Arts & Culture

The Lady Gregory Hotel, Gort will host the 22nd All-Ireland Open Festival of Dancing Championships from Friday, October 29, to Sunday, October 31.Over the past 22 years, the championships have been held in Gort 16 times. Competitors come from the 32 counties of Ireland to take part and compete in the slow waltz, the quickstep, the foxtrot, the old time waltzing, the Viennese waltz, the tango, rock‘n’roll and country jiving sections. This year, for the third time, the Community Foundation for Ireland are the main supporters of the dancing championships with the Arts Council retaining their commitment for the 15th year while Failte Ireland has promoted the event. “With the amount of positive inquiries to date the weekend promises to be as popular as previous years,” said organiser James Lee.The weekend gets underway on Friday evening at 7pm sharp with five Old Time dancing championships. The music for all the championships over the weekend will be by Midnight Melody.There will …

The Coole Park series of cultural events is now underway with a schedule of interesting activities incorporated into the Winter Arts and Heritage Programme 2010.The arts series begins this Thursday at 8pm when Teatro ao Largo from Portugal present Mighty Tales The Acorn Man & The Tale of Francis Flute. The Acorn Man is a folk tale with an ecological theme, told in rhyming verse and original songs, concerning the life of a humble shepherd who forested an entire mountain single-handed. The Tale of Francis Flute, based on a Portuguese traditional story, is a comic piece, concerning the exploits of a harmless fool who is convinced that he is going to marry a beautiful princess. Despite her irascible father and the machinations of a gang of villainous palace guards, he achieves his aim. Both pieces are aimed at an audience of all ages.On Sunday there is a family event. From 2.30pm to 3.30pm there will be nature activities in Coole …

South Galway’s rich musical heritage will be illuminated in the annual Cooley-Collins traditional music festival which runs over the October Bank Holiday weekend.In its 26th year, the festival will be launched by champion piper, sean nos singer and former Radio na Gaelthachta presenter, Meaiti Jo Sheamuis Ó Fahartha on Friday night.Proceedings commence with mass at St Thomas’ Church at 8pm followed by a session with The Four Courts Céilí Band and set dancing at 10.30pm.A new committee took over the running of this event last spring when Mary Coen and Anne Walshe retired after 20 years service but both agreed to help out, as did Eoin O’Neill, Ardrahan.On Saturday, registration for music workshops at Gort Community School starts at 10.30am. The workshops will feature Oliver Deveney on accordion, Marion McMahon on tin whistle, Tim Collins on concertina, Tom Cussen on banjo, Eamon Cotter on flute and Denis Liddy on the fiddle. Tuition begins at 11am and will run until 4.30pm.At …

TO CELEBRATE the 20th anniversary of what is probably Ireland’s favourite homegrown film, popular ’90s band The Commitments have reunited for a series of reunion concerts.Featuring Andrew Strong, Robert Arkins, ­Angeline Ball, Bronagh Gallagher, Michael Aherne, Glen Hansard, Felim Gormley, Dave Finnegan, Ken McCluskey and Dick Massey, the group will bring their own soul style back to the Irish. As the film itself said all those years ago, “soul is the music people understand. Sure it’s basic and it’s simple. “But it’s something else ’cause, ‘cause, ’cause it’s honest, that’s it. It sticks its neck out and says it straight from the heart.”It was 1991 when the film The Commitments burst onto movie screens and into the hearts and souls of music lovers across the world. More than 12 million people have a copy of The Commitments movie soundtrack in their music collection. Now, for the first time ever, the original cast will re-unite for a limited run of concerts …

A recent publication about life in North Clare as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl has been described as a book with a timeless quality.Tir na nÓg tells of hard work, spirituality, neighbourliness, how the Celts and times long past have shaped our lives today and of the natural, old-fashioned ways of life that create a sense of being and community.The author, Nancy Chambers, brings herself back to her childhood days when growing in Rockville House, Ballinalacken, with her family, who had moved from Dublin during the war years. They moved in with Nancy’s grandfather, Thomas Chambers, who was the headmaster of the local school. He was married to Jennie Crowe from Kilfenora.Nancy says her brother was involved with Gaelic football in Lisdoonvarna but within a few weeks of a family gathering in the Hydro Hotel in Lisdoonvarna, he died. She could not put him to rest and sometime later met a friend, Philip Ward, from Wales. She …

They say there is a book in every one of us. In other words, we all have a story to tell but some of us just don’t know how to tell it. In the same way, there is a song inside every one of us too. This is the philosophy of a company called Songcraft, founded by Kenn Davis.  Songcraft maintains that everybody has a song inside and all they do is help people craft it.Over the past few years, Songcraft has been providing song-writing workshops for people of all ages and backgrounds. Their objective is to offer the fun and magical experience of making music to those who normally don’t have the chance. Now, this music-making company is releasing a compilation of songs written and performed by Youthreach centres across the country. Featuring on this On The Road 2010 CD/DVD compilation is a song written by the pupils of Ennis and Miltown Malbay Youthreach centres. The project offered youths …

The Social Network DIRECTED BY: David Fincher STARRING: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake CERT: 15A So you’re just going to check your Facebook. You have one message and three notifications. Four people like your status: “I need coffee!!!” Sandra Ryan Muldoon has commented on your wall post: “Ugh, coffee bleugh! Are u headin’ out tonite?” Jonjo Heffernan has reached level 497 in Farm Wars. Your brother Mikey likes “Whatever Happened To Wibbly Wobbly Wonder Ice Pops?” and two other pages. You have 17 event invitations. You have one cause invitation, “Help Save One-Legged Orphan Lepers In Leitrim”. And all of this has been made possible because one night, seven years ago, a teenager got sulky over a girl. Is this true? I don’t know but that’s how it plays out in David Fincher’s new film ­ based on the book by Ben Mezrich and brought to the screen without any input from young billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Whether …

Glued to the screen is the only way to describe the way in which I sat last Wednesday night. It was perhaps the most interesting way I had a spent a Wednesday night in some time and that is not a reflection on my social life but rather a tribute to the way in which this particular programme was made.When Harvey Met Bob is perhaps the best made-for-television dramas I have seen in recent years. It had all the right ingredients, great acting, great scripting, great photography and great production. It played on all your emotions as well as all the stereotypes and half-heard anecdotes about the way in which the Live Aid concerts came together and the main players behind it. While most people probably don’t have much of a preconception about the promoter Harvey Goldsmith, it would be very hard to find someone who didn’t have an opinion about Sir Bob. From the title of “Sir”, to the …