The Green Loy

Vincent Woods is a writer, broadcaster, who was born in Leitrim and lives in Dublin. His plays include At the Black Pig’s Dyke and A Cry from Heaven, and work with music and musicians include the stage shows The Leitrim Equation, Open Room, and Portal. He has written several song lyrics and the libretto for Gavin Bryars’ composition Wittgenstein Fragments which was commissioned by Louth Contemporary Music Society. 

Vincent is director of the Iron Mountain Literature Festival in Leitrim. He presented the landmark series The County Measure on RTÉ Radio 1; co-directed the film Hunger’s Way - Bealach an Fhéir Ghortaigh with Edwina Guckian, and wrote a short drama and epilogue for the dance and music performance The Devil’s in the Dancehall. He is a member of Aosdána, an affiliation of creative artists established in 1981 to honour artists whose work has made an invaluable contribution to the creative arts in Ireland.

Katy West is an Irish designer, curator, writer, and educator based in Scotland whose interdisciplinary practice spans contemporary craft, exhibition-making, and cultural research. A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, she originally trained as a ceramic designer-maker and has exhibited widely across the UK and internationally. Her work has been presented at venues including Crafts Council of Ireland, V&A Dundee, Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, and the British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent. 

Katy's practice explores heritage, vernacular culture, and the social histories embedded in objects and making traditions. Alongside her artistic work, she has developed an extensive curatorial portfolio focused on contemporary craft, design history, and public collections. Since 2008, she has held lecturing and academic roles at the Glasgow School of Art, supporting interdisciplinary learning and collaboration. International residencies and speaking engagements across Japan, India, China, and Europe continue to shape her globally engaged approach to design, material culture, and public programming.

Edwina Guckian is an artist, community activist, and cultural curator whose work is rooted in the tradition, folklore, and lived experience of rural Ireland. Raised in Co. Leitrim, her practice draws on community, seasonal customs, and the social history of music, dance halls, and gathering places. Through dance, performance, teaching and collaborative projects, Edwina works to preserve and re-imagine Ireland’s intangible cultural heritage for contemporary audiences. 

Edwina is the author of Sparks from the Flagstones: A Treasury of Irish Folk Traditions and Calendar Customs; director of Leitrim Dance Festival; and Dance Deputy at Luail, Ireland’s National Dance Company. Her most recent project is The Devil’s in the Dancehall, an immersive dance theatre night with the Gralton Big Band. She is currently leading the planned rebuilding of Jimmy Gralton’s Dance Hall.

Miriam de Búrca works with film, photography, installation, and drawing, examining contemporary legacies of patriarchy and colonialism through a feminist, decolonial lens. She mimics imperialist aesthetics and methods of knowledge-gathering that she feels at once attracted to and repelled by. Interrogating her subjects as if performing forensic examinations, she seeks to turn the scrutiny back on the scrutinisers. 

Miriam completed a BFA (1996) at Glasgow School of Art, and an MFA (2000) and PhD (Award of Excellence 2010) at Ulster University Belfast. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is represented by Cristea Roberts Gallery, London and has works in the collections of Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Golden Thread Art Gallery; Arts Council of Ireland; University Galway; Trinity College Dublin; Glucksman Gallery, Cork; the British Museum; Mead Gallery, Coventry; Katrin Bellinger Collection. Her work has been featured in Phaidon’s Vitamin D3: Today’s Best in Contemporary Drawing, 2021; Irish Art 1920–2020: Perspectives on a Century of Change, eds. Yvonne Scott and Catherine Marshall, 2022; Landscape and Environment in Contemporary Irish Art, ed. Yvonne Scott, 2023 and The Story of Drawing: An Alternative History of Art, ed. Susan Owens, Yale University Press, 2024.

Gabby Dowling is an acclaimed artist best known for her striking and powerful masks made in leather and other found materials. She says she was born and still lives on the island of Ireland but has never let this stop her travelling the world, often in person and constantly in her imagination. These explorations, actual, conceptual, and intellectual have resulted in work — sculptures, drawings, theatre and film props — in which provocations from abroad are combined with a thoroughly individual set of compulsions, obsessions and a distinctive idea of ferocious beauty. 

Although some of her most striking works are often characterised as masks, they might better be described as heads. Whether made for performance or for exhibition, they are not carnivalesque veneers but original and powerful re-imaginings of the transformative impersonations found in the ancient cultures of India, Mexico, and Africa. The majority of works are made to stand or hang in their own right, as arresting and alluring presences in the lives of their owners.

Helena Golden is a willow basket-maker and educator based in Leitrim Village, with a background in farming from Manorhamilton. Her work is deeply rooted in the rural traditions, landscapes and craft culture of the north-west of Ireland. Working with natural materials, especially locally-grown sally rods, her practice reflects strong connections between land, creativity and cultural identity. Through both making and teaching, Helena’s work is centred on keeping traditional basket-making skills alive for future generations.

Charles Perpoil is a Leitrim-based French artist and woodcraft specialist from the Loire Valley. Charles initially discovered wood work at the age of six and has since been following his passion for this material in all its forms. He joined the French ancient guild Compagnons Du Devoir at the age of fourteen to master his skills as a carpenter and cabinet maker, which involved travelling with his trade around France, Ireland and Belgium for ten years. During this time, he developed his skill in a diverse range of fields, from church restoration to private jet furniture fitting.  

The last four years of his training were dedicated to sharing and teaching all aspects of his trade, from basic carpentry to elaborate staircase design, wood carving, design and proportion. He moved to Ireland in 2005 to set up his own workshop in the heart of Leitrim. After making custom-made staircases for more than seven years, he moved on to explore other aspects of woodwork, such as antique furniture restoration and contemporary furniture design, sculpture, and more recently harp making.

Sean Rynn is a farmer and musician from Aughamore, Tarmon, Co. Leitrim. He is a guitarist and banjo player and regularly performs with the Balaclava traditional music group. Sean is a committee member of the John McKenna Society and is one of the organisers of the annual John McKenna Festival in Drumkeeran.

Dave Sheridan is an acclaimed traditional Irish flute player and music teacher from Killargue in north Leitrim. Known for his fluid style, strong rhythm and deep connection to the Leitrim tradition, he has become one of Ireland’s most respected musicians. Dave has released two highly regarded solo albums, Sheridan’s Guesthouse (2006) and Drivin’ Leitrim Timber (2010), both praised for their lively, expressive flute playing rooted in the north Connaught style. He has performed and recorded with leading traditional acts including Dervish, Lúnasa and Téada, and is a founding member of the group Garadice. Alongside performing, Dave has spent many years teaching music and promoting traditional Irish music, both in Ireland and internationally.