The following exhibitions are based in St. Patrick's Trian and will be open to the public during the festival.
Piping in the 18/19th Century
These paintings reflect the huge impact the travelling pipers of Ireland had on both Irish painters of the period as well as visiting Scottish and English painters. They are also useful references regarding the actual pipes played in the 18th and early 19th Century and provide an alternative to the received wisdom of the written word which quite often lumped a huge variety of instruments under generic titles as vague as bagpipes, Irish pipes, union pipes, etc. Included in the exhibition are paintings showing various other pipes ranging from the Zampogna of Italy to 17th Century Flemish pipes and early 20th Century Northumbrian pipes.
The Ceòlas Collection
These paintings were created following a week's residency by John B. Vallely at Ceòlas in South Uist during the summer of 2006 which culminated in an extended residency of five weeks during June and July 2007. Ceòlas is a Gaelic festival based on the singing, piping and dancing traditions of South Uist and the Gaelic Diaspora of Cape Breton. The exhibition features some large scale portraits of the Gaelic singers of South Uist and Barra around whom the festival really revolves as well paintings of the dancers and musicians at Ceilidhs, sessions and classes.