Roamer: Belgian artist ‘seized by Achill Island’s voodoo vice-grip’

At ten degrees west, Achill boasts one of Europe’s last sightings of the Old Year’s final sunset and after much celebrating, crowds of New Year swimmers gathered on Dugort Strand with varying intensities of morning-after hangovers.

Their deafeningly loud communal countdown echoed across the island as they sprinted into the freezing Atlantic emitting a massive, collective roar! The annual swim was eloquently summarised by its R.N.L.I organisers - “the young and the old, the brave and the bold, from near and far, in a dazzling array of colours and costumes from festive Santa suits, to sports team colours, psychedelic pyjamas and even a couple of dandies dressed up in full Arab regalia.”

But Achill doesn’t only attract multitudes of festive winter revellers, or a similarly seasonal burgeoning of summertime tourists. When author Mary J. Murphy’s second book about the island was published four years ago, she was hailed as the first writer to compile the stories of so many of the numerous artists who have painted on Achill.

They’ve come from north, south, east and west of Ireland, from the UK, Europe, and from most countries on planet earth. One of them, Percy French, also songwriter, author, poet and entertainer, called Achill ‘Oh island of my dreams’.

It’s 95 years, almost to the day, since the acclaimed Belgian Impressionist painter Marie Howet was first “seized by the island’s voodoo vice-grip” Mary J Murphy told me in an email introducing her most recent book - ‘Achill Remembers Marie Howet’. Murphy referenced Howet in her previous book, Achill Painters, published in 2020, and one of the Belgian’s paintings of the island adorned the front cover.

After being contacted by “the artist’s family members in Belgium and in America following its launch,” Mary’s email continued, “the time had come - finally! - for Marie Howet’s forgotten island story to bloom. It had gnawed at me for so long - how could she have been so forgotten on an island that she had cleaved to for half a century?”

Howet numbered Henri Matisse “as one of her admirers,” Murphy explained, “her heart-linkages to Achill stretch from 1929 'til her death in 1984, and her oeuvre of island landscapes and portraits, many only discovered recently in Belgium, the USA and in Europe, is as spectacular as it is eclectic.” Earlier this year Mary and one of her three daughters the artist’s Belgium home.

Her new book contains accounts and photographs of “our madcap trip across Belgum, to Howet’s birthplace in Libramont, to her grave there, and on to two of her favourite places - her Ardennes hideaway in Rochehaut, and the former La Glycine Hotel in Vresse-sur-Semois where she spent some of the happiest hours of her life.”

Howet also had a studio in Brussels “and we managed to track many of her hitherto unseen Achill paintings in Arlon, Namur, Liege, Ghent, and Bruges,” Murphy’s email continued, breathlessly. “At her Libramont grave, we laid a pebble from the beach in Dooagh - which she painted in 1929” Mary added, “and we also placed a piece of Keem Bay amethyst there too, now famous as a location where scenes from ‘Banshees of Inisherin’ were filmed a few years ago.” As well as Howet’s family, Murphy’s sources are impeccable. “They include Anne Burke of Achill, whose mother ‘Brigitte’ Howet painted as a 6-year old in Dooagh in 1929; and again in 1982 when Brigitte finally visited Libramont.”

Marie Cecile Howet, the artist’s niece in the USA, provided “memories and memorabilia” and a Belgian art historian helped Mary collate Howet's island works “some long forgotten about, and others lying unidentified for decades.” The publication of Mary’s book marks the 40th anniversary of Howet’s death and coincides with the recent opening of a permanent exhibition of the artist’s works in her Belgian home in Libramont.

l ‘Achill Remembers Marie Howet’ by Mary J Murphy, Knockma Publishing 2024, is available online from Achill Tourism and good book stores.