A Call to Arts captions

Modernism was what the whole Irish revolution was about in a certain sense and we're trying to modernize the society to throw off the colonial cover. And so part of the expression of a nation is its own art. And so Ernie and Helen participated in the rejuvenation, the renaissance, so to speak off what a modern art could be.

Ernie O'Malley was a medical student who was swept into the violence of Ireland's fight for independence from England in 1916. He emerged badly wounded after gun fighting, torture and hunger strike, and went to America in 1928. Helen Hooker was a talented young tennis champion from a wealthy family in Connecticut. She had everything except the freedom to pursue a dream of a life in the arts. He escaped from Ireland's most famous jail. She escaped society's expectation of what her life could be. Each would offer the other a key to unlocking their potential. Drawn to one another by shared passion for the arts, they helped Ireland establish a bold new vision of itself that inspires to this day. In freeing themselves, they would answer a call to arts.

In 1916, Irish life was interrupted by an unexpected insurrection known as the Easter Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood,
the Irish Volunteers, and the Citizens Army, anxious for action and independence, launched a daring attack on various sites in Dublin that represented British power. Ernie O'Malley was transformed by the events he witnessed in Dublin that Easter week of 1916.

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- He was a medical student and

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he heard of the rising
and he participated in it,

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not in an organized manner.

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But one thing that we
learned about Ernie is that

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he was a man who took action

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when he saw the need to take action.

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- I think his interests

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were intellectual, were
writing and the arts and

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on the way he happened to
be involved in the military.

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But for somebody who
knew nothing about it,

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he did a whale of a good job.

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- [Peavoy] I was in a small way connected

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with the fighting in 1916

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from which the new Ireland emerged.

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Bodily wounded and captured,

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I read of my own death in a Dublin paper

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and a brief account of my career.

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I was to have been executed
by the Free State Government.

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But they hesitated to
shoot me on a stretcher.

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I was in jails and internment
camps for close on two years.

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When released, I was
considered a hopeless invalid.

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- When he refers to
being a hopeless invalid,

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he refers to the numerous

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bullets he'd received, the
bullets during the Tan war:

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War of Independence, as well
as during the Civil War.

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On the last occasion,
when he was captured,

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he had at least seven bullets in his body.

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And we know that when he died in 1957,

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which would be 30 years later,

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he had at least six bullets in his body.

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- People who have gone through
a military experience, that's

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very difficult rarely want
to talk about it themselves.

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It's too painful.

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- He decided, not to
go back into politics.

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He had been elected a member of the Doyle

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and he knew in his heart that
politics and continued action

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was not part of what he wanted.

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And so coming to America
allowed him a freedom

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to be himself.

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- [Peavoy] Here in America,

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I've been cut away from my own country

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where I found I was
developing into a symbol.

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This country has helped me to live my life

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apart from all the associative memories

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that intrude too much at home.

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It's impersonality and detachment

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have helped me to find
something of myself.

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- He had determined in
1929, as he expressed

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that he wanted to spend
his life in the arts

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and that they arts brought him happiness.

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That fundamental drive to
write and to write his memoirs,

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his short stories, his poems

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gave him the freedom to express himself.

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He floated in artistic
and literary circles

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and so he was not an Irishman to them,

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he was just a fellow poet, an
author, a writer, and artist

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going through the challenge of life.

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And he enjoyed that.

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- [Narrator] While in New
Mexico, Ernie wrote his memoir

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of his revolutionary military experience,

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"On Another Man's wound."

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- It was one of the three books

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in my father's library.

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My father was no scholar.

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He left school at the age of 12,

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but he had three books in his library.

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One, the first one of them
was "On Another Man's Wound."

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The second one "Guerrilla Days in Ireland"

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and the third one was "My
Fight For Irish freedom"

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by Dan Breen.

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- [Peavoy] The tradition of nationality

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had been maintained towards
the end of our struggle,

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not by the intellectuals but by the people

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who were themselves

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the guardians of the remnants of culture.

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- [Narrator] While Ernie
was fighting in Ireland,

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Helen Hooker was growing up
in Greenwich, Connecticut.

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She showed a love of
art from an early age.

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- Sculpture was very important to Helen

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because she was a stutterer.

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And my view on her sculpture
is that it gave her

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an immediate expression,
which someone could see.

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- She'd seen the work of William Zorach.

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She wanted to study with him
and kept haunting parents

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to permit her.

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They wouldn't let her.

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They thought, you know,
you're a society young lady.

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We're grooming you as a tennis champion.

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Why do you want to be a sculpturist?

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And she persisted and finally,

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they sent her away to be
consulted by her psychiatrist.

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She was only 16 and she
was with her governors

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and the doctor understood
how hard that was

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and said, "All right, you
come back after a week.""

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Which she did.

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And he said, "What have
you been doing, Helen?

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Tell me."

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And she had gone down in Stockbridge,

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there were lots of wonderful antique shops

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and she'd seen an Italian
carver carve the leg of a chair

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and she asked the owner,
may I please study with you?

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He doesn't speak English, she was told.

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She said, it doesn't matter; he carves.

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And she had enough money to
be able to pay for his time.

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And when she returned
to the doctor, he said

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"Now Helen, please tell me,
what have you been doing?"

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And she pulled from around her back

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the sculpture of an angel

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and it was beautiful.

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And his reply as mother always
condensed the story was,

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Helen, you may go home
and send me your mother.

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- She wrote about sculpture.

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I recognized at age eight

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closely between the hand and the clay.

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The soft, smooth wetness
pleases my fingers

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was cold and slippery, ready to be shaped.

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I think somebody who at the age of eight

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is able to say this,

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that it's very, it's a tactile,

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it's something that's

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essentially a need her
to create something,

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I think that she's on a good road.

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- [Narrator] Ernie's decision

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to dedicate his life to the
arts, led him to Helen Hooker

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and eventually, back home to Ireland.

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- [Peavoy] I met Helen
in Greenwich, Connecticut

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in her own house in June, 1933.

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Helen brought me down to see your studio,

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talked a great deal about sculpture

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and seemed to be
interested in the fact that

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I knew about sculpture and painting.

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Later, I was told by Helen

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that her father forbade me at the house.

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I was a dangerous man, a
revolutionary, he said.

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- She was interested in him,
he had an interesting face

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and she clearly wanted
to sculpt him right away.

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And to have him be exiled from the house,

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I think perhaps added intrigue,

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but also reflected her
own traditional values

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as to what, how our family felt about her.

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- [Peavoy] I had no money.

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I had come to America to roof.

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And though I had met
intellectuals and wealthy people,

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my heart was in Ireland.

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I thought, however, that
Ireland would suit him.

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The country had no purity
materialistic values.

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There was a sense of personality

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which could jump class distinctions.

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Life was not either so thoroughly arranged

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as with the Hookers.

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Nor would Helen, except with
certain Anglo-Irish families

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find an equal sense of the
importance of her name.

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- She decided in view of her
father's position to elope,

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which was probably correct.

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It wouldn't have gone too far otherwise.

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And they did, and she went
on a garden party to Japan

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and then took the Trans-Siberian
to as far as it would go

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and then they went to
London and were married.

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- They moved to Dublin and
the circle of people suddenly,

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not too soon thereafter,

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she was able to speak and not stutter.

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So that there was a freedom
and an ease and a relaxation

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and to be among artists.

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Her parents were financial
incorporation and engineers

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and governmental figures,

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but it was a very conservative circle.

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In Ireland she met painters,
sculptures, actors, dancers,

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writers, poets, and all the things

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that she loved and shared and admired

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that father was so knowledgeable about.

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- [Narrator] Helen and Ernie
moved to Dublin in 1935

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before settling in Burrishoole lodge,

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a farming estate in County Mayo in 1938.

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- They moved to the West
of Ireland and of course,

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there's where Ernie was
in his element because

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that's where he originated himself.

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And he would have been her
guide around the West of Ireland

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and enabling her to capture
the atmosphere of the area

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and of rural Ireland at the time.

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You know, it would have been
a totally alien community

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and environment to her, I imagine

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until she met Ernie and
was able to integrate.

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But what is also very fascinating

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is the way she seemed
to absorb it all herself

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and seem to relish the environment

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and to get to become part of it.

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- The photography was their
introduction to Ireland.

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It wasn't painting, or
poetry or other things.

