Arts & Culture

FOR the third year in a row Clare Champion photographer John Kelly has won the Local Ireland Media Award for Best Photograph of the Year. It’s a huge achievement for the talented Mullagh man who has for many years been known as one of Ireland’s best press photographers. Speaking about the image that won him the 2022 honour, he said it was taken in Doolin on a wintry evening as he awaited a subject. “The picture was actually taken while I was in Doolin one stormy evening. I was waiting for somebody to turn up to another job. As I was waiting I saw the waves were very big, so I went out and shot the waves and the sunset.” He says that the best photographs are often found by chance. “It’s in the little gaps of doing the ordinary work of the day that you see the extraordinary and those opportunities come along, in my experience.” Ray Ryan of …

TWO Clare projects feature in a new book celebrating the value of our diverse cultural heritage.  Both The X-PO in Kilnaboy and Irish Seed Savers in Scariff are documented among 15 case studies from all around Ireland, as examples of best-practice in sharing and promoting cultural heritage. They feature in the book entitled Other Stories – Cultural Heritage and Society, which was launched at Irish Seed Savers in Capparoe.  The publication was commissioned by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Ireland, whose aim is to foster appreciation of cultural heritage on the national and international stage. The Scariff venue is one of five chosen for a special Book Launch Tour.  ICOMOS Ireland commissioned the research and advocacy project in 2018, inspired by The Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage to Society.  The history of the X-PO, since its foundation by artist Deirdre O’Mahony in 2008, is described in detail in the book. From …

MUSIC from a young Clare Céilí Band, whose members range in age from 16 to 19, has been finding an appreciative audience on the other side of the world. Mitch Park plays a weekly music programme on Radio Kidnapper, one of the most popular online stations in Hawke’s Bay, Hastings, New Zealand. Clare Céili Band leader, Colm Nestor recalled how Mitch went on the website of Custy’s Music Shop in Ennis to source an Irish traditional group and found the band’s first CD. “We listened to music from the band being played in New Zealand online between midnight and 1am on Christmas Day, 2021.” “It went further than we ever thought. Colum King plays the band regularly on Charity Radio, an internet radio in Dublin,” he added. In addition to launching their second CD during Culture Night recently, the band has been featured regularly on Clare FM and Radio na Gaeltachta including a 30-minute slot of their live performance on …

WELL-known Ennis chamber choir, Cantare, are practising hard these days under the very expert baton of choir director, Michael Hennessy with their sights set on competing in the upcoming City of Derry International Choir Festival. The festival is taking place from October 19 to 23 and features a range of singing activities and performances for everyone in a wide variety of venues around Derry and its environs. Cantare will perform against a host of national and international competitors on the afternoon of Saturday, October 22 in the Millennium Forum in the historic walled city. Choirs will travel to Derry from as far afield as Estonia, Sweden and the US, and from closer to home including Dublin and Galway. According to Michael, “It’s great to have the opportunity to compete, to have a Clare choir perform in such a renowned competition. All the members have worked exceptionally hard over the last number of months – I’m confident we can hold our …

HAVING run the Wings festival in Shannon this summer, Damian O’Rourke has endeavoured to keep live music happening regularly in Shannon, and is now behind a couple of ongoing events around the town. One of these is a monthly Wings session  in the Shannon Springs hotel. “It’s the last Sunday of every month, it has come out of the Wings festival in June,” Damian explained. “We had the wind down session for that, it was an immense day, and we just wanted to keep it going. We had something the following month and I was thinking of having it every second Sunday, but a friend of mine recommended doing the last Sunday of the month because it’s easy for people to remember. “We’ve been doing it since June and it’s going well, it starts at 1pm on the Sunday and it keeps going until whenever.” It is open to everyone, whether they want to play or just listen. “It’s a …

WAKING up to the beauty of nature is the theme of a new exhibition that will open in Kinvara next week.  The show by artist Nicole O’Donnell is entitled ‘Awakening’ and will run at the Courthouse, in conjunction with Kinvara Area Visual Arts (KAVA) from October 20 to 26. Nicole is a Galway-based artist who has a Masters Degree in Creative Practice and an Honours BA in Contemporary Art, from the School of Design and Creative Arts, at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU).  “As a visual artist who grew up in the West of Ireland, my practice is influenced by the wilderness of the Irish landscape, daily observations and the natural world to create imaginative landscape paintings that deal with themes of experience of place, memory and are inspired by the endless complexity found in nature,” Nicole explained. She added that her solo show, ‘Awakening’, “means “an act or moment of becoming suddenly aware of something”. “This collection of works …

ANTICIPATION is building ahead of the release of the new single by acclaimed Clare-based singer-songwriter, Steo Wall.  ‘More Blacks More Dogs More Irish’ is a hard-hitting new single, whose name is a play on words taken from the signs that used to hang on shops and pubs in England in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The single will be the first release taken from Steo’s eagerly anticipated second studio album, Street Wisdom For Lost Souls. The track features Toshín, an African Irish soul singer who starred along- side Steo and a host of other emerging artists on a two-part RTÈ music series entitled Foster & Allen, Lost in Music. The second and final episode airs this Thursday, October 13, at 10.15pm on RTÈ One.  Mixing traditional Irish folk with some contemporary Irish rap, Steo brings the listener on a journey from the badlands of his native Dublin to the beauty of the West coast of Ireland. Steo paints a picture of …

SIX schools in Clare are set to join the Creative Schools initiative, the Arts Council have announced. The local schools are among 186 schools and centres across Ireland who applied to be part of the initiative. The Clare schools to take part are: Scoil Naisiunte Eoin Baiste, Ballyvaughan NS; Connolly National School; Ennis Community College; Scariff Community College; Scoil na Mainistreach Quin Dangan and Eidhneach National School in Inagh.  According to the Arts Council the very high level of applications to be part of this two-year process reflects the importance that schools and youth reach centres put on creativity and their ambition to celebrate and put creative thinking at the very heart of what they do.  Participation in the Creative Schools initiative aims to empower children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools/centres and stimulate additional ways of working which reinforce the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.  The initiative is designed to provide opportunities for children and young people to build their …