Tag Archives: Helen Walsh

AUTHOR John Connell will be the special guest at this year’s annual Clare Reads Day 2022 this Friday, November 11. Every year, Clare Libraries celebrates the work of an Irish author by encouraging the whole community to read a chosen book by that author. The chosen author this year is John Connell, author of The Cow Book and The Running Book. Clare Reads Day will feature John’s latest book, The Stream of Everything, published earlier this year by Gill Books. The Stream of Everything is an account of a two-day trip along the Camlin River in a kayak during lockdown with a close friend. The rich biodiversity of the river forms a quiet backdrop to John’s much-loved philosophical observations. Book Clubs around Clare will read and discuss John’s book together ahead of attending a special author event in Scariff Library. Clare Reads Day also includes a special author event in Scariff Library. John will be interviewed by Jim O’Brien, journalist …

A range of exciting initiatives will be possible in Clare Library Service as a result of a €26,743.94 grant from the Dormant Accounts Funding, according to the county librarian. These will include aids to help those with reading difficulties, books in Ukrainian and other languages,­ and a programme of events for recent arrivals in Clare. The funding, announced by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, will enable the provision of electronic resources both in library buildings and online and will also be used to assist libraries in offering literacy supports across the library network. In recent years Dormant Accounts Funding has helped Clare’s libraries to fund online literacy supports, sensory spaces and gardens, among many other relevant and important literacy-based projects. One of the highlights of the funding this year will be the purchase of “C-pens”, which have a simple scanning mechanism that reads text aloud and will be available for borrowing in a number of libraries, …

Several libraries across the county reopened this morning in accordance with Phase 3 of the revised Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business. They include De Valera Library in, Ennis and those in Kilrush, Kilkee, Miltown Malbay, Ennistymon and Shannon. Other libraries will be opening shortly once the necessary preparatory work has been completed with update on the Clare County Library website and social media pages. Libraries will provide limited services initially, including limits on the numbers accessing the facility at any one time. Libraries will operate in compliance with current physical distancing guidelines and the public are encouraged to use hand sanitisers upon entry to library buildings. Library visits will be of a maximum 15 minutes’ duration and services will include borrow and return of books, printing facilities, delivery service for those cocooning, online services and children’s services including the 2020 Summer Stars programme. The contact and collect service will continue in the other branches and will commence in a …

CLARE County Council and the Creative Ireland national team are to host an open meeting on Thursday, at the Temple Gate Hotel at 7.30pm. On the evening, they will share details about the Creative Ireland programme and look at exploring opportunities to increase access, engagement and collaboration in the local arts and creative industries. Enabling creativity in every community is a core pillar of the Creative Ireland programme, an ambitious five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which aims to place culture and creative communities at the centre of creative policy. Creative Ireland is to lead on the development of a dedicated culture and creativity plan for the county, based on the premise that participation in cultural activity drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing. This year will see a special focus on children and young people, with the specific objective of fast-tracking the Charter for Arts in Education, which will significantly increase access and …

IN 1860, over 1,200 volunteers from Ireland travelled to Italy to fight for the Papal States in the Papal Wars. An appeal was made throughout the country for funds to support the volunteers. Twenty-three Catholic parishes from Clare published lists of subscribers in newspapers of the day and, now, members of Clare Roots Society have undertaken to transcribe the names of these subscribers, resulting in a database of over 4,000 names. This week, members of Clare Roots Society handed over the Papal Army database to county librarian, Helen Walsh. In recent times, staff at the library’s Local Studies Centre came across extensive lists of subscribers names published in The Clare Journal, the local newspaper of the day. The subscriptions were in response to an appeal for funds to support the Irish volunteers to the Papal Army in the summer of 1860. Peter Beirne, Local Studies Centre librarian, immediately saw the value of these lists to genealogy researchers tracing Clare families. …