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It was those weekends and the
bonding of that relationship,

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albeit she was pregnant and
there were difficulties,

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but she and father and sometimes his

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brother Kevin would go on these weekend,

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flights of imagination and
art, and just have a great time

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in discovering in themselves

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their relationship with Ireland.

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- He knew the countryside very well

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throughout the West of Ireland

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because he'd been raising
troops and training them there.

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And he knew where the
archeological artifacts were

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and led her to them and
she photographed them.

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And he excited her about
the stories very near

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where we lived in Burrishoole.

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But that was a collaboration
of her learning about Ireland,

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the history of ancient Ireland

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as well as some of modern Ireland

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and her passion of the country
was as keen as father's.

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- My parents had a great

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symbiotic relationship in a certain sense

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because they fed off
each other in their arts

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and their interests.

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And as my father toured my
mother around to Ireland in 1935,

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with his bride showing off to his friends,

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he was introducing her to his culture.

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- The war came along and they worked to be

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self-sufficient.

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And so they did farming and
that was a good idea because

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there were a lot of things

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that were not able to be imported.

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- [Peavoy] We have never been safe here

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yet we have survived

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and in our own small way

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have made a contribution.

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And if we have to die,
we're content enough to die,

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not as individuals, but as a group.

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That's why we prefer to stay
here and to meet what comes.

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- The Second World War, The Emergency,

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as it was called here was

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massively important for the
development of modernist art.

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And it was a kind of

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ironically maybe a kind of a golden period

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in Irish modernism because

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collectors and admires of modernist art

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were not able to travel
abroad during that period.

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So they'd began to focus on
what was happening at home.

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- When Helen Hooker
O'Malley came to Ireland,

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she was not Irish, foreign

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had traveled all over the world

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was seen as somebody from the
kind of privileged, you know,

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aristocratic or semi
aristocratic community

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just like the people that
they were a bit nervous of.

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And who were not in the academy,

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had to be in the Iris
exhibition of living art really.

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And she wasn't a Catholic.

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I don't think they knew
anything about what she was,

282
00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:25,590
but she wasn't one of them

283
00:15:25,590 --> 00:15:27,023
and she was a woman. But

284
00:15:27,023 --> 00:15:31,040
what's interesting is that
because she's married to Ernie

285
00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:34,420
who, you know, excommunicated
from the Catholic church

286
00:15:34,420 --> 00:15:36,040
though he might've been,

287
00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:40,860
was a leading Irish Nationalist
and one of their own.

288
00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:42,860
- [Narrator] Inspired by a five week trip

289
00:15:42,860 --> 00:15:45,250
through the Irish
countryside Ernie had taken

290
00:15:45,250 --> 00:15:49,813
with American photographer,
Paul Strand in June, 1935,

291
00:15:50,890 --> 00:15:54,880
Helen and Ernie began what
would become a five-year project

292
00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:57,970
to photograph Irish archeological sites.

293
00:15:57,970 --> 00:16:00,410
- Then when he returned to our Ireland,

294
00:16:00,410 --> 00:16:03,540
he tried to replicate
what Strand had been doing

295
00:16:03,540 --> 00:16:06,370
with the built architecture,

296
00:16:06,370 --> 00:16:10,590
the vernacular statues and
the portraits of the people.

297
00:16:10,590 --> 00:16:15,590
So I followed that on and
I was quite amazed to see

298
00:16:16,190 --> 00:16:19,610
how big the project that Ernie
O'Malley had to undertaken

299
00:16:19,610 --> 00:16:23,010
along with Helen Hooker
O'Malley traveling the country.

300
00:16:23,010 --> 00:16:26,660
And it was a very different
way of photography

301
00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:28,810
being approached in Ireland.

302
00:16:28,810 --> 00:16:31,300
- One of the finest series of portraits

303
00:16:31,300 --> 00:16:34,420
in Helen Hooker's work is
the series of portraits

304
00:16:34,420 --> 00:16:36,730
she took of the Malley family,

305
00:16:36,730 --> 00:16:38,730
which was her husband's family.

306
00:16:38,730 --> 00:16:41,620
He was O'Malley, but
they chose to be Malley

307
00:16:41,620 --> 00:16:43,650
or he chose to be O'Malley.

308
00:16:43,650 --> 00:16:48,650
And she made these photographs
in about 1937 in Dublin

309
00:16:49,310 --> 00:16:51,480
under a beautiful set of pictures.

310
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:55,430
She also took great care
in picking the location

311
00:16:55,430 --> 00:16:57,840
for the portraits to be made.

312
00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:01,360
She really constructed the scene.

313
00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,360
One of the most striking
ones that is a portrait

314
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,900
of her father-in-law Luke Malley

315
00:17:05,900 --> 00:17:08,970
and t's really a beautiful
picture and it's really tender

316
00:17:08,970 --> 00:17:13,340
and he seems really at ease with her.

317
00:17:13,340 --> 00:17:16,290
There's a slightly more,
self-conscious one of Sweetie,

318
00:17:16,290 --> 00:17:18,110
which is a beautiful portrait.

319
00:17:18,110 --> 00:17:23,040
She looks slightly
uncomfortable or self-conscious,

320
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:24,920
but it looks more like
a lack of confidence

321
00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:25,790
than anything else.

322
00:17:25,790 --> 00:17:28,470
- [Narrator] In addition
to her photography,

323
00:17:28,470 --> 00:17:31,540
Helen Hooker created
more than 400 sculptures

324
00:17:31,540 --> 00:17:32,910
of heads and figures

325
00:17:32,910 --> 00:17:35,800
over the course of her
career as an artist.

326
00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:36,780
- Helen brought something

327
00:17:36,780 --> 00:17:38,820
new and fresh into Irish portraiture,

328
00:17:38,820 --> 00:17:42,740
because she'd seen the
world as it really was

329
00:17:42,740 --> 00:17:44,150
and she traveled.

330
00:17:44,150 --> 00:17:45,098
And that came...

331
00:17:45,098 --> 00:17:46,493
That was there in the war.

332
00:17:46,493 --> 00:17:48,990
That came across to me very strongly.

333
00:17:48,990 --> 00:17:51,980
- Not only was she Mrs. Ernie O'Malley,

334
00:17:51,980 --> 00:17:55,010
but as an artist, she was Helen Hooker.

335
00:17:55,010 --> 00:17:58,620
And so she would meet a Frank
or Connor at the dinner table,

336
00:17:58,620 --> 00:18:02,910
but afterwards she would say
to him, could I do your head?

337
00:18:02,910 --> 00:18:05,000
And she would take photographs off him.

338
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,630
Totally independent with
the relationship with Ernie.

339
00:18:08,630 --> 00:18:11,410
- The one thing that comes
across her interest in people,

340
00:18:11,410 --> 00:18:13,240
different kinds of people,

341
00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:15,510
their character, their attitude,

342
00:18:15,510 --> 00:18:16,990
the way they carry themselves,

343
00:18:16,990 --> 00:18:21,650
their bodily kind of directions,

344
00:18:21,650 --> 00:18:23,800
the way they project themselves.

345
00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:27,440
- She was pretty choosy as
to who she did a head of

346
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:30,320
and that's another whole
subject matter as to why

347
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,030
she did one head versus another.

348
00:18:33,030 --> 00:18:38,030
It was usually relating to
something of a look of an image

349
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,570
that she just felt needed to be captured.

350
00:18:42,570 --> 00:18:44,500
- [Narrator] In 1943,

351
00:18:44,500 --> 00:18:46,410
Helen displayed her heads of sculpture

352
00:18:46,410 --> 00:18:49,740
at the first Irish
Exhibition of Living Art.

353
00:18:49,740 --> 00:18:53,570
- Sculpture was I think, a difficult area

354
00:18:53,570 --> 00:18:56,873
in terms of Irish visual arts
in the 1930s and the 1940s.

355
00:18:58,970 --> 00:19:03,440
You know, there were, it was
kind of underdeveloped really

356
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:07,730
and I think that Helen
was quite rare really

357
00:19:07,730 --> 00:19:10,600
in being an artist to
concentrated in sculpture

358
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,640
in that period and who
exhibited that kind of work

359
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:16,733
in the Living Art Exhibitions.

360
00:19:17,910 --> 00:19:19,950
- You can't really
separate her and the artist

361
00:19:19,950 --> 00:19:22,890
in that context from Helen, the collector

362
00:19:22,890 --> 00:19:27,110
and Helen, the member of
that circle of friends

363
00:19:27,110 --> 00:19:28,870
who were involved in setting up the

364
00:19:28,870 --> 00:19:30,460
Irish Exhibition of Living Art.

