Arts & Culture

A STORY exchange and art-making workshop for adults takes place at Scariff Library on Saturday, July 23, as a way of reuniting East Clare communities after the pandemic. ‘Sharing Ground’ is a participatory art project that responds to the divisions that arose during the lockdowns. It will examine ways to meet each other with understanding, even when we hold divergent views. Story Exchange is a process of sharing short stories from participants’ lives, and includes participation through active listening. Its purpose is to create a space where people can see and acknowledge each others’ differences and, on a human level by sharing stories, build understanding through empathy. The project is being organised by artist Nathalie El Baba, who has trained under Narrative 4 as a Story Exchange facilitator. It is funded by the Arts Council and will be visually documented by West Clare-based photographic artist, Myriam Riand. A publication about the exchange will be produced. An information session takes place …

KAVA presents a solo exhibition of paintings by Mavis Gormally from July 15 to 24 at the Courthouse Gallery in Kinvara. An official launch for Path to Home takes place on Friday, July 15, at 7.30pm and all are welcome.  More than 30 paintings will be on display, depicting landscapes, heritage sites, and seascape scenes of the Gort, Kinvara, and surrounding areas.  A fine artist and painting tutor, Mavis enjoys sharing her passion for art through teaching painting in the locality. She currently teaches pre-teens, teens, and adults from her home studio and has been sharing her knowledge and love for art in this way since before she moved to Ireland.  Mavis was born in New York City, raised on Long Island, and relocated to Gort in 2003. Though moving from New York to Gort was a big change, Mavis has found great inspiration for her subject matter, the landscape, in the rural surrounds. This body of work was executed during the …

THE art of motherhood is explored in a new exhibition which has just opened at The People’s Museum in Limerick.  Created by a collective of ten Clare-based artists, the exhibition explores the overlap between the roles of mother and artist, as well as the creative tensions and potential they spark. “The exhibition is called ‘Stretched’ and was created by ten Clare based artist-mothers, exploring our various journeys through motherhood and our innate desire to create,” said artist Claire Frawley. “We celebrated our inaugural group exhibition on Friday (July 1), with a wonderful wine reception to a packed house of family, friends and art enthusiasts.” Members of the Artist Mothers collective come from many backgrounds and several different disciplines. They are described as being of different ages and stages of motherhood, as well as in their artistic careers.  “We have formed as a group to encourage, support and inspire each other, through collaboration and conversation,” an artist’s statement said. “Within the …

A UNIQUE and touching film about a lovelorn North Clare bachelor will be screened in Galway on Friday (July 8), as part of a retrospective on Danish documentarian, Jon Bang Carlsen.  ‘It’s Now or Never’ was shot on location in Ballyvaughan and Fanore in the mid-‘90s, with local residents taking the lead roles. Among them was Austin Deely of Feenagh, who reminisced this week with Mr Carlsen about his film début.  The movie will be screened at the Pálás Cinema during the Galway Film Fleadh, and is part of a double bill. The other work is entitled, ‘My Irish Diary’ (Min Irske Dagbog). Also made in the ’90s, the short film follows six-year-old Hjalmar, who gradually comes to appreciate the strange language and weather, after his family moves to the Atlantic coast of Ireland.  After the screening, there will be an opportunity to learn more about Mr Carlsen’s work and about the documentary form, through a Q&A led by Corofin-based …

THIS year promises to be a busy one for Stocktons Wing front man Mike Hanrahan. The Ennis man has worn many hats over the years, as a songwriter, musician, producer, author and even professional chef. A new album produced by Gavin Glass ‘Songs from the box room’ is due later this year, from which the single ‘Inside I’m Dancing’ has just been released. He is also hitting the road with Stockton’s Wing, Eleanor Shanley and Leslie Dowdall. If that wasn’t enough, ‘The Ballad of The Crimson Warrior’, a short music film written by Mike and inspired by the Irish Cultural Revolution was presented at MKE Milwaukee Fest and Templebar Tradfest 22. The soundtrack and film go on general release in August 2022. On ‘Inside I’m Dancing’, Mike said, “Believe it or not I started writing this song twelve years ago. I had just about dragged myself out of an emotional bear pit and I wanted to mark the transition. “Then …

IT WAS a soft day in North Clare when one of folklore’s most intriguing characters made his first public appearance at The Michael Cusack Centre. Banished from Ennistymon, even before he had been cast in bronze, the Púca roamed the rocky Burren until he found a cosy lair at Poll a Phúca in Carron. A public backlash against proposals to install the statue in Ennistymon, provided the opportunity to the operators of the Cusack Centre to offer an alternative home. While someone, or something, seemed to be playing puck with the weather last Saturday, the welcome for Aidan Harte’s sculpture could hardly have been warmer. The queue of cars bound for the official launch was matched only by the beeline of visitors eager to rub the creature’s toe and get a selfie with the now world-famous statue. Visitors were captivated by the piping of Blackie O’Connell as raindrops drummed their rhythm on the canopy of trees in the Púca’s shady …

THE inaugural Wings Music Festival came to its end last Sunday night, with a raucous session at the Shannon Springs. The festival began six days earlier and saw music and performance at a number of venues around the town, including Saturday night’s show at the Leisure Centre, which featured Luka Bloom, Cyril O’Donoghue and Mickey Dunne. Wings was the brainchild of Damian O’Rourke, who put in a great effort to organise venues, musicians and to get the town engaged with the festival. Speaking this week, he said that the first and last sessions, both open to all musicians and held at the Shannon Springs Hotel, were the highlights for him. “The opening session on the Monday, and then closing on the Sunday, they were pretty special, people just came in and played songs. “On Sunday we started at 1pm in the Shannon Springs and it was going for 11 and a half hours. “I’d say it was the longest recorded …

The Willie Clancy Summer School takes place from July 2–10 in Miltown Malbay and if you’re unable to make it, then at least you can catch some of it on the radio. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy have a partnership that goes back 50 years and the station will be broadcasting from the heart of the festival all week. The then fledgling radio station was in attendance the very first year of the school, in 1973, and has been there every year since to record or broadcast live from the West Clare music mecca. This year, the live broadcasts on RTÉ RnaG start on Sunday with the Éirinn is Alba concert at 8pm, celebrating the connections between the Celtic nations. Musicians on stage will include Hamish Moore, Connie O’Connell, Maighréad Ni Dhomhnaill, Paddy Glackin, Louise & Mick Mulcahy, and groups from Cape Breton, Wales and Québec. Neansaí Ní Choisdealbha will present the concert. Then the broadcasting …