Identity can mean different things for different people. Identity could be your gender, sexuality, race, skin colour, the country you were born or the country you live in and even your eye or hair colour. Having pride in what you identify with can help you feel apart of a larger community and for some people, that is something that gives them fulfilment in life. Identity is something that can also divide us as human beings, separating ourselves into groups with apposing opinions, ideas or goals. However this isn’t always a negative thing. Having an opposing outlook can inspire us to exchange ideas, skills, knowledge and much more. In my opinion, things like this aid humanity in moving forward, developing as a species and sometimes its those differences that can bring us together.
For me, growing up in a country where your identity can be a dangerous thing for you to express and apposed to being a positive thing, who you identify with or what side of the border you support is something that hasn’t brought much positivity or feelings of togetherness.
This sometimes can make me feel reluctant to express at the same time as making me feel a sense of pride to identify as Irish and the culture and stories that we have been handed down from our ancestors is something that I love exploring and sharing with others.
For this topic I have chosen an image created by an artist called Shannon Kincaid. It depicts Ériu, the goddess that represents the Island of Ireland. Ériu is the old Irish version of the modern Éire which is sometimes spelled Éireann or Éirinn. The artist has used symbols within her art that depict the goddess within pre-Christian Irish culture. The centre of the image shows her hair that is tied to the trees surrounding her, representing her connection to the land and the bounty it offers, this bounty is shown as a class of mead in her hand which offered those who consumed it immortality at the feast of Goibhniu. Incasing the land is a ring of knot work, which is holds three stones of division, which is said to be found at the sacred centre of Ireland in Irish mythology at the hill of Uisneach. It is also said that this is where Ériu’s bones were laid to rest, serving as a gateway between the word above and the underworld below. The sacred feminine aspect of Ériu is depicted at the top of the columns either side of the painting with the three phases of a woman’s life, the maid, the mother and the crone. Ériu is a lunar goddess and this can be interpreted from the stars above her and the lunala necklace she wears.
Digital Magpie, 2014, How to: Constructing Celtic Interlace (Knotwork) [online]<https://digitalmagpie.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/how-to-constructing-celtic-interlace-knotwork/> Accessed on 12th February 2021.
Lauren Micheles Art Blog, 2020, Shannon Kincaid, The Myth [online] <https://laurenmicheleartblog.com/2020/08/20/support-the-irish-arts/> Accessed 12th February 2021