365
00:19:30,460 --> 00:19:33,010
- It was in opposition, or it
was in competition lets say

366
00:19:33,010 --> 00:19:35,500
with the RHA, with the
Royal Hibernian Academy,

367
00:19:35,500 --> 00:19:38,350
which was a more
conventional academic forum.

368
00:19:38,350 --> 00:19:42,270
And the living art was by
far going on media reports,

369
00:19:42,270 --> 00:19:43,520
far more exciting.

370
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,343
- She had heads in there
from '43 to about '48,

371
00:19:48,580 --> 00:19:49,890
five years in a row.

372
00:19:49,890 --> 00:19:52,508
Again, with the product that she was using

373
00:19:52,508 --> 00:19:55,290
with the friends that she
would sculpt at the time.

374
00:19:55,290 --> 00:19:58,940
And she had created her
own studio in Dublin.

375
00:19:58,940 --> 00:20:02,630
- Most presume also that
the sort of the landscape

376
00:20:02,630 --> 00:20:03,670
was an influence,

377
00:20:03,670 --> 00:20:06,570
the fact that she had to spend
so much time in Burrishoole

378
00:20:08,033 --> 00:20:12,340
and that it was so obviously
her expeditions with Ernie,

379
00:20:12,340 --> 00:20:16,600
the photography and so on
would have made her very aware

380
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:20,557
and knowledgeable about
the range of the landscapes

381
00:20:20,557 --> 00:20:23,010
and the monuments within the landscapes.

382
00:20:23,010 --> 00:20:24,470
- It's in our work, all our work,

383
00:20:24,470 --> 00:20:27,793
like as I say, drawings,
photography, all of that.

384
00:20:29,270 --> 00:20:33,490
And the earth force, the
thing coming from the art,

385
00:20:33,490 --> 00:20:35,880
Yates said something
about that, didn't he?

386
00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:38,989
About everything must come from the earth

387
00:20:38,989 --> 00:20:42,090
and Rodin's work certainly
came from the earth

388
00:20:42,090 --> 00:20:45,800
and so was Helen's and she
was interested in landscape.

389
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,410
The two are interrelated,
mightn't seem like that

390
00:20:48,410 --> 00:20:50,407
when you talk about
sculpture and landscape,

391
00:20:50,407 --> 00:20:52,423
but they do have a relationship.

392
00:20:53,610 --> 00:20:54,980
- [Narrator] During this time,

393
00:20:54,980 --> 00:20:57,700
Helen and Ernie continued
to explore Ireland

394
00:20:57,700 --> 00:20:59,630
through photography.

395
00:20:59,630 --> 00:21:01,490
- Their photographs

396
00:21:01,490 --> 00:21:04,729
and sculptures and the
paintings that they collected

397
00:21:04,729 --> 00:21:08,550
really captured in a unique way,

398
00:21:08,550 --> 00:21:10,820
Ireland of the '30s and '40s.

399
00:21:10,820 --> 00:21:14,150
A time of great poverty,

400
00:21:14,150 --> 00:21:16,160
much migration, emigration from Ireland

401
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,100
to better, you know, life elsewhere,

402
00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:21,880
but also captured the
magnificent and troubled past

403
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,670
of Ireland documented
monuments across the country.

404
00:21:25,670 --> 00:21:27,173
So it was,

405
00:21:28,230 --> 00:21:30,010
a monument in many ways

406
00:21:30,010 --> 00:21:34,830
to an extraordinary marriage
of equals between two artists.

407
00:21:34,830 --> 00:21:36,903
- [Peavoy] Misty, indefinite,

408
00:21:38,030 --> 00:21:41,130
the land changed its surface
in the mind from gady

409
00:21:41,130 --> 00:21:43,260
to brooding melancholy.

410
00:21:43,260 --> 00:21:47,150
But it gripped hard when one
knew it or had lived there.

411
00:21:47,150 --> 00:21:49,663
In rain or sun, we love this country.

412
00:21:50,530 --> 00:21:52,860
It's haunting in personal bareness,

413
00:21:52,860 --> 00:21:56,390
it's austerity aloofness small lakes,

414
00:21:56,390 --> 00:21:59,510
the disproportate of
bulking of the mountains.

415
00:21:59,510 --> 00:22:01,260
- Coming, as I've said
from America to Ireland,

416
00:22:01,260 --> 00:22:03,050
in that particular period,

417
00:22:03,050 --> 00:22:05,850
they're looking at things in
a completely different way.

418
00:22:05,850 --> 00:22:07,407
They're looking at these almost

419
00:22:07,407 --> 00:22:11,870
as so-called works of
art within the landscape.

420
00:22:11,870 --> 00:22:15,273
That is a very refreshing and novel way

421
00:22:15,273 --> 00:22:16,590
of thinking about things.

422
00:22:16,590 --> 00:22:18,210
- She has taken ones
of the black and whites

423
00:22:18,210 --> 00:22:19,770
in the fair day.

424
00:22:19,770 --> 00:22:22,800
And I would have done that with my father.

425
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:25,680
I would have gone to those
fairs, driving the cattle,

426
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:27,810
getting up at five o'clock in the morning,

427
00:22:27,810 --> 00:22:31,330
a day off school it was like
all my Christmases together.

428
00:22:31,330 --> 00:22:35,670
And to get the cattle
into a prime location

429
00:22:35,670 --> 00:22:39,330
at the fair in the center
of the village, if possible,

430
00:22:39,330 --> 00:22:41,750
and waiting for the vultures to arrive,

431
00:22:41,750 --> 00:22:44,490
the cattle buyers to
beat us down and so on.

432
00:22:44,490 --> 00:22:46,350
So I remember it very distinctly.

433
00:22:46,350 --> 00:22:50,070
So it brought back a lot of
those kinds of memories to me.

434
00:22:50,070 --> 00:22:51,930
- We've spent some time here
in Gallery of Photography

435
00:22:51,930 --> 00:22:55,480
looking and researching
modernist photography in Ireland

436
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,000
and it was really interesting
to see Helen Hooker's work

437
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:03,350
and see how her photography was informed

438
00:23:03,350 --> 00:23:04,780
by a modernist aesthetic.

439
00:23:04,780 --> 00:23:06,950
I do like what we call Irish Gothic,

440
00:23:06,950 --> 00:23:10,240
which is her photograph of a
farming family near Burrishoole

441
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,120
and that is a really
nice 'cause I love the

442
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,290
uncertain, quizzical look

443
00:23:16,290 --> 00:23:18,853
in the various people
that she photographed.

444
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:24,130
There is a power balance
within that photograph

445
00:23:24,130 --> 00:23:27,140
I think that you don't
often see in portraits.

446
00:23:27,140 --> 00:23:28,510
You know, people are you know,

447
00:23:28,510 --> 00:23:29,650
she's looking at them straight on

448
00:23:29,650 --> 00:23:32,290
and they're looking straight back at her

449
00:23:32,290 --> 00:23:34,220
and there seem to be quite powerful.

450
00:23:34,220 --> 00:23:37,550
And they've been interrupted
in saving the hay.

451
00:23:37,550 --> 00:23:40,440
So, you know and they
look like busy people

452
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,540
and she manages to photograph
them in a way that's

453
00:23:43,540 --> 00:23:45,300
ennobling without being patronizing.

454
00:23:45,300 --> 00:23:48,080
- The myths in Ireland and the geography

455
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,610
and history of Ireland were
written on the landscape

456
00:23:51,610 --> 00:23:53,810
so that you could actually drive through

457
00:23:53,810 --> 00:23:55,790
and see the older castles.

458
00:23:55,790 --> 00:24:00,430
The tombs that you would
see, the burial arrangements,

459
00:24:00,430 --> 00:24:04,283
the castles that were
built in medieval times,

460
00:24:05,380 --> 00:24:10,380
the monasteries that she saw
and the more recent houses.

461
00:24:10,980 --> 00:24:14,860
And so these sort of spoke
to her in a certain sense.

462
00:24:14,860 --> 00:24:18,340
She understood them because
she had this sort of

463
00:24:18,340 --> 00:24:23,340
eerie connection with the
myths of human existence

464
00:24:25,030 --> 00:24:28,180
and brought a certain
spirituality to that,

465
00:24:28,180 --> 00:24:30,363
which she then tried to capture on camera.

