Irish Hospice Foundation wants to inspire and support the work of groups, organisations or individuals who wish to mark in some tangible way their response to the universal realities of dying, death, and bereavement.

We recognise that the last two years of grief and loss during the pandemic have had a significant effect on all ages, all counties, and all sectors, leaving many of us confused and distressed.  Seed Grants support groups, organisations and individuals looking for creative ways to do this. Priority was given to creative initiatives that take innovative approaches to reflection and remembrance.  

Kevin Toolis

Gone (Mayo)

Achill Island resident, BAFTA winning film producer, and Emmy-nominated director / screenwriter, and author, Kevin Toolis, wrote a bardic poem, encapsulating, in different voices, the loss, the lives, of all those taken and now gone in the pandemic.

acting out

Acting Out  (Tipperary)  

Down Syndrome Tipperary (DST) and Emily Matthews, a drama education facilitator, trialled a creative play programme entitled ‘Acting Out’, specifically designed to encourage children with Down Syndrome communicate feelings around loss.

time lapse exhibition

Time-Lapse Exhibition (Leitrim)

While caring for her mother who was living with Alzheimer’s for five years, Leitrim based artist Maria Noonan-McDermott was “unwittingly working towards” her exhibition Time-Lapse which is still touring Ireland.

sunday-service

Good Grief: Reflections on Loss  (Galway)

As part of the 2022 annual Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, Sasha De Buyl curated an event involving a range of artists willing to publicly share their personal experiences and artistic responses to grieving and loss.

Memorial Garden with Mosaic Installations (Dublin)

St. Michael's House Day Centre in Glasnevin caters for the needs of 40 adults with disabilities. The team supported these service-users, of whom many have experienced the loss of friends recently, to create mosaics for a memorial garden.

patchwork-quilt

Patchwork Quilt (Tipperary) 

Newport Women’s Shed met every week to create a Queen-Size Patchwork Quilt. Each member designed their own square that was a dedicated reflection on the loss of a lost loved one.

blankets-of-hope

Blankets of Hope and Comfort  (Waterford)

The Deise Women's Shed in Waterford knitted and crocheted an array of blankets and shawls for adults and children facing life-limiting conditions at Waterford University Hospital and Dungarvan Community Hospital.

coffin-over-the-bridge

Over the Bridge  (Dublin)

Dubliner Eamon Clery is an experienced cameraman and freelance editor, who works in broadcast television. He created a timeless documentary about Ringsend’s decade’s old tradition of coffins being carried over Ringsend Bridge before a funeral service.

fused glass christmas tree memories

Remembering Tree (Offaly)

Glassmaker Michelle O’Donnell of Glasshammer Studios in Rhode, Co Offaly, offered her local community the opportunity to make coloured fused glass leaves in memory of a loved one lost to Covid-19

st-louis

Reflections (Dublin)

School Principal, Clíona McDonough, and Arts Co-Ordinator, Miriam Kehoe, of St Louis High School in Rathmines, Dublin 6, led a multi-discipline art and musical project enabling the whole school community to come to terms with their collective pandemic experience. 

The Last Door My Father Walked Through (Dublin)

As part of her ongoing artistic work exploring loss and grief, Dublin contemporary artist Neva Elliott created and exhibited a series of photographs with accompanying text based on the death by suicide of her father, who had bipolar disorder, during lockdown.

death-of-a-star

Death of a Star (Dublin)

Mirjana Rendulic collaborated with other musicians to create a soundtrack for her film 'Death of a Star', made in response to the sudden death of her father in Croatia during the pandemic.

prayer rafts

Messages to the River (Tipperary/Limerick)

Drawing on the employment of nature and the elements to assist with grief and bereavement, visual artist Annie Hogg facilitated a workshop for peopled to create prayer rafts lit with candles to carry messages of loss and prayer at Lough Gur, Co Limerick.

Remembering (in a Time of Change) (Dublin)

Mary Grehan, Curator of the Arts in Health with Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), and artist Marie Brett researched ways to make a space for grief, loss, and remembering within the environment of the new Dublin children’s hospital that says to anyone affected: ‘your child is not forgotten’.

The Waking Walls (Cavan)

Cavan based audio-visual artist and acclaimed cultural events producer, Alan James Burns, researched / developed a scripted a lament examining themes of loss, climate change, and environmental grief explored through Cloughoughter Castle in the Cavan Lakelands.

LANGUAGE-OF-FLOWERS

The Language of Flowers (Sligo)

Sligo artist Catherine Fanning created a handmade journal filled with original artwork of flowers with different cultural meanings surrounding the death of a loved one. The journals was also filmed for wider sharing as a digital object.

Children's Bereavement / Grief Support Programme (Tipperary)

Representing the voluntary group Suir Haven Cancer Support Centre in North Tipperary, Eileen Kennedy led the way in designing, developing, and training facilitators to run an arts and crafts programme to support children dealing with a parent’s cancer diagnosis and their end of life.  

The-Strength-I-See-In-You-3

The Strength I See in You (Dublin)

Marian Clarke and Talitha Kay led an exploration of experiences of loss, grief, and resilience among two hidden communities in Ireland – five female Afghani refugees and five Irish women living with chronic pain. 

Tonic (Wicklow)

Award winning, critically celebrated writer and actor Steve Blount from Wicklow researched and developed a stage play based on a journey in and around the corridors of a hospice through the eyes, ears, clinks, and blinks of a drinks trolley chauffeur. 

Meala Circle Heir Island (West Cork)

Death Douala apprentice, Anna Cosgrave, hosted a Méala Circle Inis Uí Drisceoil on Heir Island in West Cork. The event engaged islanders on memoralisation and focused on the theme “Ba mhéala a bhás / his death was to be lamented”. A poem was also created and put to music.

Creative Reflections (Galway)

Jacqui Lynskey and her team at COPE Galway, which provides homelessness, domestic abuse, and senior support services, ran a series of craft workshops to allow older people time to reflect upon and discuss how they manage bereavement.

margaret-galvin

Creative Writing in Grief Support  (Wexford)  

Creative writing facilitator and published poet with an academic background in Social Care, Margaret Galvin develop a workshop programme and tools for persons providing bereavement support whether as counsellors or volunteers.   

Flower-Latwest-Association

Voices on the Bridge (Mayo)

Noel Lyons, and other members of the Latwest Association, published a collection of English, Latvian, and Irish poetry and lyrics, to commemorate loss of home through immigration, especially during the pandemic. 

Bringing the Outside In (Louth)

Vicky McGauley engaged with the residents, visitors, and staff of St Joseph’s Nursing Home in Ardee, Co Louth, in the creation of a mural for a room designated as a quiet space for anyone in need of time out for reflection.