Arts & Culture

SWEET music will ring out once again around the historic village of Kilfenora, when some of the finest local and national players and singers gather there from April 21 to 24. In just over two months’ time, the village will stage the 14th annual Kilfenora Traditional Music Festival. The hugely anticipated event first got underway in 2009 in tandem with the 100th anniversary of the Kilfenora Céilí Band. As always, this year’s programme will include a wealth of great concerts, céilíthe, CD launches, pub sessions and a young musicians’ workshop. The main concert will be staged on the night of Saturday, April 22. This year, the event features a mighty array of talent and All-Ireland winners, including Órlaith McAuliffe, Daithí Gormley, Dylan Carlos and Brian McGrath, supported by three fine singers – Katie Theasby, Kathleen Lynch and Theresa Garrihy, plus an award-winning young musician from the 2022 Meitheal Summer School. Tickets are €20 and will be available online as well as in various …

A CELEBRATION of the traditions and beliefs that have sprung up around St Brigid’s Well in Liscannor is taking place in North Clare currently. The exhibition ‘Dabhach Bhríde’, which is centred around Lá Fhéile Bríde, opened at The Courthouse Gallery and Studios earlier this week and will run until Saturday, February 4. Tying in with the new Bank Holiday to celebrate Ireland’s only female patron saint, the exhibition is located at The Red Couch Gallery space. It is the creation of Clare-based artists Frances Bermingham and Mary Fahy and the opening last Tuesday involved a gathering to make traditional Brigid’s Crosses and share stories of the rich tradition around the medieval saint. Both Mary and Frances are involved in a study of aspects of St Brigid’s Holy Well at Ballysteen, Liscannor currently. “I am intrigued by the traces we leave, through our contact with people, objects and places,” Galway native Mary said. “My current body of work explores ritual grief …

AFTER a very long hiatus, Shannon Musical Society will be back with its show Little Shop of Horrors from February 14-18.  The show will be staged at St Patrick’s Comprehensive and will be directed by Aodán Fox.  Shane Farrell is Musical Director while Karen Barrett is Choreographer. The cast is led by Tom Barrett who is taking on the role of Seymour, a hapless florist shop worker. When the Society first produced the show 18 years ago, Eoin Sheedy had that role, and while he is still involved this time out he plays Mr Mushnik, the owner of the florists. The leading lady will be Olivia Parkinson, who plays Audrey. Ciarán Collins returns to the Shannon stage to portray Orin Scrivello, the nasty dentist and boyfriend of Audrey. Rounding out the cast is Colm McGuinness, who takes on the demanding job of voicing the blood thirsty plant, Audrey II. Speaking this week Aodán said that preparations have been going well. …

The interview conducted by Harry Hughes and Muiris Ó Rocháin with Willie Clancy for the first volume of Dal gCais was hugely important and is now a priceless piece of folk history as the great exponent of the art of piping talked about his music, great pipers of the past and the state of Irish music in the early 1970s. Q: Willie Clancy, you are considered one of the greatest living exponents of the art of piping. Can you give us some idea of the background to your music? A: I come from a very musical family, our family was part of the musical tradition of West Clare and that tradition included Garret Barry the blind paper from Inagh. Garret was a personal friend of my father and he influenced him to a certain degree. My father in time passed this knowledge and appreciation on to me. Apart from this, I came under the direct influence of the Travelling piper …

AFTER a break up due to Covid, The Outing Festival returns to Clare this Valentine’s weekend celebrating 10 years of bringing people together. The Outing Festival, the world’s only Queer (LGBTQ+) Matchmaking Festival is back from February 10 to 12 on the grounds of Dromoland Castle at The Inn at Dromoland. The world famous festival has grown from its first year in 2013 when it first began as an offshoot of the matchmaking festival in Lisdoonvarna. With same-sex marriage equality since 2015, the now-standalone festival has, with the help of Queen of Matchmaking Eddie McGuinness and some teaching from the legendary Willie Daly, brought together hundreds of couples and even a few marriages, with a few more on the way. Over the years the Outing Festival has developed into an even bigger event by bringing the LGBTQ+ plus community and friends together in the areas of arts, music, film, comedy plus outdoor activities including hiking, surfing, watersports to horse riding, golf and more. However the heart of the festival remains the matchmaking and bringing people, no matter who they are or what their …

Fifty years after his death, this week in 1973, Willie Clancy’s legacy and name has never been stronger, writes Joe O Muircheartaigh, who spoke to the driving force behind the festival in the great piper’s name, Harry Hughes WHEN Harry Hughes saw Willie Clancy for the first time it was in his carpenter’s overalls when he walked around Miltown Malbay, with the rule that was one of the tools of his trade in the breast pocket of the dungarees he wore — he was going from one job to the next, or else up to his house on the Flag Road. There he was — the renowned musician, that Harry saw before he ever heard him on the uilleann pipes, or before he spoke to the man who 50 years after his death is revered as one of the professors emirati in the sky when it comes to the pipes. Because you can trace a line from Willie through to …

A MAGICAL world created for a new television show was inspired by walks in Ennis’s Lee’s Road and Ballybeg alongside other places of natural beauty in Clare, the studio behind the show have revealed. ‘The Wee Littles’ preschool series, developed by Ennis-based Magpie Media, is now airing on RTÉjr weekdays and all the episodes are also available on the RTÉ Player. The series was created and produced by wife and husband team, Christina O’Shea and Clifford Parrott. This original animation series for pre-school children is about the world of small creatures of the forest floor, under the ‘regular’ humans’ sight. The world of the story is unique, inspired by County Clare’s flora and fauna, and is inhabited by a friendly family, which creates a very cute, cozy atmosphere. Christina told The Champion, “The series was inspired from our walks in Lees Road. It’s such a magical place that we knew we wanted to make this The Wee Littles home. “We …

THERE is significant Clare interest in a brand-new documentary airing tomorrow night on one of the most divisive political figures of our time. ‘Trump’s Last Stand’, a special programme on the former US president and owner of an exclusive county Clare resort Donald Trump will air on Virgin Media One tomorrow night at 9pm. The documentary is the work of Virgin Media News Correspondent Richard Chambers, who himself has strong links to the Banner county, being a resident of Lahinch for most of his formative years. In this exclusive documentary, Chambers charts Donald Trump’s attempt to naviagate a route back to the White House, meeting those whose lives have been upended by the political division, violence and conspiracy theories that have divided America. Chambers travels from the Mar-A-Lago mansion where Trump announced his second bid for the Presidency across a broken America where lies about Trump’s election defeat continue to drive fear and loathing with often deadly consequences. The documentary …