466
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:37,160
- This kind of very modernist
approach to photography,

467
00:24:39,090 --> 00:24:42,810
seeing something kind of
monumental in the structures.

468
00:24:42,810 --> 00:24:45,846
You know, the way in
which the turf was cut,

469
00:24:45,846 --> 00:24:50,846
the sort of detail that she
looks at that kind of context.

470
00:24:52,370 --> 00:24:55,690
Again, looking at it from an
Irish visual art point of view,

471
00:24:55,690 --> 00:24:58,490
that's very innovative and very different.

472
00:24:58,490 --> 00:24:59,480
- In the exhibition,

473
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:04,290
we included a section of
which we informally called

474
00:25:04,290 --> 00:25:07,460
"Elusive Ernie," and in
that set of photographs,

475
00:25:07,460 --> 00:25:12,460
you see a fine portrait made
of Ernie by her New York.

476
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,810
But beside it, are a series of
photographs that were perhaps

477
00:25:16,810 --> 00:25:21,810
the start of their journey of
discovery together in Ireland,

478
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,440
where Ernie introduced Helen to Ireland,

479
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,260
by taking her to the sites,
first of all where he had been

480
00:25:29,260 --> 00:25:30,830
interrogating Dublin castle

481
00:25:30,830 --> 00:25:34,490
and where he had been
imprisoned in Kilmainham.

482
00:25:34,490 --> 00:25:38,610
- Well then fathered had
a tiff on some subject

483
00:25:38,610 --> 00:25:40,180
and father begged me,

484
00:25:40,180 --> 00:25:43,430
outside his bedroom there
were always in the summer,

485
00:25:43,430 --> 00:25:45,930
huge strawberries.

486
00:25:45,930 --> 00:25:50,477
And he said, "Please take a
strawberry to your mother."

487
00:25:52,180 --> 00:25:55,290
And so her bedroom was at
the other end of the hall

488
00:25:55,290 --> 00:25:59,940
and so I walked down and
it took three strawberries

489
00:25:59,940 --> 00:26:01,863
to mother and she started to cry.

490
00:26:03,050 --> 00:26:05,330
It was a moment of peace.

491
00:26:05,330 --> 00:26:08,230
- [Narrator] Helen returned
to the US after World War II

492
00:26:08,230 --> 00:26:11,200
and began spending more and more time

493
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,600
away from her home and family in Ireland.

494
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,025
- I do remember earlier on,

495
00:26:17,025 --> 00:26:20,430
she had some wonderful
friends from Dublin.

496
00:26:20,430 --> 00:26:22,310
The head librarian from where she worked

497
00:26:23,350 --> 00:26:26,940
and some other women who
were really outstanding.

498
00:26:26,940 --> 00:26:31,000
I guess he resented her
having friends there,

499
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:32,160
which was too bad.

500
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,100
He was happy with books

501
00:26:34,100 --> 00:26:37,190
and would talk to the local fishermen

502
00:26:37,190 --> 00:26:42,040
and record the stories
that they had and so forth.

503
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:43,147
But my mother was an artist

504
00:26:43,147 --> 00:26:47,470
and she needed other creative people

505
00:26:47,470 --> 00:26:50,670
and friends to stimulate her.

506
00:26:50,670 --> 00:26:53,270
And so that was the shame

507
00:26:53,270 --> 00:26:55,770
and that was, I think part of the thing

508
00:26:55,770 --> 00:26:58,920
that tore that relationship apart.

509
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,920
- She wasn't interested in being a mother.

510
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:03,520
She didn't know how.

511
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:04,920
I mean, every time she came home,

512
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:06,653
it was a major disturbance,

513
00:27:08,712 --> 00:27:09,723
major.

514
00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:15,030
So it was much better
when she wasn't there.

515
00:27:15,030 --> 00:27:19,220
- He so sensitive and
that's what attracted her

516
00:27:19,220 --> 00:27:21,560
it seems about him.

517
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:26,080
And so far as I can judge,
he must have been as well.

518
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:30,435
But then again, not alone
was he so sensitive,

519
00:27:30,435 --> 00:27:33,839
but he was opinionated and strong minded

520
00:27:33,839 --> 00:27:36,950
and strong-willed like herself.

521
00:27:36,950 --> 00:27:39,943
So I could see how they would clash.

522
00:27:41,090 --> 00:27:43,170
- [Peavoy] You have your
now carefree opportunity

523
00:27:43,170 --> 00:27:44,760
to do what you please.

524
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:46,040
But maybe you prefer to be

525
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,230
a Greenwich lady and reactionary

526
00:27:48,230 --> 00:27:52,060
that I expect has its advantages also.

527
00:27:52,060 --> 00:27:54,003
Love Ernie.

528
00:27:55,940 --> 00:27:58,820
- Quite often the
characteristic of Helen was

529
00:27:58,820 --> 00:28:03,550
she would follow her heart and
tend in the latest venture.

530
00:28:03,550 --> 00:28:07,820
Again, that's a reflection
sometimes of what Ernie was.

531
00:28:07,820 --> 00:28:10,510
He had the capacity to be independent

532
00:28:10,510 --> 00:28:15,510
and he too would pursue whatever
his latest interest was.

533
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:19,660
- [Narrator] In 1948,
Helen gave up the lease

534
00:28:19,660 --> 00:28:21,930
on the family house in Dublin.

535
00:28:21,930 --> 00:28:24,890
Ernie and the children
remained at Burrishoole.

536
00:28:24,890 --> 00:28:28,680
- Your brother and sister
were sent to the Gaeltacht

537
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,990
in Ring and I think that
would have been Ernie's doing,

538
00:28:31,990 --> 00:28:35,920
I'm not sure where exactly
Helen was at that time,

539
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,790
but anyway, she was anxious

540
00:28:38,790 --> 00:28:42,810
to get the children to join her

541
00:28:42,810 --> 00:28:46,310
and of course Ernie wanted
them to remain here.

542
00:28:46,310 --> 00:28:47,740
- [Narrator] In March 1950,

543
00:28:47,740 --> 00:28:50,040
as the marriage was breaking down,

544
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,090
Helen took drastic measures.

545
00:28:52,090 --> 00:28:54,540
She kidnapped her two eldest children,

546
00:28:54,540 --> 00:28:57,830
Cathal and Etáin from
Ring college in Ireland

547
00:28:57,830 --> 00:28:59,710
and brought them to New York.

548
00:28:59,710 --> 00:29:02,360
The experience affected
each of the three children

549
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:03,690
differently.

550
00:29:03,690 --> 00:29:08,671
- So we went out for lunch
from the Irish speaking school.

551
00:29:08,671 --> 00:29:11,330
And I think at the end of lunch,

552
00:29:11,330 --> 00:29:14,480
my mom mentioned that by the way,

553
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:16,293
we were going to the United States.

554
00:29:17,140 --> 00:29:21,590
- I adored my father and
I missed him profoundly.

555
00:29:24,220 --> 00:29:25,220
I did not appreciate

556
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:31,360
not being able to leaving Ireland

557
00:29:31,690 --> 00:29:34,643
with just my school
uniform when I was nine.

558
00:29:36,530 --> 00:29:37,930
- [Narrator] After the kidnapping,

559
00:29:37,930 --> 00:29:40,400
Ernie kept Cormac's location a secret

560
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:41,823
and restricted his travel.

561
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:44,100
- No one knew where I was.

562
00:29:44,100 --> 00:29:49,100
Therefore my mother could
not find me and take me away.

563
00:29:51,310 --> 00:29:55,290
It never felt scary, in
fact it felt quite secure.

564
00:29:55,290 --> 00:29:58,640
It felt partially like
a game of hide and seek.

565
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:03,640
But I was taken care of, fed, educated

566
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:06,430
and felt happy and content

567
00:30:06,430 --> 00:30:11,430
as I had my father in
charge in charge of my life.

568
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,940
So there was no misgivings

569
00:30:14,940 --> 00:30:17,940
about missing the rest
of the family because

570
00:30:19,110 --> 00:30:21,230
I think children adapt very quickly

571
00:30:21,230 --> 00:30:24,357
to the circumstances
they find themselves in.

572
00:30:24,357 --> 00:30:27,963
- She deeply missed Cormac.

573
00:30:30,530 --> 00:30:35,433
And would cry, cry, cry, cry, cry.

