Crubeens

Crubeens is a piece made in relation with the EU’s art-engagement project In Public in Particular. The work physicalises the relationship Dublin, and contemporary Ireland has with the past, present and future of it’s identity. The pigs feet are tied to a closed down butcher-shop that had been a major part of the community for generations. The community has felt major changes with multi-national corporations purchasing, and remaking it’s identity.

When installed, the pigs feet hung on the shutters for 7 days. The community engaged with the installation through online communications, and photography. A talk was held with members of the area discussing the history, and changes to the community of the Liberties. The piece was a facilitation to engage in the area in which it hung.

Crubeens, or Trotter stew, had been a staple in the diet of working class Dublin. But the Pigs Feet made for this piece were unavailable in any traditional Dublin Butchers. They were purchased instead from an Asian foods supermarket on the other side of the city. The immigrant population of Dublin inadvertently continue a dying traditional food.