Arts & Culture

GLÓR has appointed 17-year-old Sean Shannon as its first Young Associate Artist. Through its Associate Artists programme glór aims to support artists in practical ways, enabling connections between artists, audiences and communities throughout Clare, and facilitating the creation of new work inspired by Clare’s unique culture and landscape. Sean received his initial piano lessons from Meaghan Dineen through the Music Generation programme. He is currently studying with Tatiana Timofeeva, and in September he will commence a Bachelor in Music Performance on an entrance scholarship at the Royal Irish Academy of Music under Professor Réamonn Keary. In 2018 he performed for President Michael D. Higgins at Clarecare charity’s 50th anniversary celebration, and at the age of 14 he gave his debut solo recital at Glór in 2019. Last year  he featured on RTÉ’s Nationwide. Sean has also successfully participated in numerous national piano competitions, most recently the Feis Ceoil and previously received a scholarship funded by Maoin Cheoil an Chláir/Limerick School …

A MESMERISING new album, meditating on live and love, will be launched by New Zealander Jyoshna La Trobe in Mountshannon later this month.  The acclaimed music researcher, singer and songwriter will launch Unity Hours IV, with a very special concert, on Saturday, August 27 at St Caimin’s Church of Ireland, which will feature her Clare Band.  As well as being a prolific composer and performer, Jyoshna is an accomplished ethnomusicologist, specialising in the Music of Rarh, India, and holding a PhD in Music, from SOAS, London on Marai Kirtan and the Performance of Ecstasy in West Bengal, India. She has authored over 30 albums of original and ethnographic material including Dharmacakra, ancient and modern songs in Sanskrit (2015). Unity Hours I (2006) was recorded in London, as was Unity Hours II (2010). Unity Hours III (2019) was recorded in New Zealand and the latest album was recorded in here in Clare.  “All the experiences here are written with the ink …

THE Last of the Light, a new book from Kilkee writer Marc Ó Riain is set to be launched on August 28. It’s a collection of  memories, short stories and images from the Loop Head peninsula.  An electrician by training,  Marc holds an MA in Writing from NUI Galway and told The Champion, “I’ve been scribbling away for years. I’ve a facebook page called An Idler on the Loop and for years I’d have been posting on that, observations on the Loop Head peninsula, ramblings, talking about different places and locations.” The book includes images and various forms of creative writing, according to Marc. “It has five short stories in it, all populated with characters from the Loop Head peninsula or based in the area or about the area, they’re all flavoured with the Loop Head peninsula.  “There are meditations on the Loop Head peninsula, there’s a handful of those peppered throughout it, with colour photographs, there’s about 28 colour …

SISTERS Susan Campbell and Paula Hickey will illuminate their practice as visual artists with an exciting ‘cyanotype’ workshop at the Courthouse in Kinvara later this month.  Ahead of the launch of their joint exhibition entitled ‘Twofold’, the acclaimed artists will discuss their creative practice and invite others to experiment with this ancient photographic technique. A workshop on Thursday, August 25, from 3pm to 5.30pm will demonstrate the process of cyanotype making. Cyanotype is a centuries-old photographic printing process that creates images in distinctive shades of dark green-blue.  At the Kinvara event, Susan and Paula will demonstrate a new and exciting technique to harness cyanotype as a means of capturing water in flow. The creation of the cyanotypes will involve a process whereby a light-sensitive solution, used to coat a support – such as paper – reacts to whatever is placed on its surface. These experimental techniques exploit its reactive properties and register water in different states of flow. The workshop …

MORE than 6,000 people flocked to North East Clare for the 35th Feakle Festival, which wrapped up, leaving audiences and organisers “exhausted but very happy”, last Monday (August 8).  After two years of virtual events, visitors from all over Ireland, Europe, the US and as far afield as Japan descended on the village for what has been described as “out of this world”.  Local publican and member of the organising committee, Gary Pepper, said any worries about competition with the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Mullingar were quickly set aside. “It seems that the word went around at the Fleadh that Feakle was hopping,” he said.   “So, lots of people left the Fleadh and came here and it really added to the event in terms of the quality of the music. We expected a good festival, but it was a bit like preparing for an All-Ireland final with the Fleadh up against us. It seems that, if the Fleadh …

A PLAY focusing on one of the most intense incidents in the War of Independence in Clare comes to Cultúrlann Sweeney in Kilkee, on Friday night (August 12). The drama, entitled Two Days in September, secured prestigious funding support from Clare County Council through the Decade of Centenary Arts Project Awards, and premiered in North Clare in June.  Written by Doolin-based playwright Dermott Petty, the play tells the story of the Rineen Ambush. The drama unfolds, in film and theatre form, and traces the events of autumn, 1920, when a British Army convoy was ambushed by the Mid-Clare Brigade of the IRA. It follows the aftermath of revenge and the sacking, looting and burning of the villages of Ennistymon, Lahinch and Miltown Malbay by the Black and Tans on September 22 and 23.  “West Clare in 1920 was recovering from a land war, famines, World War 1 and Spanish influenza,” said Dermott. “While a beautiful part of the world had …

The story of a shocking and harrowing incident of cannibalism in 1835 aboard a ship skippered by a Clare man is the subject of this weekend’s RTE Documentary on One. The return journey from Canada of Limerick ship The Francis Spaight, entered infamy when four of the crew were eaten by their own crewmates. The sailing ship, the Francis Spaight, was registered in Limerick in May 1835 and was advertised in the newspapers of the time as the “grandest ship Limerick had ever seen”. Built in England earlier that year, it was destined for the Canada trade and was intended to be “one of the most superior vessels ever offered to emigrants”. It was named after its owner, the Limerick merchant, Francis Spaight, who was also local magistrate in the area. In September 1835, on its second ever voyage to Canada, the Francis Spaight ship left the Limerick Quays with a crew of 18 men on what was to be …

FANTASY is the forté of Sixmilebridge-based novelist and academic, Tracy Fahey, who has just been shortlisted for another prestigious award. Tracy, who is Head of the Department in Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD), has taken a place on the shortlist for the Best Collection in the British Fantasy Awards for her short story collection, I Spit Myself Out. It is her second time to be nominated for this sought-after prize. Fresh on the heels of being awarded a prestigious fellowship in Finland for 2023, Tracy is delighted to be one of five writers shortlisted for these global awards, which will be presented in London in September. The shortlist was announced following votes from the British Fantasy Society (BFS) membership and initial conversations by the juries. Jurors in the Best Collection category are Wendy Bradley, Jay Faulkner, Brian Kinsella, Abbi Shaw, and Filip Drnovšek Zorko. “I Spit Myself Out was a passion project, a book I’ve wanted to write for …