574
00:30:36,510 --> 00:30:41,510
And I remember nightly coming
over, especially in Colorado,

575
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:43,250
I had to massage her.

576
00:30:43,250 --> 00:30:45,640
She taught me how to massage

577
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,823
because of the stress of everything.

578
00:30:51,420 --> 00:30:53,893
She rued what she had done.

579
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:56,220
- [Narrator] Helen took legal action

580
00:30:56,220 --> 00:30:58,330
to evict Ernie from Burrishoole,

581
00:30:58,330 --> 00:31:01,790
but the effort was
ultimately unsuccessful.

582
00:31:01,790 --> 00:31:04,910
She moved with the two
older children to Colorado

583
00:31:04,910 --> 00:31:07,910
and was granted a divorce in 1952.

584
00:31:07,910 --> 00:31:12,910
- Almost the minute that
the divorce went through,

585
00:31:12,940 --> 00:31:17,940
she regretted it and
wanted to remarry him,

586
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:22,731
persuade him to remarry her.

587
00:31:22,731 --> 00:31:27,530
She was totally unsuccessful
because by that point,

588
00:31:27,530 --> 00:31:32,530
father in 1953, I went
with mother to Newton Hall,

589
00:31:32,910 --> 00:31:37,903
to stay with Babs Rolston
and her husband for Christmas

590
00:31:37,903 --> 00:31:39,811
and father was there.

591
00:31:39,811 --> 00:31:42,270
Father and Cormac were both there.

592
00:31:42,270 --> 00:31:45,910
But father had had a heart
attack and he was not well

593
00:31:45,910 --> 00:31:48,362
and was in a darkened room.

594
00:31:48,362 --> 00:31:52,900
- When a family is split
apart, you always regret that.

595
00:31:52,900 --> 00:31:56,800
And coming back and visiting with him

596
00:31:59,330 --> 00:32:03,010
was exciting, but sad

597
00:32:03,010 --> 00:32:05,990
because we both, I guess felt awkward.

598
00:32:05,990 --> 00:32:10,600
He, I think had the
feeling that I deserted him

599
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:12,770
which really wasn't the case.

600
00:32:12,770 --> 00:32:16,130
- My interpretation of his life
is that his life was broken.

601
00:32:16,130 --> 00:32:18,433
Everything that he tried to do fail.

602
00:32:19,550 --> 00:32:23,553
The Irish Republic, his health, the war,

603
00:32:25,420 --> 00:32:27,633
the treaties that he was against,

604
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:32,610
the publication of his book

605
00:32:32,610 --> 00:32:35,490
which resulted in a libel suit.

606
00:32:35,490 --> 00:32:38,070
The non-publication of
the book of photography

607
00:32:38,070 --> 00:32:39,320
that he was hoping to do,

608
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:43,613
the breakup of his marriage,

609
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:46,363
the loss of two of his children,

610
00:32:47,860 --> 00:32:50,810
later very bad health that
he had at a very early age

611
00:32:50,810 --> 00:32:52,860
of early fifties.

612
00:32:52,860 --> 00:32:55,230
And so one thing after another,

613
00:32:55,230 --> 00:32:58,280
as I sort of summarized what he was doing,

614
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,487
he just turned up to be broken.

615
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,810
- [Narrator] On March 25th, 1957,

616
00:33:06,810 --> 00:33:10,690
after decades of pain and
hardship from his war wounds.

617
00:33:10,690 --> 00:33:12,653
Ernie O'Malley died of a heart attack.

618
00:33:15,030 --> 00:33:17,870
Éamon de Valera, a former
partisan with Ernie

619
00:33:17,870 --> 00:33:20,240
was prime minister at the time.

620
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,870
He honored Ernie with a state funeral.

621
00:33:22,870 --> 00:33:25,570
- It was very timely because

622
00:33:25,570 --> 00:33:30,430
if he had died say six
months or a year earlier,

623
00:33:30,430 --> 00:33:32,250
he wouldn't have had the state funeral

624
00:33:32,250 --> 00:33:36,630
because the government in
power was not the same.

625
00:33:36,630 --> 00:33:40,420
I think he was the only sixth
person to be honored by that

626
00:33:40,420 --> 00:33:43,560
in the Irish Free State,
since it was founded.

627
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:48,560
Of course they were happy, I
think, to celebrate a comrade.

628
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:52,270
And so it was really quite amazing.

629
00:33:52,270 --> 00:33:56,113
I mean, I was somewhat overwhelmed

630
00:33:56,113 --> 00:34:01,113
by the state pulling out
all the stops because

631
00:34:02,300 --> 00:34:04,870
I perhaps didn't appreciate at the time,

632
00:34:04,870 --> 00:34:07,870
but I just realized that
wasn't an every day event.

633
00:34:07,870 --> 00:34:12,580
- I was only 14 and it was
the most impressive process

634
00:34:12,580 --> 00:34:17,580
of long lines of military
of carrying the coffin

635
00:34:18,210 --> 00:34:20,500
draped in the tri color,

636
00:34:20,500 --> 00:34:23,760
of having the President and the Taoiseach

637
00:34:24,780 --> 00:34:29,570
be readily recognized even by me

638
00:34:30,910 --> 00:34:34,280
be present in their long black coats.

639
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:38,180
And then to have the procession
go slowly through Dublin,

640
00:34:38,180 --> 00:34:41,720
over to the Glasnevin cemetery.

641
00:34:41,720 --> 00:34:42,553
- There was such

642
00:34:44,155 --> 00:34:46,163
a profound sense of loss.

643
00:34:48,130 --> 00:34:49,810
I remember the throngs of people.

644
00:34:49,810 --> 00:34:53,780
I remember six deep or nine deep

645
00:34:53,780 --> 00:34:55,633
lining both sides of the street.

646
00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:01,166
People coming into Dublin, from the Howth.

647
00:35:01,166 --> 00:35:04,120
- I can understand how much it meant

648
00:35:05,430 --> 00:35:08,630
to those people who still
were alive at the time

649
00:35:09,646 --> 00:35:11,800
for the fight for Ireland's freedom

650
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:13,540
and the recognition

651
00:35:15,270 --> 00:35:17,763
of somebody who gave his life really.

652
00:35:20,750 --> 00:35:22,690
- [Narrator] Shortly before Ernie's death,

653
00:35:22,690 --> 00:35:25,710
Helen married her second,
husband, Richard Roelefs

654
00:35:25,710 --> 00:35:27,920
and settled again in Greenwich.

655
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:29,250
She embraced her new life

656
00:35:29,250 --> 00:35:32,223
while continuing to pursue
sculpture and photography.

657
00:35:33,110 --> 00:35:35,423
Roelefs died in 1971.

658
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:39,460
Helen then renewed her commitment to work,

659
00:35:39,460 --> 00:35:41,820
entering an era of tremendous productivity

660
00:35:41,820 --> 00:35:44,100
in America and Ireland.

661
00:35:44,100 --> 00:35:48,019
She again was back with her
camera this time sometimes

662
00:35:48,019 --> 00:35:51,939
with the Rolleiflex which
allowed her to do color

663
00:35:51,939 --> 00:35:53,156
in Kodachrome but quite often

664
00:35:53,156 --> 00:35:55,390
just on the old black and white.

665
00:35:55,390 --> 00:35:58,240
- What's really interesting
when you look at Helen's

666
00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:00,490
artistic practice over
the span of her career,

667
00:36:00,490 --> 00:36:03,770
you know, it's a Testament
to how much Ireland changed

668
00:36:03,770 --> 00:36:06,540
from the 1930s to the 1960s.

669
00:36:06,540 --> 00:36:08,860
Because it feels like a
much longer period of time

670
00:36:08,860 --> 00:36:09,990
when you look at the work.

671
00:36:09,990 --> 00:36:12,680
The 1930s pictures are quite austere,

672
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:15,360
the countryside and particularly
some of the buildings,

673
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,760
some of the key side buildings

674
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:19,050
that you see in the west part.

675
00:36:19,050 --> 00:36:21,510
Very impoverished
sometimes without a roof,

676
00:36:21,510 --> 00:36:23,170
it's very paired back.

677
00:36:23,170 --> 00:36:27,020
It's quite a plain country
at that period of time.

678
00:36:27,020 --> 00:36:28,820
And you could see that
people were struggling,

679
00:36:28,820 --> 00:36:31,330
you know, it was equally
difficult economic times.

