Unique Winter Solstice event for Rathdowney
Donaghmore Workhouse’s ‘Field of Dreams’ to light up Winter Solstice in Rathdowney
A unique free art, music, song and storytelling event is being created for Winter Solstice in a very special site in County Laois. Visual artist Marie Brett is collaborating with renowned Laois creatives Mick Creagh and Ciara Julia Ryan plus a number of Rathdowney townspeople and others, in the making of an original multi-media performance and art installation event based at Donaghmore Workhouse, Rathdowney.
Timed to coincide with our Winter Solstice, The Field of Dreams will be an evocative, candle lit experience of singing, story-telling, gramophone music and poetry. Set inside the atmospheric Donaghmore Workhouse dormitories and Master’s Quarters, visitors will be guided amongst several rooms. Each room will host a different creative atmosphere, sound, smell, sight and experience.
The artist Marie Brett said:
“We hope visitors will find the event experience special and memorable. Donaghmore Workhouse has a very significant history and atmosphere, and I was keen to work within the local community to create an art event that honours this, and links with all of our ancestors in some way”
As part of the event, visitors will also have an opportunity to add their own personal message into the art installation. The Field of Dreams is made from natural materials spanning 2 rooms and includes privately written messages to loved ones that have passed away. Marie is working with community members on this. And visitors are invited to share their own written message, and to seal it privately into the artwork during the event.
The event is happening on Winter Solstice. At the darkest time of our year, the solstice honours the shortest day and signifies a time of reflection, renewal, and new beginnings.
The artist Marie Brett said about this:
“In a time of Christmas business, it feels valuable to create an artwork that gives us space to slow for a moment and to reflect on the darkest part of the year. And too to think about what lies ahead. The Donaghmore Workhouse site is hugely significant to this, and the musicians, poets and storytellers have such beauty and depth in what they’ll share.”
Laois County Council Arts Office has awarded visual artist Marie Brett a Public Art Commission, and she is Artist in Residence for Rathdowney and Errill. As part of her artist residency, Marie has been researching Rathdowney and Errill’s history, folklore, happenings and stories, as well as unusual sites. This event is the first of a series of special community focused events, with further happening in the Spring of 2026.
The artist would welcome hearing from Rathdowney and/or Errill community members if they’d like to be involved in future activities and events. Marie can be contacted by email via her website: https://www.mariebrett.ie/contact