The life and times of the artist Anton Meenan on Tory Island

Artist Anton Meenan encompasses a deep sense of humanity and history that far exceeds that of his beautiful island life.
The Tory islander has a deep-rooted sense of compassion and care for the environment and for the birds and creatures which inhabit it.
Sitting in the gallery, by a fireless hearth with a soft rain misting the window, Anton casts his marine blue eyes in your direction and whisks you back in time: St Colmcille stepping on the island leaving the imprint of his foot on rock and spreading a cloak across the island, converting the island to Christianity; his great grandfather kneeling in currach ceaslaí travelling fifteen miles to Horn Head to cast his nests, his musket gun alongside him, being driven by the sea and tides to a time when he met the English landscape and portrait artist Derek Hill in a hut in Ard Lárthain - a moment that would change both his life and the life of the island for generations to come.
“I was born in 1959, the seventh of a family of eight Meenans. There were four boys and five girls,” he says.
Speaking in fluid Gaeilge, he recounts that Derek Hill had come to the island before he was born: “He came in at Port an Dúin because there was depth there. My father was the first person from the island to meet him.”
Casting his eyes towards the open door where a car passes outside, he says: “Derek was painting under the school house next door to here and one of the islanders, James Dixon, went down to have a look at what he was doing.
“Derek was there working on one of his pictures at the time. Derek turned around and said to James Dixon ,‘What do you think?’ And this fellow who was wearing a cap and smoking his pipe said back to him, ‘I don’t think much of it, I think I could do better myself.’
“Derek was surprised with this response, you know, and he said, ‘I will give you a few tubes and a few brushes so you can paint yourself’.”
James accepted the invitation of the tubes of paint but declined the use of Hills’ brushes: “Don’t worry about brushes. I have a donkey up in the field, I cut his tail twice a year”. So he made his own brushes from a donkey’s tail so that was how the Tory island art began.”
Anton recalls the course of history that ferried Derek Hill to the island. The son of a wealthy sugar trader Derek Hill came to Donegal in 1952 on the invitation of Henry McIlhenny of Glenveagh Castle. “He was on the train when he met the lighthouse keeper from Tory island. Derek said to him that he would love to come to Tory island. The lighthouse keeper said to him, ‘You are talking to the right man, I know everyone on the island’. He got him lodgings with Séamus Williams and his sister and he came to the island,” Anton says.
He recalls visiting the hut on many occasions and mastering his craft as did a number of islanders. James Dixon began painting as did his brother John.
“James was interested in the primitive style - the name given to the artists on the island. His brother Johnny began to paint then and a man from across the road went across then Jimí ‘the Yank’ Mac Ruaidhrí, Ruaidhrí Sarah Mac Ruaidhrí and Patsy Dan MacRuaidhrí.”
Patsy Dan Mac Ruaidhrí , the former King of Tory, attended the first exhibition.
A second generation of painters soon emerged of which Anton was a member and includes Ruairí L Mac Ruaidhrí, Mícheál Fionnbarr Mac Ruaidhrí, Antain Ó Míonáin and Pádraig Ó Duibhir.
Lord Hugh Douglas-Hamilton from Scotland came to visit the island during a very bad storm and met Patsy Dan Mac Ruaidhrí who said the council, at that time, were trying to move people from the island and onto the mainland.
“My own father didn’t want to leave at the time,” Anton recalls.
“We were told if we worked hard, he would put on an exhibition. We worked hard and he came back and picked out the best pictures and held an exhibition. I was only eighteen at the time,” Anton says.
The exhibition was a success and the islanders got the opportunity to tell their story to the media. When they arrived back to the island, reporters came and interviewed them and collectively they explained the importance of the island life and culture. The move was one that Anton says preserved life on the island for generations to come: “We used art as a stage to outline the difficulty being faced by the island. Artists would say that we didn’t have a ferry, hotel or piers back then and that there wasn’t much work here.”
Now Anton enjoys birdwatching - tourists travel from across the world to enjoy a week or two on the picturesque island. A tour book on the island advises people to walk on designated paths as not to step on nesting ground of the corncrake.
These days, Anton, a father of three enjoys birdwatching, photography and he creates a number of paintings a year.