Tag Archives: culture

MUSIC has always been a part of John Hennessy’s life, and the soundtrack to his childhood was an eclectic one. No surprise, because the Drumcliffe native’s dad is the legendary Michael, a music teacher and an inspiration to generations of budding performers.  Now based between Berlin, Cork and Ennis, John is fast making his own name in music. Credited by none other than Mojo magazine with developing a “neo rock ’n’ roll” style, John’s on stage persona is Black Pope. Blending darkly beautiful lyrics with impeccably smooth guitar riffs and a flavour of fizzling glam rock, Black Pope’s sound defies easy comparisons. A multi-instrumentalist and song writer, John is modest about the waves he has been making since bursting onto the music scene. Ahead of a hometown gig at Glór later this month, he is reflective about his musical influences.  “The piano was a constant when we were growing up,” he tells The Champion. “I played violin for a while, …

REGENERATION and resilience will be celebrated in Mountshannon later this month, thanks to a collaboration between diverse members of the East Clare arts community. The pandemic presented all kinds of hurdles in terms of live performance and, after taking their offerings online in 2020, Mountshannon Arts Festival this year opted for two mini-festivals on the theme of ‘regeneration’. The first event was held in June and the second is scheduled for September 24-26, traditionally the weekend of the Mountshannon Trad Festival, which ran to huge acclaim between 2010 and 2019. Aistear Park will be the focal point for a weekend of arts events and traditional music and will host an open air market for the duration. The collaboration has been made possible thanks to a funding award secured by Cliodhna Donnellan, artist, promoter, producer and co-ordinator of Mountshannon Trad Festival, under the Live Outdoor Local Performance Scheme from Clare County Council. The event will provide a platform for traditional artists …

CLARE County Council and Creative Ireland are encouraging children and young people to get creative at home to celebrate Cruinniú na nÓg, which takes place on June 12. This ‘Gathering of Young People’ encourages artistic expression and creativity for everyone aged 0 to 18 years, and is also supported by RTÉ. The one-day event is designed to empower, to develop creative potential and to foster the expression of creativity. The Creative Ireland Clare Culture Team is inviting children and young people to create a piece of art with the theme ‘My Happy Place’. This can be a painting, poem, anything creative. This will give all young people a chance to showcase their creativity. Art work will then be posted on the Creative Ireland Clare Facebook page and Clare Cruinniú Instagram Page. The office will also feature the art work on the Cruinniú na nÓg’s National Day Programme in June. Those who would like to take part are asked to like …

A MAJOR promotional push of the Burren Ecotourism Network is being planned in the wake of the local initiative becoming the only Irish tourism project to be included in the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel picks for 2021. Naming the Burren Ecotourism Network one of ten world-wide winners in its new ‘Best in Community’ category this week Lonely Planet described it as “an impressive community collaboration of over 60 local enterprises which has transformed Ireland’s Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark into a global leader for sustainable tourism. Joining together to promote slow tourism, local engagement and a greater responsibility for a more sustainable future for all in the area. All enterprises subscribe to the Burren & Cliffs of Moher Geopark ‘Code of Sustainable Practice’. This is an online platform that measures waste output, water consumption and energy usage and encourages each business to make reductions in these areas. The Code of Practice is the only one of its kind in …

THE first live performance to be held in glór since lock-down began back in March has sold out, the Ennis venue has confirmed. The venue will be fully re-open from September 1, however ahead of this date a special live show will take place this Friday (August, 14) with The Albiez Trio, presented by Music Network with a line-up featuring Tóla Custy, Laoise Kelly and Cormac Breatnach. The very limited capacity gig will be the first in a range of events planned by glór for the coming months, with the venue adapting to meet the challenges of Covid-19. A spokesperson for glór told us they were delighted that this week’s live performance, with a very limited audience, has sold out. And they are looking forward to returning with a new season of events from September. “We have re-shaped our autumn programme to offer a range of experiences from theatre, to music, comedy and film and visual arts, presenting each experience in …

COUNTY Clare’s artistic and cultural creativity has been highlighted on IrishCentral.com, a US-based website with more than 3.5 million visitors per month and a social media following in excess of 750,000. The website, the leading news source for the Irish diaspora around the world, is partnering with Creative Ireland, the Government’s five-year initiative, to place creativity at the centre of public policy. As part of this programme, IrishCentral featured the 2017 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. It also looked at Sparks Youth Film Festival, which offers animation and film workshops from October to November to encourage creative expression in young people aged six to 18 years, as well as the Inisowiacy-Polish Folk Dance Group, who will be organising workshops in Ennis in September, showcasing the culture and traditions of folk dancing in Poland. Commenting on the partnership from New York, Mike Rich, IrishCentral CEO, said, “IrishCentral.com is the leading Irish website in the US, with a loyal readership base in New York, …

MEMORIES of cultural contests of years gone by will be rekindled at the West County on November 21. Settling Old Scórs is being organised by Kilkishen’s John Torpey. He said he wanted to revisit the heyday of Scór in Clare. “I’m organising a celebratory concert of Scór from the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and the millennium. Scór was a huge thing, probably one of the greatest social items that the GAA ever came up with,” he said. In the early days of the competition, there was incredible interest in it, not least in his own part of the county. “Christy Curtin from Miltown Malbay came up with a notion that there should be a social aspect to the GAA. Coming out of that, all of the clubs in the county were contacted, including myself and Robert Frost in O’Callaghan’s Mills. A few of us met in Kilkishen on a Saturday night and we said ‘you sing a song, you do this, …

MILLIONS of people around the world will be reading all about Co Clare, Gaelic games and the art of hurley making – following the visit by travel writers from eight different countries. Invited by Tourism Ireland, the group is made up of journalists from media outlets in Brazil, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, India, New Zealand and Britain. Their itinerary has been designed by Fáilte Ireland to showcase our special national games and give the visiting journalists a flavour of the fast-paced thrill of hurling and the skill of Gaelic games. Their packed programme saw them visit places like Torpey Hurleys Workshop near Sixmilebridge to see John Torpey and his son, Seán demonstrate the art of hurley making followed by a tour of the Michael Cusack Centre in Carron. They also enjoyed an introductory hurling session with members of the Go Gaelic team, as well as a walking tour of the Burren. The grand finale of their visit was their attendance …