680
00:36:31,330 --> 00:36:36,330
Whereas by the time Helen
moves into color in the 1960s,

681
00:36:36,340 --> 00:36:40,000
you really start to see Lemass'
modern Ireland appearing.

682
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,120
You know, people are much more relaxed

683
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:43,650
in front of the camera,

684
00:36:43,650 --> 00:36:46,060
there's prosperity and you
start seeing the commercial

685
00:36:46,060 --> 00:36:48,340
dyes coming through even
in people's clothing.

686
00:36:48,340 --> 00:36:52,132
So the whole place is much more colorful

687
00:36:52,132 --> 00:36:54,160
and it's interesting that Helen is then

688
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,170
representing Ireland through color.

689
00:36:56,170 --> 00:36:59,630
- When she's coming to Dublin
and she's making work in color

690
00:36:59,630 --> 00:37:02,870
and slightly more sort of
street photography vibe

691
00:37:02,870 --> 00:37:03,980
of the work,

692
00:37:03,980 --> 00:37:08,980
she is getting people to
relax for the camera more.

693
00:37:09,180 --> 00:37:11,560
- I think it really feels
a little bit more like

694
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,890
Helen's Ireland than the
people that she encountered.

695
00:37:14,890 --> 00:37:17,720
So it's as much portrait of a milieu,

696
00:37:17,720 --> 00:37:22,420
portrait of a community and
the people that she mixed with.

697
00:37:22,420 --> 00:37:25,080
So there are different
elements within them.

698
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:27,600
But, you know, from a
technological point of view,

699
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:31,340
the Kodachromes very much pinpoint

700
00:37:31,340 --> 00:37:34,580
and I think this is something
that photographic processes do

701
00:37:34,580 --> 00:37:37,150
that can become very much attached

702
00:37:37,150 --> 00:37:40,880
and evoke the atmosphere of a period

703
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:44,790
and the Kodachromes do
that for our street scapes

704
00:37:44,790 --> 00:37:47,010
in particular, the shop signage,

705
00:37:47,010 --> 00:37:48,670
the colors of cars and

706
00:37:50,530 --> 00:37:53,660
different aspects of the
street scape are highlighted

707
00:37:53,660 --> 00:37:55,590
depending upon the process.

708
00:37:55,590 --> 00:37:59,130
- Ireland was coming out
of the monochrome Ireland

709
00:37:59,130 --> 00:38:01,685
of the post-treaty and post-war years

710
00:38:01,685 --> 00:38:06,685
and was coming into if you
like this, not quite technical,

711
00:38:08,482 --> 00:38:13,482
but multicolored raincoat
of the 1960s and '70s.

712
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:15,457
- She had a whole second breath of life

713
00:38:15,457 --> 00:38:20,457
and in fact she created 50%
of her artwork after 1971.

714
00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:24,290
- Her relationship with Ireland
seems to be very different.

715
00:38:24,290 --> 00:38:28,040
I mean, she's, there are
people that she knew very well,

716
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,780
artists and writers, that
there seems to be a more

717
00:38:31,780 --> 00:38:35,030
and more intimate, more
direct connection going on.

718
00:38:35,030 --> 00:38:37,020
- You can see her developing our own

719
00:38:37,020 --> 00:38:39,170
circle of friends and acquaintances.

720
00:38:39,170 --> 00:38:41,890
So some of the later photographs,

721
00:38:41,890 --> 00:38:45,710
also the key people in
her life like Mary Lavin

722
00:38:45,710 --> 00:38:49,150
are very relaxed, they're
real intimate insiders.

723
00:38:49,150 --> 00:38:52,110
Helen seems very confident and robust

724
00:38:52,110 --> 00:38:54,560
in the way that she
photographs these people.

725
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:55,840
- You know, some of these

726
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,380
portraits were taken in order to make

727
00:38:58,380 --> 00:39:00,650
a sculpted head of the person.

728
00:39:00,650 --> 00:39:05,650
So there is a memoir for when
she's making the sculpture

729
00:39:06,101 --> 00:39:08,700
and possibly it's because

730
00:39:08,700 --> 00:39:12,800
they are aware that they're
not these aren't photographs,

731
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:14,660
that she's just kind of doing these things

732
00:39:14,660 --> 00:39:16,820
that they're very kind of comfortable

733
00:39:16,820 --> 00:39:18,920
in their own skin as well
and they're not really put,

734
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,620
they're not kind of concerned
about their expression,

735
00:39:21,620 --> 00:39:22,453
If you know what I mean.

736
00:39:22,453 --> 00:39:25,140
They're not saying in a
way, they're not smiling.

737
00:39:25,140 --> 00:39:29,470
They're not doing all
the usual kind of sort of

738
00:39:30,383 --> 00:39:33,310
little dramas people do
in front of a camera.

739
00:39:33,310 --> 00:39:36,080
- [Narrator] While in
Ireland in the 1970s,

740
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,630
Helen collaborated with
the Dublin Art Foundry.

741
00:39:38,630 --> 00:39:41,410
- The company here's trading name is CAST

742
00:39:41,410 --> 00:39:43,860
previously Dublin Art Foundry

743
00:39:43,860 --> 00:39:47,050
which we started with John Behan
way back in the early '70s.

744
00:39:47,050 --> 00:39:48,520
So we've been, I've been casting work

745
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,800
for Irish artists and indeed
arts from abroad since then.

746
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,890
And I would truly say that
all of the major sculptures

747
00:39:54,890 --> 00:39:56,180
in the country that had been cast

748
00:39:56,180 --> 00:40:00,680
and unveiled over that time
have come to this Foundry

749
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:02,040
at one stage or another.

750
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:03,390
- She told me

751
00:40:03,390 --> 00:40:07,320
that she needed some bronze
castings of heads mainly.

752
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:10,140
And I said I'd be delighted to help her.

753
00:40:10,140 --> 00:40:13,470
And Helen struck me as a very formidable,

754
00:40:13,470 --> 00:40:16,503
but very positive person
from the word go. And

755
00:40:16,503 --> 00:40:20,400
we had a very good relationship
because I understood her,

756
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,600
her needs, and I was able to fulfill them.

757
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:26,150
- Helen O'Malley, now,

758
00:40:26,150 --> 00:40:30,430
I met, it was an exhibition
here in Dublin and

759
00:40:31,730 --> 00:40:35,290
she was telling me about New
York and she was talking about

760
00:40:35,290 --> 00:40:39,740
doing a sculpture, she loved
to do my head for some reason.

761
00:40:39,740 --> 00:40:44,730
And so when I was in New York,
I met her a couple of times

762
00:40:44,730 --> 00:40:49,540
and she was set up here in
Dublin at Lansdowne Mews.

763
00:40:49,540 --> 00:40:53,760
And so I went along
there and she photographs

764
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:56,101
and so I went back a couple of times

765
00:40:56,101 --> 00:41:00,480
and so she started to
work on the sculpture.

766
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:03,840
- Helen was very realistic
person, a very real person.

767
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:08,840
She could operate in a
space that was just a space.

768
00:41:09,220 --> 00:41:14,220
It wasn't a kind of a dolled
up studio with comforts.

769
00:41:14,580 --> 00:41:16,460
- It was a very busy room.

770
00:41:16,460 --> 00:41:18,810
Let me tell you there
was pieces everywhere.

771
00:41:18,810 --> 00:41:22,638
And then I start to wonder, goodness

772
00:41:22,638 --> 00:41:25,180
is this is this for real?

773
00:41:25,180 --> 00:41:27,600
And of course it was very much so.

774
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,560
But I could still see the light,

775
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:31,540
tremendous light that was in the studio.

776
00:41:31,540 --> 00:41:33,710
We were engrossed in
all sorts conversations

777
00:41:33,710 --> 00:41:36,560
that bared all different
subjects and to do with Ireland,

778
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,090
to do with everything
and the arts in general.

779
00:41:39,090 --> 00:41:41,460
And I think it was only two sittings.

780
00:41:41,460 --> 00:41:46,460
You know, I went back
once and she was halfway

781
00:41:46,470 --> 00:41:48,750
and then I didn't have to go anymore.

782
00:41:48,750 --> 00:41:53,634
- We had tea with the President
De Valera in (mumbles)

783
00:41:53,634 --> 00:41:55,910
in 1973.

