Carnegie Oldpark Library is a stunning, elegant, architectural gem.  It is one of three libraries donated by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to Belfast — the Falls Road Carnegie is still in use as a library, while the Donegall Road building has been renovated and converted to offices –and one of sixty-six in Ireland as a whole.  Carnegie Oldpark was built in 1906 and closed in 2008.  Bought at auction by Quintin Oliver and his partner Fiona MacMillan, it is being renovated as a community resource.  It sits on an interface, close to Lower Oldpark, a Protestant estate, and below the Catholic enclave of Ardoyne.

On 20 June 2018, Rita Duffy, working with photographer Stanislov Nikolov, installed “Arachne’s Web” in the stairwell of the building.  The project involved working with women from Lower Oldpark Community Association and TDK community project, and was sponsored by Vicky Cosstick as part of her “legacy” research and writing project, funded by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

Arachne’s Web by Rita Duffy

Photos by Stanislav Nikolov

Poem by Vicky Cosstick

 

Flaking cream paint, cracked plaster

Polished, studded dark mahogany banisters

Solid scrolled black ironwork.

The stairs bear the imprint of the past,

Echoes of a hundred thousand footsteps

The laughter of children

Whispered conversations.

Today, a legacy of women’s work

Dainty cotton, linen, wool,

Fingers, needles, thread.

Tiny stitches

Holding a thousand memories, sorrows,

Whispered conversations, giggles,

Prayers and ponderings.

Window-lit ethereal web

Tracing lacy shadows

Finely wrought, scallop-edged

White, cream, pastel

Featherweight filigree,

Fragile, floss filaments

Frail, evanescent, ephemeral.

Crochet stretched to breaking-point,

Highly strung, tense.

A dowry torn, damaged, stained, frayed, decayed.

Troubled, troubling, troubles.

Broken bracelet beads, glass, pearl and silver

Raindrops

Jewelled tears of the weaver Arachne, s/he with no future,

Ignored, invisible, isolated.

Remembered, celebrated here and now.

Despite all,

Women’s lives and communities

Homespun, robust

Resilient, creative, strong.

Spinning, generating, regenerating, imagining,

Creating a new future for this venerable library –

#BackToLife