illusions’ is a dance pop track with an eerie undertone. Both are from her debut EP 'Illusions', which promises more vibrant melodies and intelligent exploration of things we don’t usually talk about in popular culture.
Having sung her whole life in choirs and musical theatre groups, Liadh has a love of vocal harmonies and an energetic, theatrical stage presence reminiscent of Kate Bush and Florence + The Machine. She’s also inspired by 80s synth-pop and disco, as well as newer alt-pop acts like Lorde, MARINA, Aurora and Billie Eilish. Liadh is fluent in Irish and French and is an avid reader. She draws on her love of languages and art in her lyrics, linking pop with other artforms.
Mimi Seery is a multimedia socially engaged artist, creating public installations such as sculpture, mural and compositions using natural elements. Recent public artworks address social issues such as anxieties about one's future, climate change and departure from trauma.
A core element of her practice is engagement. Seery's objective is to create works that are both sensory and deeply site-specific, often employing environmental materials that invite the viewer to become part of the work. Through their active participation, the audience takes on a role in the creation, bridging the gap between artist and viewer.
The Brinsley McNamara Bursary Award presents an invaluable opportunity for focused research and reflection, paving the way for the development of a new body of work to be exhibited at Luan Gallery in May 2025. Beyond this, it offers the chance to expand and deepen her artistic practice, acquiring new skills in sensory materials such as stained glass painting and silverstaining, while also experimenting with textiles and clay. Additionally, this bursary will provide essential experience in developing artworks specifically for a gallery context, marking a significant milestone as she prepare's for her first solo exhibition.
Paireac Keane is an award-winning filmmaker and commercial videographer driven by a profound passion for visual storytelling.
As a writer/director, Keane has achieved notable success on the Irish and International Film Festival circuits. His debut short drama film, A TIMELY GIFT (2017), secured him a Rising Star Award at the 12th Underground Short Film Awards and was selected to screen at the Newport Beach Film Festival 2018 in a specially curated programme of Irish Shorts. His follow-up film, WORMHOLE IN THE WASHER (2021), was selected to screen at a number of BAFTA-qualifying festivals including Aesthetica, Indie Cork and the Richard Harris International Film Festival. The sci-fi comedy also amassed numerous awards including Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Film, and Best Editor.
In 2015, after years of working as a freelance videographer, Keane established King Tree Media, a production company committed to crafting films, documentaries, and high-end video content. Since launching his business venture, Keane has successfully delivered hours of engaging video content for brands, businesses and local authorities.
Paul Roy, visual artist living in Tyrrellspass, Westmeath, with a practice spanning over 30 years. I completed my MA in Art in the Contemporary World in NCAD, with first class honours, in 2020. My current practice and research considers the impact of living with chronic illness on my arts practice, as well as detailed examinations of memory, grief, recollection and reflection. Having been one of the central artists at Tulca ’23, my work is currently on show as part of the exhibition ‘Let The Mirror Express The Room’, in Luan Gallery, Athlone.
Stephen Heffernan is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Co Westmeath. Stephen studied music at the Irish World Academy at University of Limerick. Stephen has performed at festivals and toured with different bands throughout Scotland, England, Germany, Japan, France and Florida. After having recorded on other albums and released his first EP of Solo Piano Improvisations in 2020 – Stephen is currently working on an album of his own music.
Superlinea is an artisan handmade tile and ceramics studio in Castlepollard, and is run by Stephanie Mc Guinness. Stephanie designs and makes tiles and tableware from scratch and fuses finely-honed ceramic skills with a distinctly modern aesthetic. A graduate of NCAD’s ceramic design degree course, she is focused on creating unique designs which utilise the grout line to striking effect, thus inspiring the name ‘Superlinea’.