Dried flax plant

FILM

About five different establishments in Northern Ireland - the University etc. are linked up with a film archive. The Folk Museum is a member of this group. So during my visit I was also able to watch a 1966 BBC film report by Malcolm McAllister (remember him?) about the last commercial attempt at growing and processing flax in the province. I have heard a rumour that a well known linen firm might start this project again as an experiment and tourist attraction.

CEREMONY

Before I left the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Library there was a little surprise ceremony. The Librarian cut off a precious piece of dried flax which she had as a decoration in the room. This was put in an envelope and handed to me as a memento of my visit. On arriving home with my prize I opened the envelope to show my wife, to discover the seeds had fallen out of the flax heads. We will plant them to see if they grow.

ON SITE

The place where the original photo was taken is on the North Coast of Antrim in the townland of Dunseverick, only about four miles from where I live. So I paid the site a visit. In the background of the photo is Dunseverick Manse and it still exists.

Dunseverick Manse Original painting by Brian Willis

By using this building and hedge rows as datum points I was able to discover the exact position where the photographer stood. The dam is no longer still water but has been cleaned out to be part of a fast flowing drainage stream. The picture appeared to have been taken from a little above the flax workers and sure enough there was the grassy mound where he/she had obviously stood. I scrambled up it - tripped - and slid down again to roll over in the mud at the bottom. Embarrassed, I got up and looked around to see if my fall had been spotted. Yes, a farmer in a nearby field was sitting in his stationary tractor drinking tea. He waved a friendly you're-a-silly-eejit type acknowledgement. I smiled and wondered if my predecessor had also slipped into "my" mud.

MUD

When I got home from my fall in the field I scraped some of the mud off my shirt and mixed it into the burnt sienna acrylic paint and brushed it onto the "ground" below the bare footed girl in the foreground. No one knows there's real mud in that painting now - apart from me - and you!