The Website of William St John Glenn (1904 - 1974)
Ballyscunnion - the Imaginary Irish Village
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”Aye!
Mrs Simpson! She’s the talk of Ballyscunnion.”
William St John Glenn was the creator of the imaginary village called
“Ballyscunnion.”
The village was set in rural Ireland, with a background of hills and
approached
by a long, long road. Even though remote, it was in January 1937, the
centre of
gossip for the surrounding countryside as we discover from two women
coming back
from shopping. ”Aye! Mrs Simpson! She’s the talk of
Ballyscunnion.”
After this initial drawing in “grey tone wash”, William St John Glenn chose “scraperboard” as the medium for all his subsequent portrayals of Ballyscunnion. This enabled him to produce a bold yet very detailed effect in black and white and worthy of the fondness he had for this creation.
Over the span of more
than thirty
years, we are shown not so much a dreamy, nostalgic view of
“Old Ireland”,
but a lively, vibrant rural village with young and old living their
daily lives
yet adapting in their own way to the changes of the time.
