Arts & Culture

DVD REVIEW

WEST Clare audiences will have five opportunities to delve into the fantasy world of pantomime in the coming days. Kilkee-based Crack’d Spoon Theatre Company will travel the length and breadth of west and south Clare with their presentation of The Wizard of Oz. Three months of rehearsing for the cast of about 40 children and adults will come to fruition on Saturday at 3pm when the theatre in Kilkee library hosts the pantomime at 3pm. Last Saturday Kilkee Community Centre buzzed with adrenaline as children, adults and the back-stage crew prepared for one of their final pre-show rehearsals.  “For the last couple of years, people have been coming and asking us when is it happening again? We’re just a local theatre group and they’re lining up to ask can they be in it. The children get a lot of fun out of it. Children have been rehearsing once a week and adults twice a week,” show director Breda Latham told …

IT’S time for secondary school students to prepare for this year’s Clare Champion Short Story Competition.There are Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate categories and very attractive cash prizes on offer in each category.The first prize winners will get €300 in cash, while those who take second will pocket €200 with €100 going to each of the third place winners. There will also be prizes for entries that are highly commended while the winners will see their stories published in The ’Champion.Students can write their essays on any subject, while entries should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words.Entries should be typed and include the student’s name, age and phone number, also stating their school, year and English teacher’s name.All stories should be sent to;Second Level Schools Short Story Competition,Category (Leaving Cert or Junior Cert)The Clare Champion,Barrack Street,Ennis, County Clare.The closing date for entries is Friday, February 8.  

A NEW song written about a Shannonside town has been hailed as a great tourism promotion for businesses on the banks of Lough Derg.Rock and Sock Records’ recording artist, Tokyo Rosenthal made his international radio debut of his song about Killaloe last Saturday night.Following a similar theme from years ago, Rosenthal, who is a well-known singer and musician in the United States, has penned Killaloe, which is similar to Edmonton from 2006. The recording was initially be played on The Right Note radio programme hosted by Ross O’Donoghue and was preceded by an interview with Rosenthal at 7pm. Streaming worldwide, listeners could log on to listen to the live interview.Unlike Edmonton, Killaloe is actually about the town and some of its characters. The song has a Celtic feel to it, while being comfortable in the Americana music genre. It is a featured track on Rosenthal’s newly released album, Tokyo’s Fifth. The song was inspired by Tokyo’s recent Ireland tour, which …

CIRCUS Europe: an international collaboration featuring poetry and images, is getting underway at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon this Saturday and will continue until February 1.The official opening takes place with a reading and book launch at 4pm, followed by the launch of the exhibition at 5pm.The exhibition includes eight collages by Dutch artist Machteld van Buren. The eight large collages illustrate how the struggle for survival is being waged in various European countries.Eight poets were invited to offer their interpretation of the images. Four of these are Irish, Jo Slade, Frank Golden, Jessie Lendennie and Patrick Chapman, while the other four are Dutch; Arnoud van Adrichem, Martin Reints, Lieke Marsman and Peter van Lier. Clare-based publisher Salmon Poetry is publishing a booklet of this project in English.Machteld van Buren is an established artist and her work is in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden.In this project, …

IT was with sadness that people in East Clare and the wider music community learned this week of the death of the last remaining founder of the original Tulla Céilí Band that formed in 1946.Paddy O’Donoghue (84) came from a musical family in Ballinahinch, Bodyke and grew up opposite well-known piper Martin Rochford. His father, Mickey, was a well-known concertina player.Paddy was a multi-instrumentalist and composer. His primary instrument was the concert flute but he also played the fiddle and uilleann pipes.While he was one of the founding members of the Tulla Céilí Band, Paddy also played with a number of other bands, since he began playing at the age of 12, including Sean Donohue’s Céilí Band and the Golden Star Céilí band.He played regularly with East Clare accordion player Seamus Bugler, as well as Pat Mullins and he released a CD with them, Pat Costello and Geraldine Cotter for ClareCare in 2011, known as Life in the Slow Lane. …

IT’S a new year and thoughts have probably already turned to new year’s resolutions and taking up new activities.In East Clare, Scariff Library is advocating taking up an activity that is suitable for all age groups, helps stimulate the mind in a social setting and won’t hit the pocket.The library is kicking off 2013 with its monthly adult, teenage and children’s book clubs and is inviting new members to come along and voice their views on everything from fun light reads to old classics and from contemporary literature to autobiographies.“It is a new year and it’s a good time to try something new. A lot of people would come in to join the library in January anyway and this is a little value added thing in a way. The book clubs all use library books and there is no extra cost after joining the library. It is free to join for unemployed or senior citizens anyway and we get the …

JOYCED, Donal Kelly’s solo play will be performed by his daughter Katie O’Kelly at Glór on Saturday, February 9.The play deals with a young Joyce and the day-to-day life of the man who would become one of the world’s most renowned writers.