Majella O’Neill Collins lives and works on Sherkin and her experience of island living is a strong influence on her artistic practice.

Majella O’Neill Collins says she's become a bit obsessed by the wreck of the MV Alta. The disintegrating ship has even inspired much of the artist's exhibition at Uillinn in Skibbereen

IT'S a brand new year, and that means we have another twelve months of brilliant events organised by the ever-busy people of West Cork.

To most, it’s a rusting hulk of a wreck, an ugly scar on the coastline, but for island artist Majella O’Neill Collins, the ghost ship MV Alta has brought inspiration and changed her life.

There are no plans to remove a shipwreck that has languished off the Cork coast for almost four years, becoming a beacon for antisocial behaviour and fires.