"We are continually reaching new definitions of ourselves, both individually and socially, to which the past posts pieces of itself, illustrating change. One such communique, inscribed on a humble roof-tile, silently declares: ‘DEFIANCE’. This, along with the ‘Saorstat Eireann’ logo, was assiduously inscribed on all products of Irish labor during the economic-war that preceded Ireland’s liberation proper, in 1938, from 800 years of British occupation. Ireland refused to repay debt that had been forced upon it by Britain as a condition of leaving the United Kingdom. Britain responded to this turnaround by choking Irish trade with obscene import duties, effectively paralysing the fledgling Irish economy. Understanding economic servitude to be the complete anathema to political independence, the Irish labour classes strove on, bearing their agony with pride, carving ‘DEFIANCE’ into all they created: The Republic was finally free, financially and ideologically, from all colonial influence.

This insuler and fundamentalist Ireland is a long stretch from the Republic today, caught gratefully lapping debt from the heels of bureaucratic madams in EU pleasure dungeons. How should Ireland’s present-self respond to a love letter received from its past, which is dedicated to a creature so wholly unlike itself. And how the tables have turned as British DEFIANCE prepares to leave the EU’s single market, subverting the power-play, or repeating history as farce. In this work I examine the legacy of political idealism by recasting the roof tiles as floor tiles and placing them on the ground, for your feet to stamp down."