The Keepsakes project by Hughes consisted of various members of the local community have placing a memento, object, poem or photograph in each of the spheres.

Participants were also asked to contribute a piece born from a consideration of their own lives, memories and values in relation to the imagined lives of those lost on Streedagh Beach. Everyone involved was invited to the beach to witness the main event which was filmed. The resin cannonballs were arranged in twelve pyramidal stacks for a stretch of a mile along the beach.

As the tide crept in, the stacks one by one toppled gently into the sea and dispersed the cannonballs, some of which were drawn out into the bay, and some pitched upon the stony ridge. Each object, each story, is cast adrift from its owner and laid open for nonchalant encounters in time.

Ronnie Hughes was born in Belfast in 1965. From 1984 to 1989 he studied at the University of Ulster, receiving both his BA and MA in Fine Art. He has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Ireland (most recently at the Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast) and has participated in group exhibitions in America, Canada, Germany, Japan, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including a one-year residency in New York (PS1, 1990-1991) and three-month residencies at Banff Arts Centre, Canada (1994) and Bemis Arts Centre, Nebraska (1997). His work is held in many public and corporate collections including both Irish Arts Councils and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The artist currently lives and works in Sligo and is represented by the Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.