Arts & Culture

Clare artist Barry Wrafter is to unveil his latest masterpiece, as his sculpture, The Cattle Drover, is due to be installed at Cois Daoil, Rathkeale, Limerick.Barry secured the commission from Limerick County Council through their open submission competition. His piece is derived from the Patrick Kavanagh poem, Shancoduff. The poem’s final verse begins, The sleety winds fondle the rushy beards of Shancoduff/While the cattle-drovers sheltering in the Featherna Bush/Look up and say: “Who owns them hungry hills/ That the water-hen and snipe must have forsaken?“I thought a sculpture of what he penned would be apt in an abstract way of honouring him. Instead of a visual statue of the man, my sculpture is a visual statement of the man. It is these lines that I am taking inspiration from. What I am depicting is the moment the farmer decides to move on his stubborn cow, he gently taps his hindquarters in turn the cow raises his head in anticipation of …

Eimhin McNamara, a young animator from Lisdoonvarna has just returned from a whirlwind trip Stateside. There he attended the International Animated Film Society awards (the Annies) at Royce Hall in Los Angeles before going to San Francisco for a screening by one of his heroes. In Hollywood, Eimhin’s short film The Rooster, the Crocodile and the Night Sky was nominated for an Annie, the animation industry’s equivalent of an Oscar. On the night, however, Eimhin and the project’s director, Padraig Fagan, missed out on the top prize to Seth Green’s Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5.The pair attended the ceremony with the support of the National Film School and were representing Dublin-based animation studio Barley Films, where they had interned in 2006 and where they have worked on projects since. “The ceremony was interesting enough. William Shatner was hosting it. It was like the mini-Oscars, it was funny,” Eimhin said.The Lisdoon native then visited San Francisco where he attended a screening …

Ennis Players return to the Glór stage next Tuesday after an absence of two years, with JM Synge’s classic The Playboy of the Western World. The production will run from Tuesday next to Friday 26 at 8pm nightly.The play tells the tale of Christy Mahon (played by Joe Varden), who believes he has killed his father with a blow from a loy. He is feted as a hero by all and gains the love of Pegeen Mike (Saoirse Byrne), until Old Mahon (Hugh Gallagher) returns and the fun begins in earnest. This is both a hilarious comedy and indeed a tragedy, suitable for all the family and the Ennis Players’ production promises to be highly energetic and wonderfully entertaining.When the Playboy was first staged by the Abbey Theatre in 1909, it caused outrage and riots broke out as the audiences took exception to the vulgar depiction of rural life, the cringing servitude to the local priest and the hero-worshipping by …

Clare students were to the fore at the recent Féile Luimni competition. Clare Kearney, Corofin and Mikhaila Fitzpatrick, Ruan won the new Flannery-Fitzgerald Cup for Dramatic Duologue U-15.This new perpetual cup was presented to Féile Luimni for the first time this year by speech and drama teacher Eileen Fitzgerald, to reflect the growing interest and high standard of this popular competition.Fourteen-year-old Abbie Sullivan, Ivy Hill was the winner of the Bishop O’Dwyer Cup for poetry recital U-15. For this competition, Abbie had to present a programme based on the works of Irish poet WB Yeats.Both the Diarmuid Cup and Tadgh O’Ceallaigh Cup for group improvisation were won by Katie Laws, Barefield, Clare Kearney and Orla Fitzgerald, Ballybeg.Clare was also placed first in public speaking and Mikhaila was first in poetry sight-reading. As a result of their successes in various competitions, both Orla Fitzgerald and Mikhaila Fitzpatrick have been nominated for the Nancy Wallace Bursary, which takes place in early March.The …

ENNIS band 39 Shots is to progress to the national Irish Youth Music Award competition in Dublin in April after they were voted best band at Clare Youth Service on Saturday.39 shots will now go on to represent Clare at the National Irish Youth Music Awards in April. The band, which is made up of Dalian Rynne, Oisín O’Cualain, John Hennessy, Stephen Molloy and Cormac Hennessy, performed at a selection night last Saturday in Clare Youth Service. 39 Shots will have to battle it out against over 20 other acts from around Ireland at the prestigious Irish Youth Music Award in Dublin, where the winning band will be given the opportunity to produce an album recorded and mixed by some of Ireland’s top producers and engineers. They will also benefit from the knowledge and advice of Ireland’s most respected music professionals.In the run-up to the IYMAs, 39 Shots will be supported by an entourage of local musicians who will work …

Portrait artist David Dunne is to open his first solo exhibition in Dublin next month, which will feature a number of household names that have Irish links, including, Muhammad Ali (left) and Barack Obama.David’s mother is a native of Ennis but the family emigrated to Canada before returning and settling in Mullingar in 1995. A self-taught artist, David has honed his skills to portrait painting and for his first solo exhibition, he decided to put together 25 pieces with people both from the USA and Ireland who had connections to each country. He was first struck by the idea around the time Ali visited Ennis and decided to research how many other famous and iconic people had connections to Ireland.  “I was always interested in art and drawing since I was really young. When I was 20, I got into painting and changed from painting to acrylics and to oils. I’ve never been taught. For this exhibition I worked out …

The Wolfman DIRECTED BY: Joe Johnston STARRING: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving CERT: 16 Never a good sign when a director walks out just weeks before filming starts and his replacement – with a committee of suits looking over his shoulder – presides over rewrites, reshoots, new endings, budget wars and several rescheduled release dates.Such is the story behind Wolfman, with Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3, Honey I Shrunk The Kids) stepping in at the last minute for the departing Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and swiftly proceeding to help concoct a mess. Now that it’s finally seeing the light of day, well over a year behind time, it’s hardly surprising that Wolfman is a disappointment. The surprise is that it is watchable at all and even, occasionally, very good.A remake of the 1941 Lon Cheney flick, The Wolfman, is set in Victorian England  and stars Benicio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot, an English nobleman who’s …

The final episode of RAW was broadcast on RTÉ on Sunday night. The first episode was a let down but subsequent episodes managed to elevate the series although not to former glory but somewhere near it.While the new restaurant owner, Fiona, never did improve, the other actors did a fine job. The storyline between Pavel and Geoff was possibly the best of them and it was the emotion that existed between the two of them, along with a true sensitivity, that mainly kept my interest.The final episode of the season was a nice wrap-up. It had the usual mix of humour, drama and, of course, fist throwing. While it wasn’t at all close to being a cliffhanger, the final episode has still left it open for the axing or a return. The series has a third installment in it but a few changes are necessary. Firstly, and not just because she is from our own fair county, but Kelly Gough, …