‘A conversation across time’
The worlds of song and colour will collide beneath the stunning stained glass windows of the Honan Chapel in Cork city next month, celebrating the life and work of Harry Clarke.
On 18 June, singer songwriter Ursula Connolly will present ‘Songs Through a Stained Glass Window’ in the iconic chapel on the grounds of UCC, a venue whose artistic heritage is inseparable from the luminous stained glass masterpieces of Harry Clarke, one of Ireland’s most celebrated artists.
Connolly’s one night only performance against this backdrop of colour, story, and artistry is a contemporary musical response to Clarke’s visionary work. Along with a talented ensemble of musicians, she will bring these timeless stories to life through captivating melodies and evocative lyrics.
A trained vocal coach from Dublin with over 30 years of performing as a singer and songwriter, Connolly will be joined by the Greenbird Flying Trio and Peter Connolly for the performance.
Connolly said: “Harry Clarke’s work has followed me for years, his colours, his characters, his way of finding light in the darker corners of a story. Singing these songs in the Honan Chapel, surrounded by his extraordinary stained glass windows, feels like a conversation across time.”
Clarke was also a hugely talented illustrator of books, having illustrated for poets Edgar Allan Poe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Clarke’s illustration work on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales was his first major book illustration commission. He produced 40 full-page illustrations completing the commission in Dublin in April 1915. The book was published the following autumn to great praise.
Between 1915 and 1918, a young Harry Clarke created 11 of the 19 extraordinary windows in the Honan Chapel at UCC, including depictions of St Brigid, St Patrick, St Colmcille, St Finbarr, St Gobnait, St Brendan, St Declan, St Joseph, and Our Lady of Sorrows. These works were pivotal in establishing Clarke’s reputation for exceptional craftsmanship and originality, with early exhibitions of the windows receiving rave reviews. Their deep blues, intricate linework, and jewel like colour are now recognised as hallmarks of Clarke’s style, which helped cement his place as one of Ireland’s best loved artists.
Clarke’s stained glass windows, which can also be viewed in various other locations in Ireland and further afield, including in The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; in Bewley’s on Grafton Street, Dublin; and most recently in Collins Barracks in Cork city.
Tickets for Ursula Connolly’s ‘Songs Through a Stained Glass Window’ cost €20 and are available now via Eventbrite.ie.