784
00:41:55,910 --> 00:42:00,150
And she came home to the
Russell Hotel that night,

785
00:42:00,150 --> 00:42:03,400
hired a second room,
got the plasticine in,

786
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,150
didn't sleep for 24 hours

787
00:42:05,150 --> 00:42:08,250
and produced a head of Éamon de Valera.

788
00:42:08,250 --> 00:42:11,890
Just a remarkable head, no
photographs were allowed

789
00:42:11,890 --> 00:42:13,580
and she didn't ask.

790
00:42:13,580 --> 00:42:17,330
She didn't speak throughout
our three quarters of an hour

791
00:42:17,330 --> 00:42:21,830
interview with De Valera and
she just studied his head.

792
00:42:21,830 --> 00:42:25,400
And that's what an artist
can do in most uncanny way.

793
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:28,910
- She could established the
parameters of a likeness

794
00:42:28,910 --> 00:42:31,120
of somebody very quickly in clay

795
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:33,060
and then she would detail the work.

796
00:42:33,060 --> 00:42:35,957
So she had that gift of working with clay

797
00:42:35,957 --> 00:42:38,747
and getting an image down very quickly.

798
00:42:38,747 --> 00:42:40,970
- And De Valera would have been

799
00:42:40,970 --> 00:42:43,670
part of the myth of friendship

800
00:42:43,670 --> 00:42:46,240
that Helen was trying to capture.

801
00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:49,230
And so there was this
continuity in a certain sense of

802
00:42:49,230 --> 00:42:53,620
between the nationalist cause
of those friends of Ernie

803
00:42:53,620 --> 00:42:56,500
that she commemorated in sculpture.

804
00:42:56,500 --> 00:42:59,230
- She was concerned about
artists and their livelihoods

805
00:42:59,230 --> 00:43:01,600
and how they managed.

806
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,110
I remember a conversation with her

807
00:43:04,110 --> 00:43:06,280
when she visited the Foundry
one time to look at something

808
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,580
with John Behan and she was very kind,

809
00:43:08,580 --> 00:43:11,760
very interested in how
he was doing as an artist

810
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:14,140
and how he was managing,
he had young children.

811
00:43:14,140 --> 00:43:15,690
So there was a great compassion
there towards artists

812
00:43:15,690 --> 00:43:19,640
and a real natural affinity
with other artists.

813
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:24,430
- I met Helen in the
corridor of the Art College,

814
00:43:24,430 --> 00:43:29,070
and she asked for directions
to the sculpture department.

815
00:43:29,070 --> 00:43:33,440
I brought her down,
pointed to what I was doing

816
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:39,520
and it started a conversation
because she said,

817
00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:43,140
I saw something similar this morning

818
00:43:43,140 --> 00:43:46,920
in Fran Fagan's boutique.

819
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,180
She looked at one of mine

820
00:43:51,740 --> 00:43:53,273
very critically,

821
00:43:54,220 --> 00:43:57,600
she described one arm as a broken wing.

822
00:43:58,831 --> 00:44:01,123
And she said, if he is a warrior,

823
00:44:01,123 --> 00:44:04,513
you could have a broken wing of an arm.

824
00:44:06,300 --> 00:44:09,830
And that critical thing was,

825
00:44:09,830 --> 00:44:12,553
yes I see it from now on.

826
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:19,840
She did offer to buy it if
I fixed the broken wing.

827
00:44:22,300 --> 00:44:24,500
- [Narrator] After meeting
sculptor, Michael O'sullivan,

828
00:44:24,500 --> 00:44:26,830
Helen became close with his family

829
00:44:26,830 --> 00:44:28,513
including his father, Tom.

830
00:44:29,410 --> 00:44:31,310
Tom agreed to drive Helen to some of the

831
00:44:31,310 --> 00:44:33,800
archeological and monastic sites

832
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,840
that she had visited
with Ernie in the 1930s.

833
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:41,840
- My father loved going for a drive.

834
00:44:42,790 --> 00:44:46,050
I suppose my father fulfilled the role

835
00:44:46,050 --> 00:44:47,220
that Ernie had

836
00:44:48,910 --> 00:44:52,247
done with Helen of

837
00:44:52,247 --> 00:44:53,500
revisiting a lot of sites
that she would have visited

838
00:44:58,939 --> 00:45:02,470
I don't know how many years before.

839
00:45:02,470 --> 00:45:06,290
But the revisiting, the re-looking,

840
00:45:06,290 --> 00:45:09,170
the reacquainting herself with them.

841
00:45:09,170 --> 00:45:13,750
- Helen kept on pursuing Ernie's
legacy long after he died

842
00:45:13,750 --> 00:45:15,800
and that she stayed on here

843
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,250
and went to the various locations

844
00:45:18,250 --> 00:45:19,760
that he would have been familiar with.

845
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:21,700
Went to Kilmainham and
where he was a prisoner,

846
00:45:21,700 --> 00:45:26,260
went to the Four Courts where
he was during the Civil war.

847
00:45:26,260 --> 00:45:27,580
So and that

848
00:45:28,900 --> 00:45:32,080
she managed to tie that
all together with her art.

849
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:37,080
- They were up in Kidteal,
very beautiful stone carvings .

850
00:45:39,981 --> 00:45:41,533
They went to up to photograph.

851
00:45:43,030 --> 00:45:48,030
And again, Helen would
often look at the pieces

852
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:53,520
and say, no if we come back in an hour,

853
00:45:53,550 --> 00:45:55,570
the light will be better.

854
00:45:55,570 --> 00:45:59,780
There was a very old fashioned Irish pub,

855
00:45:59,780 --> 00:46:02,460
it's one of these mountainy pubs.

856
00:46:02,460 --> 00:46:06,000
Helen was looking on the shelf

857
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:10,713
and there was a bead lizard from Africa.

858
00:46:12,330 --> 00:46:16,927
And she asked the young bar boy to,

859
00:46:19,590 --> 00:46:21,907
could she take a look at it?

860
00:46:22,929 --> 00:46:26,217
And he said,

861
00:46:26,217 --> 00:46:29,857
"No, my father wouldn't
like me take anything down."

862
00:46:31,607 --> 00:46:33,543
And she said,

863
00:46:35,597 --> 00:46:37,520
"Would you tell your father

864
00:46:38,730 --> 00:46:42,770
that I was here with my
husband, Ernie O'Malley

865
00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:45,920
who hid in this area."

866
00:46:47,530 --> 00:46:51,920
The owner came out from the kitchen.

867
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:55,623
He was ear waiting our word you know.

868
00:46:57,110 --> 00:47:02,110
He came out, came to full
attention, saluted her

869
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:12,080
told the son to take
the beaded lizard down,

870
00:47:12,660 --> 00:47:15,810
wash it, and present it to her.

871
00:47:15,810 --> 00:47:18,300
- She came to the
attention of lot of radio

872
00:47:18,300 --> 00:47:21,185
and Cathal Shannon did
an interview with her.

873
00:47:21,185 --> 00:47:23,710
And it was very broad ranging interview

874
00:47:23,710 --> 00:47:27,410
done in her home in Burrishoole.

875
00:47:27,410 --> 00:47:32,410
And she was asked a
leading questions as to

876
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:35,390
what she thought of Ernie
O'Malley and who he was

877
00:47:35,390 --> 00:47:39,670
or why she was an artist
and what art meant to her.

878
00:47:39,670 --> 00:47:41,560
- I'd never met an Irishman and this

879
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:46,560
absolutely dedicated
face that I'd never seen

880
00:47:46,700 --> 00:47:50,670
like a cliff or the prow of a ship

881
00:47:50,670 --> 00:47:55,580
and hungry, lean and I caught
it there in the portraits.

882
00:47:55,580 --> 00:47:57,641
I think I caught it in the portraits.

883
00:47:57,641 --> 00:48:02,641
But it was simply fascinating to me.

884
00:48:02,870 --> 00:48:04,930
But he came just three sittings

885
00:48:04,930 --> 00:48:06,920
and I was so in love with
him at the end of the third,

886
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,020
I never finished it (laughs)

887
00:48:09,020 --> 00:48:12,020
It was extraordinary
really Helen that you,

888
00:48:12,020 --> 00:48:15,250
the daughter of a
well-to-do old established

889
00:48:15,250 --> 00:48:17,150
Protestant family, I suppose.

890
00:48:17,150 --> 00:48:21,100
And Ernie, the Irish
Revolution or an IRA man

891
00:48:21,100 --> 00:48:22,872
should have come together
in the first place.

