Arts & Culture

CLARE Museum has taken possession of a number of artefacts discovered during excavations along the route of the recently opened M18 Gort to Crusheen road scheme.The museum is to hold an exhibition early next year in a specially designed exhibition space on the top floor of the building, which will feature the artefacts unearthed by archaeologists working on the infrastructure project. According to a spokesperson for Clare Museum, the items offer a fuller picture of history in the area.The exhibition will include pottery, stone tools and axes dating from the Neolithic period, along with glass and amber beads and a rare bone gaming piece, which date from the Iron Age period.“From informal discussions with archaeologists, I understand that between Gort and Crusheen and south of Sixmilebridge, very little Neolithic pottery has been discovered to date. It is good to find some items from these parts as it gives a fuller picture of the history of the areas. It wasn’t just …

SHANNON Heritage has announced two special Christmas productions at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The Princess & the Dragon Wizard dinner and mini panto will take place on December 2-5, 9-12 and 16-23 at 5pm. There will also be a special Christmas evening and dinner at the castle, which will commence at 8pm on December 2 and will run on various dates until December 23.“We are delighted to extend our programme of Christmas entertainment at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. Our talented troupe of Bunratty Castle entertainers are putting on a series of fun Pantos including dinner for all the family and are performing a selection of the great Christmas classics at our Christmas evening and dinner at the castle. This year more than ever, people want to take their mind off the doom and gloom and what better way to do this than by revisiting your childhood panto experience and sharing it with your children,” said John Ruddle, chief …

LOCAL and internationally-acclaimed Irish traditional musicians will raise the roof at the launch of a charity CD in Ballina this Saturday night.Live at Liam’s was recorded to raise funds for Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin and will be launched in Liam O’Riain’s at 8pm.A live seisiún in Liam O’Riain’s was recorded last March following a conversation between Paul Smyth and Rowan Mulrooney, Portroe one night in the pub.Paul and Emer Smyth’s first child, David, died suddenly as a result of a serious heart defect and following a brief stint in Our Lady’s Hospital. They have supported various fundraising ventures for the hospital over the years.It is expected the hospital will benefit from an estimated €15,000 once the first 1,000 CDs, which had the production costs covered by five sponsors, are sold.The CD can be purchased in Custy’s Music Shop, Ennis and shops in Ballina, Killaloe, Nenagh, Newport and other areas in Limerick.Anyone who wants to purchase a copy …

THE National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland (NSPCI), which is located in the University of Limerick campus, has acquired a second work by the artist Alice Maher, former visiting lecturer at the Burren College of Art, in Ballyvaughan. By John Rainsford Helmet (2003) is a photograph of the artist holding a helmet of snail shells close to her face. The picture is intended to tell the viewer more about the sitter’s interests and profession than a complete physical depiction ever could. Ms Maher, who is a former graduate of European studies at UL, already has a piece in the collection, a painting entitled Self-Portrait: Four Views (1993). She was born in Cahir, Tipperary, into a family of three brothers and one sister. When the fledgling National Institute of Higher Education’ (NIHE) Limerick, opened in 1972, she obtained a place. She took lectures in architecture and art history as well as in French and political history in her chosen field of European …

FRESH from a successful run at the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival, the Bottom Dog Theatre Company arrive in Ennis this week with their production Language Unbecoming a Lady.This one-man show was written and performed by Limerick actor Myles Breen and is coming to Glór this Saturday.Originally presented as part of Limerick Pride in 2009, the play is set in the dressing room of Robert, an ageing drag queen who reveals his life and loves, victories and defeats.Exploring the themes of identity, love found and love lost using the music of Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Billie Holiday and more, Language Unbecoming a Lady tells the story of one gay man’s life.Myles Breen is a founder member of Bottom Dog and as well as being a writer and director, he is one of the busiest actors in the country with a list of theatre, television and film credits stretching back over 20 years. He is directed in Language Unbecoming A Lady …

SOME of the best young bands in Clare will perform in Ennis next weekend at the finals of Clare Youth Service’s county-wide music competition.The finals will take place in Club Red upstairs in May Kearneys this Saturday.  A strictly drug-and-alcohol-free event, the under 21s competition will highlight the enormous talent amongst local young bands and musicians, as the four finalists prepare to demonstrate why their sounds are champion in the region. Last October, the preliminary rounds of the CYS Music Competition saw four young acts emerge as successful competitors in the upcoming finals, each with their own unique style, sound and influence; Eoghan & Aoife, Sins of the World, the Mustang Hobo and 39 Shots.  Expect a varied range of genres, from swamp funk to death metal, right through to power pop.  Each act will have to perform four tracks on stage, with at least two of these being original compositions.  The bands will be marked on a number of …

Rape Crisis Mid-West will hold a Christmas choral event in Ennis Cathedral on Saturday, December 4, at 8pm.Rape Crisis Mid-West provides free, confidential, non-judgemental crisis support and counselling services for all survivors of sexual violence in counties Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary. This uplifting choral concert is designed to get the audience in the Christmas spirit and will feature performances by The Lismorahaun Singers, The Redemptorist Church Choir from Limerick City, and special guest Noirín Ní Riain, who will be accompanied by her musician sons, Eoin and Micheál Ó Súilleabháin. At this concert, The Lismorahaun Singers will perform some glorious pieces from Handel’s Messiah – a great way to announce the start of the Christmas season. Miriam Duffy, director of Rape Crisis Mid-West has called on the people of the region to support what promises to be an amazing concert. “The organisation relies heavily on fundraising activities to continue offering its comprehensive range of services,” she said. Tickets are available from …

CLARE musician Edel Fox will feature in a new ten part series currently being shown on BBC. Seinn Liom is a Irish Language Broadcast Fund series from Clean Slate Television in which celebrated musicians revisit the places, people and landscapes in Ireland and Scotland that have influenced their work and led them to discover and compose their most treasured traditional songs and melodies.Concertina player Edel will feature on the last programme in the series, on Monday, November 29, which was filmed in her home place of Miltown Malbay.As part of the programme, each musician chose a song, and talked about the sense of place that inspired their choice of song and share the memories and emotions that tune evokes for a particular time, place or event.Edel chose a tune by Junior Crehan, The Sheep in the Boat. “We were asked to play a tune that helped us to share the place we came from, that shows our beginnings as a …