Arts & Culture

An exhibition of photographs by Deirdre O’Mahony and curated by Gregory McCartney entitled Abridged 0 – 20: Abandoned Clare will be launched in X-PO, Kilnaboy on Sunday from 12 noon to 2pm. Deirdre was invited by curator Gregory McCartney to work on Abridged 0 – 20: Abandoned Clare as part of an ongoing project to document and record abandoned commercial properties in Ireland. The Clare project focuses on contemporary rural abandonment and is a visual exploration of the economic and social changes that have taken place in the county during the past few years. Deirdre explained that one of the more powerful aspects of abandoned buildings is the subject missing in the photographs; that is, the people who once worked and lived in these spaces. “Their presence can still be felt in the architecture and discarded objects. This project addresses vital clues to the social, economic and architectural life of twentieth and indeed 21st century Clare,” she said. Deirdre herself …

THE public are invited to an exhibition celebrating crafts from Clare entitled Draíocht which is running at the County Museum in Ennis from Saturday to December 9.The exhibition is the work of two Dublin artists, Claire Carroll and Morgan Nic Iomhair, who have relocated to the Banner county and been inspired by it.Claire has been living in Ennis for almost 20 years. She is a keen craft-worker focusing on many elements from glass to silk, stained glass, clay, and jewellery, while she particularly likes the permanence of mosaic. “A piece of mosaic art will outlive us all. Just take a look at the many examples in churches around Europe in places like Rome and Barcelona which have pieces of mosaic going back through the ages.”She has been working with mosaic for over 10 years and runs many workshops in this and other disciplines at her studio in Ennis. Her background is in teaching and she imparts her knowledge in a …

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 DIRECTED BY: Bill Condon STARRING: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning CERT: 12A The Twilight movies are the kind of movies that critics like to call “review-proof”, the suggestion being that no matter what the reviewer says, the public is going to flock to see the film regardless, probably in record numbers.These critics, of course, are deluded, since nobody pays a blind bit of notice to anything they say about any film at any time, ever. If they do, it is with the intention of proving the reviewer wrong, like one acquaintance of mine who only goes to see films that I express a profound dislike for. He spends a lot of time in the cinema.We all know the fans don’t give two hoots what anyone says about the Twilight films and how terribly bad they are – so bad, as I wrote here recently, that they should come with a …

IN the bleak midwinter, the woolly jumpers have returned with aplomb. I’m talking of Sarah Lund’s fashion staple of course, which has returned to BBC4 in Forbrydelsen II [The Killing 2]. Last time out it, it was a less-than-straightforward whodunit. This series, however, seems to have taken a more political route, which is no bad thing, as who doesn’t like a bit of political intrigue.Whereas series one centred on one murder and trying to find the killer, by the end of the double episode opener on Saturday we had two killings on our hands – a soldier and a military legal adviser.Responsibility has been claimed by unknown fundamentalists, The Muslim League, but there is a lot of army links floating around too and I have no doubt this will be significant as things progress. In the background, the reluctant new justice minister, Thomas Buch, is trying to get an anti-terrorism bill through parliament, which isn’t making for easy work either.At …

`I remember the first time I saw South Park. I sat, slack-jawed at the volumn, vigor and variety of swear words used by those badly animated little squirts. It wasn’t just the bad words that made the cartoon funny though, it’s just that there are very few things that can’t be made a little more amusing by a well placed, timed or utter dose of effing and blinding.I remember thinking exactly the same thing when I saw In Bruges many years later. With language a prominent character in Martin McDonagh’s excellent film, the nearly constant colourful swearing added to both the humour and gravity of story. Off-setting any quibbles about vulgarity being the refuge of the inarticulate, however, the script made a point of making its protagonists almost cartoonishly verbose and occasionally courtly in the their manners, taking more from the Tarantino school of gangsterspeak than the James Elroy one.All of which linguistic meandering leads to The Guard, written and …

THE enormous contribution made by a Belgian composer to the musical heritage of Clare will be recalled at a special mass and CD launch in Ennis this weekend.

When Julie Andrews sang “The hills are alive with the sound of music” from an Austrian mountaintop, magic happened and the most beloved movie musical was born. The adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Broadway hit has thrilled audiences for years and will undoubtedly thrill again this November when Scoil Mhuire take it to an Ennistymon stage.