892
00:48:22,872 --> 00:48:24,020
What did your parents think of it.

893
00:48:24,020 --> 00:48:25,699
What did your father think of him?

894
00:48:25,699 --> 00:48:28,290
- Well, they were horrified,
absolutely horrified.

895
00:48:28,290 --> 00:48:30,723
I ran away, I had to marry in London.

896
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:32,780
Father never...

897
00:48:32,780 --> 00:48:35,931
Father banned from the house that night.

898
00:48:35,931 --> 00:48:36,793
He said, "I don't ever want you to see

899
00:48:36,793 --> 00:48:38,850
that young man again."

900
00:48:38,850 --> 00:48:41,728
Well I said father you can't do that.

901
00:48:41,728 --> 00:48:46,320
And I went around the
world, around China, Russia,

902
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:50,510
and met Ernie in London two years later.

903
00:48:50,510 --> 00:48:55,510
- It was an exciting
personal eye opener for me

904
00:48:58,090 --> 00:48:59,830
as you saw this person speak

905
00:48:59,830 --> 00:49:02,660
about things that she rarely spoke about.

906
00:49:02,660 --> 00:49:07,660
- A pioneering spirit is
really what Helen Hooker nails

907
00:49:07,730 --> 00:49:10,840
and particularly, I
think in her life story

908
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:12,460
from the very beginning

909
00:49:12,460 --> 00:49:16,510
where she is really an independent person.

910
00:49:16,510 --> 00:49:19,550
And being able to be an independent person

911
00:49:19,550 --> 00:49:23,510
and seeing what somebody
has done with that,

912
00:49:23,510 --> 00:49:26,610
you know, it's actually
a very challenging thing.

913
00:49:26,610 --> 00:49:28,840
You know, personally to actually say,

914
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,400
here's somebody who was free here.

915
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:32,893
And what did she do with it?

916
00:49:34,090 --> 00:49:38,090
- On April 2nd, 1993,
Helen Hooker passed away

917
00:49:38,090 --> 00:49:40,823
in Greenwich, Connecticut
at the age of 88.

918
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:45,160
Her youngest son Cormac
took it upon himself

919
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,960
to ensure his parents' legacy.

920
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:52,960
- My father Ernie died
when I was 14 in Ireland.

921
00:49:53,380 --> 00:49:56,143
And so for some years,

922
00:49:57,070 --> 00:50:01,890
there was sort of no
male figure in my life

923
00:50:01,890 --> 00:50:06,270
and it was really only later
that I discovered first of all,

924
00:50:06,270 --> 00:50:08,510
that I was missing one and secondly

925
00:50:08,510 --> 00:50:12,840
that there was a great
man who was my father.

926
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:17,818
And so what I wanted to do was
discover who that person was

927
00:50:17,818 --> 00:50:21,920
and I went around the world literally

928
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:24,890
collecting copies of his letters.

929
00:50:24,890 --> 00:50:28,830
So today I'm headed to the archives

930
00:50:28,830 --> 00:50:31,903
of the Ernie O'Malley papers
at New York University.

931
00:50:33,150 --> 00:50:36,218
And it's yet another leg in
the discoveries so to speak

932
00:50:36,218 --> 00:50:39,510
of who Ernie O'Malley was

933
00:50:39,510 --> 00:50:43,240
by reading his own words and
seeing the letters he wrote

934
00:50:43,240 --> 00:50:45,198
and the letters he received.

935
00:50:45,198 --> 00:50:48,250
And it's almost like interviewing a person

936
00:50:48,250 --> 00:50:52,070
because you actually hear the person speak

937
00:50:52,070 --> 00:50:55,280
literally for what he intended
to say to an individual.

938
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:57,920
- When we started scouting
in Stonington with Cormac,

939
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:01,110
we did a very rapid mapping exercise.

940
00:51:01,110 --> 00:51:03,740
We scanned the letters
and in some cases, prints

941
00:51:03,740 --> 00:51:06,530
and we went to through the archive

942
00:51:06,530 --> 00:51:09,380
box by box and folder by folder.

943
00:51:09,380 --> 00:51:13,300
- We spent long hours doing the scanning.

944
00:51:13,300 --> 00:51:16,521
And it was one of those kinds
of very strange experiences

945
00:51:16,521 --> 00:51:21,260
of kind of like diving
into somebody's world.

946
00:51:21,260 --> 00:51:24,420
And it's diving into the past in a way,

947
00:51:24,420 --> 00:51:27,650
but also with Cormac himself being there,

948
00:51:27,650 --> 00:51:32,650
it was such a, we felt we were
sort of being guided through.

949
00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:36,750
And I thought, obviously Cormac
obviously knows a lot about

950
00:51:36,750 --> 00:51:38,710
his mother and his father.

951
00:51:38,710 --> 00:51:43,710
But I did get the sense that
Cormac himself was also making

952
00:51:43,940 --> 00:51:47,720
a kind of discovery
about his mother, who is,

953
00:51:47,720 --> 00:51:50,730
almost a kind of a
fairly mysterious figure.

954
00:51:50,730 --> 00:51:55,180
- It's hard to come up with
another couple in Ireland

955
00:51:55,180 --> 00:51:57,730
at that time, or indeed since

956
00:51:57,730 --> 00:52:00,480
who had the same breadth of interests

957
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:03,450
and made the same range
of contributions to

958
00:52:03,450 --> 00:52:07,870
art, to sculpture, to collecting
and encouraging painters,

959
00:52:07,870 --> 00:52:12,100
to photography, to archival
work, historical work.

960
00:52:12,100 --> 00:52:16,510
They were both extraordinarily
prolific and energetic.

961
00:52:16,510 --> 00:52:18,700
- One of the reasons to

962
00:52:18,700 --> 00:52:23,320
look back at Helen's career and life now

963
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:28,320
is that, I mean like many
women, she was neglected.

964
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:32,160
or she's seen as part of
somebody else's story.

965
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:35,340
I mean, she's very much been
seen as part of Ernie's story

966
00:52:35,340 --> 00:52:37,710
in terms of an Irish context.

967
00:52:37,710 --> 00:52:42,710
But of course, in reality,
she had a very long

968
00:52:43,170 --> 00:52:47,660
and very interesting and
very multi-faceted I suppose,

969
00:52:47,660 --> 00:52:49,050
career in the arts.

970
00:52:49,050 --> 00:52:50,655
- I think you have to
look at the whole person.

971
00:52:50,655 --> 00:52:54,490
I would not separate her as
an artist from Helen Hooker

972
00:52:54,490 --> 00:52:56,980
as a collector, as a traveler,

973
00:52:56,980 --> 00:52:58,980
as an educated woman of the world

974
00:52:58,980 --> 00:53:03,560
and a woman of some influence
because of her position.

975
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:04,860
Because all of those...

976
00:53:04,860 --> 00:53:07,320
Because she used that well, right?

977
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:10,560
I mean, people can have
position similar to hers,

978
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:12,140
it definitely helps to

979
00:53:12,140 --> 00:53:15,290
come from a fairly privileged
background and so on.

980
00:53:15,290 --> 00:53:18,810
But where a lot of people use that to

981
00:53:18,810 --> 00:53:21,710
separate themselves off
from the wider culture,

982
00:53:21,710 --> 00:53:25,740
she used it all the time as platform

983
00:53:25,740 --> 00:53:30,740
from which she could
enlarge peoples' horizons.

984
00:53:30,770 --> 00:53:33,940
- There're very few
people you'll ever meet

985
00:53:33,940 --> 00:53:38,740
that had Helen's abilities
and vision of life

986
00:53:38,740 --> 00:53:40,190
and an embracing of life.

987
00:53:40,190 --> 00:53:43,363
It's like, as Joyce said,
"I go forward to forge in

988
00:53:43,363 --> 00:53:47,906
the smithy of my soul the
uncreated conscience of my race."

989
00:53:47,906 --> 00:53:52,906
She had that about herself
going forward into the world.

990
00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:55,750
- There were two artists who met together

991
00:53:55,750 --> 00:53:59,550
and wanted to bring a
dream together in Ireland,

992
00:53:59,550 --> 00:54:03,970
and bring some novelty
and new ideas to Ireland

993
00:54:03,970 --> 00:54:05,560
where both of them could be happy

994
00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:07,963
and that's really the
essence of this story.

995
00:54:09,322 --> 00:54:12,239
(orchestral music)