Arts & Culture

A MUSIC video to accompany an original song written by a group of Clare teenagers, who just a few days ago did not know one another, could soon be seen by people all over the world. It certainly wasn’t “a hard day’s night” when eight youngsters this week got the chance to get on board the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. The bus rolled into Ennis’ Glór car park on Tuesday and in partnership with Music Generation Clare, the lucky teenagers from all over the county were able to record and produce their own song and music video. That song and video has since been taken away by the tour bus’ on-board engineers to add the finishing touches before they put it on the internet. Emer O’Flaherty, development officer with Music Generation Clare, described the teenagers’ experience as “magical”. “It was a great day and the young people were just amazing. We had quite a lot of applications from young …

An Ennis man, who has overcome mental health difficulties, officially launched his second book in Brogan’s Bar, Ennis, on Friday evening. Daniel Meehan, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder, found writing Wrath of the Dead to be a somewhat therapeutic and cathartic process. Diagnosed with this disorder at the age of 18, the 36-year-old, who lives in Pound Lane in a housing scheme run by Cluaid, believes his new environment is also helping his ongoing recovery. He is thrilled to complete his first novel, thanks to the development of his writing skills, which he finds to be a great coping mechanism for his condition. In fact, he says that writing is always something he can fall back on if he is going through a tough time. “The process of getting something down on paper helps me sort out all the jumble that is in my mind. It helps put a structure on my thoughts,” he said. Liam Minogue, who established the …

A FULL-length animation film produced by an Ennis woman is the highest earning Irish movie this year, after taking in €3.8 million in less than two months in Ireland and UK cinemas. Moe Honan, now based in Galway and the owner of Moetion Films, has seen her feature-length animation movie Two by Two…Ooops, The Ark is Gone, which opened on May 1 in 427 UK and 62 Irish cinemas, become the top earner this year. The feature film, which was made for €8m – a fraction of the cost of US animation blockbusters – was co-produced by Moe and Emely Christians, Ulysses Films, Hamburg, Germany. The film was supported by the Irish Film Board, with partners in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. Two by Two…Ooops, The Ark is Gone is directed by Toby Genkel and Sean McCormack and follows the adventures of animals, including fictional nestrians and grymps, who sneak on board Noah’s Ark after being left off the passenger roster. …

The Clare Museum is among seven of Ireland’s museums which have been recognised for high standards of management, care of collections and visitor services, by the Heritage Council under its Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI). Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane and the Zoological Museum in Trinity College were awarded full accreditation, while Farmleigh OPW and the GAA Museum have successfully maintained their full accreditation. Three other museums – Clare Museum, Dublin Castle State Apartments OPW and Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda – have been awarded interim accreditation. Michael Starrett, Heritage Council Chief Executive outlined that Clare Museum submitted a high quality and thorough application and strove hard to complete any outstanding matters.  In particular, Clare Museum regularized the questions about collections ownership, documentation and disposal policy. “It has also prepared a sound Strategic Management Plan, something it did not have in 2007. The preparation of an SMP is one the more onerous tasks of the MSPI scheme and Clare …

FULL Fathom Theatre Ensemble and artistic director, Marie McNamara are delighted with an invitation to perform their new work Exposition at Glór for the Ennis Street Festival next Wednesday. Full Fathom Theatre began as Act Now..! in March 2014, with continuing weekly acting and theatre workshops in Glór for people with and without disability. It has evolved into an ongoing ensemble of actors in training, who have already performed two “works in progress” to invited audiences at Glór. Exposition is Full Fathom’s debut public performance; the story of a journey into the unknown and finding the freedom to enter into that risky place and discover untold riches, courage and an enthusiasm that begs to be seen; an excavation into potential and a celebration of exposure; As an experienced professional actor, theatre and arts and health practitioner and with an MA in drama-therapy, Marie is committed to the creation of quality theatre and the realisation of creative potential through equality, integration …

ENNIS Arts Trail will be launched by this year’s street festival guest artist, Eamonn Murphy in the former Fás building on Parnell Street on Tuesday next. Following the launch at 6.30pm, the attendence will hit out on the art trail around the town. About 20 artists and shops have come together to display art in shop windows, including work by Tina Culliney at T Fades; Caitriona Sheedy at Ennis Electrical; Larisa K Bevillard at TM Printing; Bonnie Fields at Precious Pets and O’Connors Fruit & Vegetables; Liz Moorcroft at Olive; Dave McElheron at The County Boutique; Joey Kelly at Forget Me Not; Stella Burke at The Wine Buff; Isabel Gaborit in Souper Restaurant; Mary McMahon in Heaslips; Fiona Faulkes in Neylons; Yvonne Mahar at Essentials; Kilrush Art group at Patrick Bourke; Bonnie Fields at Victorian Posey Florist; Nerina Burke in The Ennis Bookshop; Ann Mc Bride in O’Connells Medical Hall Chemist and Carmel Doherty, Brian McMahon, Will Gilchrist and Richard …

CLARE-born journalist, Ann O’Loughlin has seen her debut novel, The Ballroom Café, go to number four on the Amazon Kindle bestseller list, even before its official launch in the UK and Ireland last Thursday. The Ballroom Café is set at the height of the recession in Ireland in a crumbling mansion, where two elderly sisters, Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan, live alone with their secrets, memories and mutual hatred. Long estranged by a dark family tragedy, they communicate only by terse notes. But when the sisters are threatened with bankruptcy, Ella defies Roberta’s wishes and takes matters into her own hands, converting the mansion’s old ballroom into a café. Much to Roberta’s displeasure, the café is a hit and the sisters are reluctantly drawn back into village life. But Ella finds herself reliving painful memories, when Debbie, an American woman searching for her birth mother, begins working at the café. The sisters find themselves caught up in an adoption scandal that …

ON foot of the hugely successful The Love-Hungry Farmer, Glór welcomes the return of Des Keogh in his new production, My Fair Ladies, on Thursday, June 25. Celebrating his 80th birthday this year, one of Ireland’s most renowned actors and performers, Des Keogh gets to fulfill a life-long ambition to play legendary Irish man of letters, George Bernard Shaw. Following the phenomenal worldwide success of his show, The Love-Hungry Farmer by John B Keane, which he also adapted, Des has written, adapted and performs in a hugely entertaining new play, My Fair Ladies, about the many ladies in the extraordinary life of one of the greatest playwrights of all time. “I’m very well, in spite of my advanced age. I’m in good form and I still have the energy to do it, thank God,” said Des. “I’ve done adaptations but I haven’t written anything original. My last one-man show, which I had a great time with, I adapted it from …