http://www.lizziepatterson.com/

celebratingredheads, Haslemere, Dunfanaghy (2026)

18/07/2022

In the words of Orla (5 of 5)
“ I currently study agricultural science at college because of my love of farm animals . Growing up on a farm made me caring and understanding of animals from a young age and I decided I wanted to study more about their lives and the areas in which they live. My favourite animals on the farm are by far the pigs as they all have such different personalities which makes each one of them unique in their own ways. Farming is clearly in my blood. “

08/07/2022

In the words of Orla who is leaning against the old house with her dog Daisy, where her ancestors lived and on the same land that she still lives. (4 of 5). “The last people to live there where my great Granda’s parents.
They had 5 boys and 2 girls and even adopted a girl from the locality .
They had a few cows, chickens and ducks and 40 sheep.
The kids walked three miles to school, on the way they would set traps for rabbits, and on the way home would collect any they had caught.
In the evenings, they went fishing, some went to take home turf (peat) the girls had to do household chores.
All this time their father ,my Great Great Grandfather was in America working on the Railway in Pennsylvania. He returned every two years or so but eventually
Returned for good to build our family farm house.”

07/07/2022

In the words of Orla whose family own the land (3 of 5): “And if you are very quiet, you can hear them 🧚‍♀️.
Our ancestors had massive respect for the fairy's. You never disturbed any stones or any rocks, always leave the fairy trees alone.
As for as I know, in the past it used to be a place of sun worship. I still would go up for a sunset, it’s the best place.
Babies have been conceived up there, and people have chosen to spread their ashes up there. Who knows what exactly draws people to the area, it is a really popular place and we feel lucky to live here. “

07/07/2022

Orla’s family have lived and farmed the land here for generations and the land is said to be mystical (2 of 5): “ Our family and all of hornhead people held Crocshee in high regard .
It was like a sacred place where people come on the longest and shortest day of the year ..White witches and Druids. They still come every year, they all say The Fairy Hill is full of positive energy 🧚‍♀️ . It is in the middle of all the lines in the area. Everything ancient lines up, all old forts, stone circles, standing stones ,etc .”

06/07/2022

In the words of Orla (1 of 5) “I live on a farm by the coast in Donegal. I never realised how lucky I was to live in such a scenic area until the Covid restrictions of two and five kilometres were introduced as I had so many beaches I could still go and walk on while others were left with little walking options. My favourite thing about living here is definitely the variety of beaches close by which I make use of during all weather conditions to walk our four dogs who are also massive fans of the beach. “

01/06/2022

Christy Keeney is an artist who uses clay and paint (and music) to express himself. His sculptures are highly sought after and I loved meeting him at his studio in Donegal. He told me he was inspired as a young boy by the repair work on the back of their old tv 📺 , inside the back it looked like a world of different rooms and spaces and Christy would imagine walking around in there. Some of his work is layered with hidden spaces. I took this image of him working in his studio to reflect that. I asked him to be part of my project to represent those with red beards! In his words: “I have been making ceramic sculpture for the past 40 years, and still feel that I am ignorant to what I'm doing. The ignorance that I have acquired, is of a high quality. ".

30/05/2022

Christy Keeney is an artist who uses clay and paint (and music) to express himself. His sculptures are highly sought after and I loved meeting him at his studio in Donegal. I asked him to be part of my project to represent those with red beards! In his words: “I have been making ceramic sculpture for the past 40 years, and still feel that I am ignorant to what I'm doing. The ignorance that I have acquired, is of a high quality. ".

