For centuries tapestries have been a uniquely creative and collaborative form of storytelling. From France’s Bayeux Tapestry to Wexford’s Ros Tapestry, they tell a tale of who we are and how we live.
In medieval times they were the social media of their day, communiques that, unlike other monumental artworks, were enjoyed publicly and easily shared, capable of being rolled up and moved.
So it is with Tapestry for Ireland, a monumental work commissioned by Skoda Ireland from textile artist Eileen McNulty. The piece, which measures 3m by 1m, is on public display at the Terminal 1 Skybridge at Dublin Airport, delighting visitors and locals alike. That’s because it brings to life more than 50 instantly familiar vignettes of Irish life: everything from history and mythology to local landscapes and everyday culture, all of which reflect just how tightly knit into the fabric of Irish life the car brand is.
From the daily sea swimmers at Salthill, to the Dubs escaping for a few hours of nature along the Wicklow Way, all human life is here, crafted in textured layers of fabric.
RM Block
Tapestry for Ireland took McNulty 637 hours to create, using 48 unique fabrics and 7.5km of thread. It was, she says, a “labour of love” from start to finish.
McNulty grew up in Louth, the youngest of 13 siblings, and lives in Co Meath. She was inspired in her practice by her late mother, a talented dressmaker who could also knit and crochet. “For some people it’s a certain smell that brings them back to their childhood,” she says. “For me it’s a noise that brings me right back: the sound of my mother’s old Singer pedal machine. I remember just waiting for her to finish on the machine so I could sew too.”
Today she lives near Naul, a village famous for its passage tombs. These are represented by a scene depicting Newgrange on Tapestry for Ireland, a school trip no Irish child escapes.
McNulty grew up painting, drawing and sewing, and ran sewing classes for a number of years, before attending college as a mature student to develop as an artist. Initially she focused on painting but increasingly used traditional textile methods to create contemporary and unique Irish landscapes.
Rather than draw scenes by hand, she uses a highly-skilled free motion embroidery technique on her sewing machine to render scenes of even the most intricate detailing.
After her three children were grown she decided to focus on creativity full time, giving up her day job in a fabric store.
“Today I make art,” she says, delighted. “I just use thread and fabric instead of paints. I’ve come completely full circle back to my fabric and stitch.”
In all her pieces the first thing McNulty creates is the horizon line, and from there begins building scenes, adding textiles layer upon layer. She is like a magpie when it comes to the fabrics she works with, collecting everything from old clothes to batik and Irish tweed.
Trees are a common feature in her work, and her artistry in rendering them can be seen across Tapestry for Ireland. Here too it was her mother who inspired her. “She’d be telling me about such and such a fairy tree that couldn’t be cut, and that got me interested in folklore,” says McNulty.
A career highlight came from an Irish Times piece, she recalls. “Under the heading of ‘Woven Wonder’ it said ‘McNulty’s work will be exhibited alongside Andy Warhol’s portrait of Mick Jagger’. Just to be in a sentence with the two of them was an ‘oh my God’ moment,” she laughs.
McNulty’s work has since been selected for exhibitions in the UK and USA, and she has featured on the cover of international embroidery magazines. Yet when Skoda Ireland got in touch to commission Tapestry for Ireland, an artwork which would show the warp and weft of Irish life, and demonstrate how deeply woven the car marque is into Irish life, “At first I thought it was a scam,” she says.
Then she became intrigued. “They wanted me to show today’s Ireland and how Skoda is part of all that goes on,” she says, “using a range of stories that included everything from mythology and heritage to traffic jams on the M50, all written into the tapestry of Ireland.”
While crafting the actual piece was a solitary work, the creative input was a highly collaborative affair, in line with tapestry’s social history. Executives from both Skoda Ireland and its creative agencies contributed suggestions for the stories it tells.
The result is a fittingly diverse series of scenes that include everything from Sunday spinners taking to the road on their bicycles, to Pope Francis opting for a Skoda Rapid as his Popemobile when visiting in 2018.
It’s a piece that rewards careful study, from a rendering of football legend Roy Keane on the sidelines of a pitch to missing racehorse Shergar, both a nod to all the conversations that feed into our national consciousness.
As well as tributes to the past there are pointers to the future. Look carefully and you’ll see stacks of turf, as well as windmills representing renewable energy. You’ll see both Dublin’s historic Georgian houses and the apartment blocks rising up in its suburbs.
At the centre of the tapestry, the midlands is represented through turf alongside wind and solar forms, symbolising the shift towards cleaner, smarter energy. This feels particularly relevant to Skoda, as it’s on a similar journey of transition, with fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles now part of its offering.
All sorts of instantly recognisable scenes emerge: hurlers on a pitch, revelry at a music festival and a day at the races. There is also mythology, such as the bull of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, or Cattle Raid of Cooley, a nod to McNulty’s Louth roots.
Indeed she has woven her family history into the piece too, with certain locations a tribute to her children’s partners, as part of a concerted effort to provide as full a geographic spread as possible. Her two beloved dogs have made it into the piece too: Mr Darcy, a red setter; and McNulty’s late, lamented terrier, Bilbo Baggins.
Now that the Tapestry for Ireland has been officially launched by Skoda Ireland, she can talk freely about the project which was carried out in strict secrecy.
Among the best outcomes for her personally has been how proud her adult children are of her work. “They’ve been posting [online] about it like mad,” she smiles.
Most importantly of all, she’s proud of it herself. “I stitched my initials into the corner: EMCN,” she says – the traditional seal of approval.
