This Is Ireland — Robert Dempsey

Looking for the story in the land.

Research into family history led towards the Great Famine. Maps of population change offered a way to connect that history with the physical landscape.

The changes reflected deaths and migration: people leaving rural places, moving towards cities and ports, or leaving Ireland. Colour carried that story across the terrain.

Population-change maps beside an uncoloured oak Ireland terrain model in the workshop — Research maps beside the oak model

This Is Ireland terrain study displayed on an easel at Féile an Phobail — This Is Ireland on display

Close view of the coloured Ireland model with its Great Famine population-change description — Colour carrying the population-change story

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Material experiments

Colour that would not stay still.

Early tests used dye crystals sprinkled onto oak and activated with water. Applied directly to the timber, the process also darkened the wood.

Lacquer was introduced to separate the colour from the oak. The effect worked visually, but damp conditions reactivated the crystals through the finish. Colour moved, returning to the surface and staining the timber behind it.

The technique proved unstable. Its response to moisture nevertheless suggested an unexpected connection with the recurring conditions of blight.

Blue and pink dye-crystal tests on four oak samples — Dye-crystal sample tests · Not the finished model

Dark dye stains spread across a bare wooden sample in the workshop — Dye applied directly to bare wood

Three oak samples with pink and blue dye crystals — Comparing dye-crystal samples on oak

Close view of pink and dark dye crystals on an oak sample — Dye-crystal detail on oak

Pink and blue colour marks across a finished oak sample — A later view of the coloured oak sample

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An earlier study,
an ongoing direction.

This version was exhibited in Féile an Phobail in Belfast, August 2026. The response was really encouraging and prompted further thought about the piece. The colouring process continued to change afterwards, so this version remains an experimental study.

The next direction would explore a different colouring technique to the oak, followed by a tested finishing process. It would be a new interpretation, informed by what the earlier material experiments revealed.

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A landscape in colour.

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Looking for the story in the land.

Colour that would not stay still.

An earlier study,an ongoing direction.

A landscape in colour.

An earlier study,
an ongoing direction.