26/05/2022

Christy Keeney is an artist who uses clay and paint (and music) to express himself. His sculptures are highly sought after and I loved meeting him at his studio in Donegal. I asked him to be part of my project to represent those with red beards! In his words: “I have been making ceramic sculpture for the past 40 years, and still feel that I am ignorant to what I'm doing. The ignorance that I have acquired, is of a high quality. "

03/05/2022

In the words of Shirley Smith:
My (red)head is full of travel memories – events linked to a specific place and time which are extraordinary enough to make me smile over and over again: South Africa

My first New Year’s Eve in South Africa was memorable, not necessarily for the right reasons... The police pulled up outside the party we were attending stating that there’d been a complaint from a neighbouring plot. The owner of the property strongly disputed this, arguing that the plot mentioned was actually vacant. When the police departed, the relatively quiet party continued - women mostly sitting around the pool in the garden and men indoors. About 20 minutes later, several police cars arrived with a mix of Afrikaans and Zulu officers who walked straight past the women towards the house. For a variety of reasons, the property owner took offence, and aided by his friends, tried to eject the officers from his garden. As the atmosphere became more and more tense, I found my partner and insisted that we leave, almost dragging him to our vehicle. He wanted to stay and help his friends, but, in the UK, I’d seen enough news bulletins of South African Police to foresee trouble escalating. We were just about to get into the car when the police deployed tear gas, shamboks and police dogs... Luckily, I missed the worst, but I was so enraged that, as soon as I could, I drove to the local police station to complain. My words fell on deaf ears, and as we left the building at about 00.05, that same yellow police van arrived with our friend in the back. The officer got out and proudly announced to his colleagues “I have my first”. I couldn’t believe it, it was a competition to get the first arrest of the year! Unsurprisingly, I never really settled in South Africa...”

02/05/2022

In the words of Shirley Smith: “My (red)head is full of travel memories – events linked to a specific place and time which are extraordinary enough to make me smile over and over again: Ethiopia

Visiting the incredible churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia, I was invited for interview by a Chinese TV crew interested in international tourists’ opinions. After a quick introduction in Mandarin to the camera, when the interviewer turned to me saying “Hello”, I politely replied “Nǐ hǎo”. My accent was so convincing that she continued the interview in Mandarin. Sadly I have very few words, so we laughed lots and reverted to English!”

01/05/2022

In the words of Shirley Smith:

“My (red)head is full of travel memories – events linked to a specific place and time which are extraordinary enough to make me smile over and over again:

Egypt

Interest in other people is a key motivator for travel, but can also bring surprises. Standing in the “Women Only” queue at a train station in Egypt, I reached the ticket office much faster than my husband in the general queue. In response to “Two tickets to Luxor”, I’m asked how old I am, my marital status and how many children I have. When I admit childlessness, the clerk expresses shock and asks why? None of this was for official administrative purposes, the clerk was just interested in knowing more about his foreign customer.”

30/04/2022

It’s been a while since my last post but I am back with more humans with stories! This is Shirley Smith. In her words:

“My (red)head is full of travel memories – events linked to a specific place and time which are extraordinary enough to make me smile over and over again:

Madagascar

After a few months conducting research for my PhD in the south east of Madagascar, I returned to the capital, Antananarivo, and stocked up on luxuries. I found a store with fancy shampoos imported from China, and pointed at the one for dry, damaged hair, but the assistant shook her head and handed me one for coloured hair. I argued that my hair colour was natural, but, in a country of dark haired people, my hair was quite clearly coloured, i.e. not black, so that was the right shampoo for me!

On my way to a meeting in the capital, my route passed a large supermarket where I knew I’d find cheese and other goodies unavailable in the south-east. Although I saw no signs of trouble, the streets were strangely crowded, full of people just ‘hanging around’, so I ‘parked’ my desire for cheese and headed to my planned destination. My colleague never showed up and I was told to stay put as there was “big trouble in town” . Several hours later, having read every single piece of promotional material in every possible language in the office (nothing else to read or do), and after several phone calls, it was deemed safe for me to head home. A security guard escorted me to find a taxi whose prices had tripled from that morning, although I bargained the driver down to less than double (there may have been a coup, but my Celtic ancestry is inherent). The enormity of what had happened soon became real. “17 dead as ceiling collapses in burning looted supermarket” - the very supermarket I’d almost visited in search of cheese.”

celebratingredheads

18/07/2022

08/07/2022

07/07/2022

07/07/2022

06/07/2022

01/06/2022

30/05/2022

26/05/2022

03/05/2022

02/05/2022

01/05/2022

30/04/2022

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