MILTOWN Malbay concertina player Edel Fox has never over-analysed how a traditional music session evolves. The best of them appear to sprout organically but once they’re over, that’s it. There’s no need for a post-mortem. However, Edel has had to be more forensic of late, having eyed a session from behind the camera.“I’m looking at it as a producer and a director so I’m looking at it much more critically, although I can never remember sitting back after a night in Friel’s or The Blonde’s in  Miltown and critically analysing a session,” she laughed.Recently, students of the higher diploma in television production at Waterford IT and Nemeton Productions screened their productions to family, friends, industry professionals and media journalists in the SGC cinema, Dungarvan.One of the programmes screened was a pilot music programme for TG4 directed, produced and presented by Edel, who is now based in Ferrybank, Waterford, where she also teaches traditional music classes. Edel is a former recipient …

THIS weekend, the Galway One World Centre will host the sixth Galway African Film Festival (GAFF).Kinvara-resident Trisha Buddin is one of the organisers and has been involved in the festival since the beginning. The festival will present a series of contemporary African feature films, shorts and documentaries, all of which will be free of charge.“I work for Galway One World Centre and six years ago, as part of Africa Day celebrations which take place on May 25 each year, we decided that we would do something a bit different and celebrate Africa as a whole and the countries of Africa,” Trisha explained.With greater cultural diversity in Galway’s towns and villages, Trisha believes the festival helps to break down stereotypes about the continent and its people.“We would like to open people’s minds a bit more and balance out the negative publicity. We want to bring a more positive side of African culture and people than people get to see and hear …

CONNECTIONS will be made in Mountshannon over the next two weeks as this year’s annual Iniscealtra Festival of Arts gets underway with a host of events taking place across the 11 days. This year’s festival theme is ‘Connections’. Sheila Pratschke is the special guest and she will open the festival at the Church of Ireland Mountshannon on Saturday at 8pm.Sheila grew up in Limerick and was a teacher in both Ireland and Africa before taking on the arts. She has been director of the Irish Film Institute and director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the artists’ retreat at Annaghmakerrig and is presently the director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Dermot Byrne and Florian Blancke will also be on hand to perform as part of the festival launch. Fishbowl Youth Club is celebrating 10 years this year and will hold a display of their creative young talent at the Fishbowl Café on Friday from 8pm. The youth group has …

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This year’s Clare Champion Short Story competition yielded a record number of entries, with 270 short stories received from secondary school students across the county. Speaking at the awards ceremony held in the De Valera Library on Thursday last, John Galvin, managing director of The Clare Champion, commended the short-listed entries, who he said were all winners as this year’s standards were very high. He said that in the modern age of email, Facebook and Twitter we probably write more in our day-to-day lives than heretofore, but it was important not to let writing standards drop. Clare Champion editor Austin Hobbs added, “I really enjoy this occasion as I see young writers emerge year after year. It’s rewarding for The Clare Champion that we continue to get a great response to the competition.”Winner of first place in the senior category was Keelan Cunningham of Kilrush Community School. Highly commended in the junior category last year, he said his winning entry, …

HEART-rendering scenes will be the order of the day when a young Ballina actor appears on television screens later this month.Jimi O’Bhaoill-de-Faoite (11) will play the lead role in Eoinín, which will be shown on TG4 next Wednesday at 10pm.Directed by Tom Sullivan and produced by Ciarán O’Cofaigh, this adaptation of Pádraig Pearse’s Eoinín is based around the story of a mother, Máire, who struggles to retain control when her 11-year-old son, Eoin, is diagnosed with Leukaemia.Jimi played the lead role in Eoinín at the Irish Shorts Section of the Cork Film Festival last November.Having recently auditioned for other parts, Jimi’s acting career seems to be on an upward curve.Acting is in his genes as his father, Diarmuid de Faoite, is the award-winning actor, writer, drama therapist and drama teacher from Ennis.Although Diarmuid has built up vast experience during his illustrious 25-year career, he couldn’t bear to see his son on set.“Jimi plays a child who is dying. I remember …