Award gives fresh voice to Christina’s work

ARTIST and lecturer in the School of Fine Art here in Glasgow, Christina McBride (above), this year received the Shared Home Place: Diaspora Voices Award.

The Irish Government initiative was launched by Minister Helen McEntee on St Patrick’s Day 2026 at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, one of the great centres of Irish immigration.

The initiative invited Irish people living abroad, from all traditions and backgrounds, to come together to explore their shared heritage and their cultural and place-based connections. It offered Irish people around the world an opportunity to contribute their perspectives on the past, present and future of our shared island, and to take part in a national conversation around identity, reconciliation, inclusion, connectedness and the future. Particular attention was given to regions with Irish populations of high density and longevity.

At the launch, Minister McEntee asked: “Where better to start a conversation amongst the Irish abroad about our shared island, our shared home place?”

Soon afterwards, the Irish Consulate in Edinburgh contacted Christina. Familiar with her artistic practice, they felt her recent project fulfilled the criteria of the initiative and put her forward as a candidate.

Christina is the daughter of Irish immigrants, Neilí an Dálaigh from Bun an Inbhir, Gaoth Dobhair, and Barney McBride from Dunfanaghy, Her parents moved to Glasgow in search of work. Her own artistic practice has remained deeply connected to the landscape, culture and heritage of Donegal, where she spent her childhood summers. Her work centres on analogue photography and the development of sustainable, environmentally responsible materials and methodologies.

“I’ve always felt a strong affiliation with the natural landscape and wildness of Donegal, where I spent my childhood summers at my grandparents’ home at Bun an Inbhir, Gaoth Dobhair,” Christina said about the origins of her work. “There’s no doubt my fascination with natural materials like sloak, dulse and carrageen moss connects back to helping my mother and grandmother collect them from the shore.

“As I have been building my photographic archive, I even discovered a photograph of my great- grandmother with a creel on her back, collecting seaweed. I had never before seen her as a young woman and didn’t recognise her. So I have this powerful lineage of strong, hard-working women who have inspired me, and I’m continually entranced by their relationship with the natural landscape, which directly informs my photographic work.”

In 2022, Christina was fortunate to take up a residency at Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, the University of Galway’s campus in Gaoth Dobhair, supported by Údarás na Gaeltachta and Ealaín na Gaeltachta.

This period enabled her to explore the natural and built environment of her mother’s homeplace and to experiment with produce from both the land and sea as natural and sustainable photographic developers. It also allowed her to build on the photographic archive she had been developing, which focuses on the Glasgow-Donegal community.

The work produced during this period has since been brought together in exhibitions in both Glasgow and Donegal, including Críocha an Chroí/Heartland at An Gailearaí and Thall Udaí/Over By at Sean-Scoil Bhun an Inbhir.

The opening of Thall Udaí/Over By was a particularly community-focused occasion, attended by people from across the area. It included a commissioned text by Paul McGeady and a live performance of Mickey Pat Teaguey on Glasgow’s Southside, written and sung by Owen Curran. Both McGeady and Curran were born in Glasgow and now live in Donegal.

Receiving the Shared Home Place: Diaspora Voices Award now provides Christina with financial support to expand her photographic research project. The project explores the shared and intertwined histories of migration between Ireland, Scotland and the United States, with a particular focus on the experiences of women.

Too often, women’s experiences are invisible or overlooked. Part of Christina’s project is therefore about uncovering and bringing those narratives to the surface through old photographs, letters and oral histories.

As part of this work, Christina will be meeting with individuals and members of the Irish History Group in Govanhill, as well as Conradh na Gaeilge and the wider community, to discuss the project and explore how people can contribute their own stories, photographs and images.

There is something particularly poignant about the way Christina received the news that she had been awarded the grant. She was sitting, of all places, on the shore at Bun an Inbhir with her young niece, Sophie Dior.

There was no doubt in her mind that the spirit of the women who had influenced and inspired her work was there with her—dancing around her in celebration and merriment.

If you are interested in finding out more about Christina’s project, or if you have photographs, letters, stories or other material that you would like to discuss or potentially contribute to the archive, you can contact Christina at: glasgowgweedorearchive@gmail.com