Arts & Culture

AN Ennis cafe is serving up something different in a bid to showcase local artists and boost the county capital’s night time economy. Sweet n Green Café have come on board with a new scheme aimed at promoting evening events and as part of this will be hosting a series of art exhibitions featuring the talent of Clare’s artists. The government launched the ‘Night Time Economy Support Scheme (NTESS) 2022’ last June and Ennis Chamber encouraged members in the hospitality sector to apply. The initiative set out to support the promotion of live events/arts on days other than weekend nights and scheduled early in the evening, before 9pm. Sweet n Green Café was one of the businesses to follow through committing to host a minimum of four events.  They decided to host four art exhibitions to raise awareness of the extraordinary artist talent within the county and to support local artists. This month sees the plan roll into action with …

FIVE decades of bringing music to the communities of Doora-Barefield will be celebrated this Friday with a very special event. The 50th anniversary of the local branch of Comhaltas will be commemorated with a concert featuring some of the branch’s well known members. Also, a book recalling the history of the Doora – Barefield branch will be launched at Fahy Hall, Roslevan to mark the momentous anniversary. National President of Comhaltas Eamon O hAirgain will be in attendance on the night. Mary O’Halloran, who was one of the founding members of the branch and is still involved to this day, told The Champion they are expecting the anniversary celebrations to be a good night with plenty of music to enjoy. She added that the committee members have been working hard to prepare for the event and are looking forward to sharing some memories of the branch through the years, while also looking ahead to its future. As well as current members of …

AN ounce of breeding is worth a tonne of feeding, some say, but when breeding does break out across generations it can still take a surprising twist. The late concertina player Chris Droney was a traditional music legend. A winner of numerous All Irelands, he was honoured with a TG4 Gradam Saoil award for lifetime achievement, and named  the Clare Person of the Year in 2012. It would hardly be a surprise that a grandson of his would have a passion for music and some talent, but instead of playing trad, Daithí O’Dronaí is an acclaimed electronic musician, who has recently released his third LP, I’m Here Now. The album has been described by the Irish Times as an “optimistic, celebratory return”, while Hot Press said that one of the tracks was “a hot contender for the song of the summer”. He tops the bill at a show in O’Donohue’s of Fanore this Saturday night – Fomhar in Fanore – …

A BOOK on Mike Kelly, the aviation enthusiast who provided the model aircraft in the Shannon Airport Aviation Gallery has been officially launched. The launch was at the airport, just beside the area where the amazing collection of more than 1,500 die-cast model aircraft he provided are on display. Mr Kelly comes to Shannon several times a week to tend to the collection and at Monday’s launch Shannon Group CEO Mary Considine said, “Mike’s love of the collection is infectious and his personal touch really adds to the visitor experience in our airport.  “He is generous with his time in maintaining and curating it. His wonderful storytelling has engaged many a passenger. Nearly every day passengers tell us how much they have enjoyed the display and for this we are most grateful. I would like to congratulate Mike, author Kieran Beville and publisher Dominic Taylor and wish them every success with the book.” The publication is called Pulling Back The …

A NEW play on Munster Rugby centres its action around the death of the late Clare rugby star Anthony Foley. Red Army, which runs for eight nights in Lime Tree Theatre towards the end of the month,  is billed as a celebration of Munster Rugby, of women as pundits and fans, and a homage to Killaloe man Foley. The play co-written by Helena Close and Marie Boylan is about community, family and the team. It is the story of dockers and doctors, and their insatiable passion for the game. Four diehard Munster women are in Paris for their beloved team’s first rugby match of the season. Years following a team in decline show the cracks in their friendship. When team manager, Foley, dies hours before kick-off, it acts as a catalyst for honesty in their friendships as we shadow them from Paris back home to a grieving Limerick. Their own personal stories unfold across a pivotal week, charting their friendships, …

IN a first for Ireland, Ennis is to host a brand new festival this month celebrating the ‘Fantastic’ genre of film including horror, fantasy and Sci-Fi. Just in time for Hallowe’en the Ennis International Fantastic Film Festival (EIFF) will take place on the weekend of October 28 to 30 with host of events planned and high profile special guests from the world of Fantastic film making. Amongst the star names attached to the launch festival are Ennis natives and film industry luminaries, actress Simone Kirby, who stars in the upcoming third and final season of HBO/BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel ‘His Dark Materials’, and award-winning screenwriter/actor Mark O’Halloran – both of whom are jurors on EIFF’s inaugural awards panel. The ‘Fantastic’ genre has seen a huge rise in popularity in the dynamic Film Festival scene in north America over the past decade, a trend now being echoed across Europe. Ennis is proud to be the first location in …

CLASSICAL duo John O’Conor and Ailbhe McDonagh join forces to bring an intimate evening of cello and piano music to Ennis this week. World renowned Beethoven specialist O’Conor and Irish cello soloist Ailbhe McDonagh celebrated Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year in 2021 by recording a double album of his complete sonatas for cello and piano. And this Thursday, October 6, they will bring their nationwide tour showcasing their partnership to glór. On the night they will be performing sonatas by Beethoven and some shorter works by Faurè, Chopin and McDonagh herself including the world premiere of Valentia composed specially for this tour. O’Conor has been gathering wonderful reviews for his masterly playing for over 40 years with the Chicago Tribune saying, “He represents a vanishing tradition that favours inner expression and atmosphere over showmanship and bravura”. He studied in his native Dublin, in Vienna with Dieter Weber, and was tutored by the legendary Wilhelm Kempff. His unanimous First Prize at the …

MUSIC has proven to be a universal language for a collaboration that is fusing Ukrainian and Irish tradition.  Kseniya Rusnack fled her home after war reached the Ukrainian capital. She now lives in Lisdoonvarna, where her talent for music has drawn her into the thriving trad scene in the area. Alongside leading Irish harper, Ennistymon-based, Paul Dooley, Kseniya performed at the Willie Clancy Summer School and, recently, wowed audiences at Glór in Ennis.  Kseniya, who was born in the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine, is a musician and singer. She credits, the  bandura, a Ukrainian stringed folk instrument, with opening up the world of music to her. The outbreak of war saw Kseniya flee the capital, Kyiv, with her mother, her five-year-old son and a few precious possessions, including her bandura.  “Since the beginning of hostilities, we left Kyiv to visit relatives in Cherkasy region,” she said. “We have been in Ukraine for a month because we believed that everything …