Tag Archives: glor

By Owen Ryan SOME suffering is unavoidable in life but it takes a ferocious amount of ill luck to be faced with an ordeal as horrific as that which Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs endured. The American spent five years on death row and 17 in jail, after being in the wrong place at the wrong time, while it was worse for her partner, Jesse Tafero, who ended up in the electric chair. Sunny was eventually exonerated and, remarkably, she ended up marrying Peter Pringle, an Irishman, who had also been sentenced to death in 1980 after the killing of two gardaí. He was exonerated in 1995. Both have written books about their imprisonment and are due to write one together, while Sunny will be in Glór on Sunday, March 9 as part of the Sunday Symposium on the theme of Dealing with Adversity, alongside DJ Carey; Billy Keane, journalist and author, and Michael Murphy, cancer survivor. Sunny’s life changed forever in …

JESSICA QUINN THE Clare Champion is more used to bringing the county the news, however now we are getting behind the nudes. The Ennis Players latest production will be Calendar Girls, based on the true story of eleven WI members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund England. And The ‘Champion are supporting their performances in Glór, which will raise funds for not one, but four local charities. The Ennis Players are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their revival, launching their charity production of the fastest selling play in British history at a special meeting this week. The Calendar Girls story was famously made into a film staring Helen Mirren and was subsequently adapted for the stage by Tim Firth, spending the last five years entertaining audiences all over the world. And in the spirit of the original Calendar Girls, the Ennis Players have agreed to donate all proceeds from this production to …

By CAROL BYRNE LIFE is busy for Ennis Musical Society, as its members put the finishing touches to their 2014 production. Presenting in Glór, the society will run with a string of six performances of Broadway hit musical, Annie, beginning next Tuesday and running through to Saturday, March 1. Kate Corrigan, chairperson of Ennis Musical Society, said there is a lot to prepare in getting a musical to the stage. “There are lots of administrative bits and pieces to be taken care of and we’re now obviously immersed in final rehearsals. It’s going to be a great show and we’re delighted that just under 100 local performers of all age groups will be taking part,” she said. Within this large cast, seven young girls aged from seven to 15 years of age will open the show, playing the parts of Annie and her best friends in the New York City Orphanage. Twelve-year-old Aoibh O’Reilly from Tulla takes on the title …

By CAROL BYRNE GLASWEGIAN singer-songwriter Eddi Reader released her 10th solo album on February 7. For many this would be a milestone but for Eddi, she admits she’s not keeping count. Asked if this is, in fact, her 10th solo album, she says, “Oh Jeez I don’t know. I don’t really count”. She acknowledges that such was the extent of the material created for Vagabond that there was enough to create an 11th album. Naming a collection is always a bit difficult for Eddi and she says she typically goes for a song title. “This calls to attention one of the songs but also I try to find the most apt expression of what I think the album is. Vagabond is about travel and I think that’s what we all are as human beings. We get up walking and start experiencing life until the end of it. Within that we have all our adventures and hopefully it turns us into …

PERSONAL insights and anecdotes form part of Tommy Fleming’s current show, which he is bringing to Ennis on January 25. “We change the show every year. This year is my 23rd year doing what I do, so there will be songs from throughout that; some new stuff, some not so new. It’s a very personal show. I tell a lot of stories in it and it’s a very intimate show and very laid back,” he says. He plays a show in Ennis at the start of each year but was actually in the county town late last year as well, when he gave a talk to mass-goers at Cloughleigh. Fleming’s nerves fairly jangled before it but there was some good feedback. “I was asked to do a talk and it was kind of on my life and faith and different things. I said yes to it and by the time it came around, I was terrified because I had never …

MANY of us associate The 4 of Us with the late ’80s and early ’90s but the Northern rockers have never gone away and are about to release a new album, which explores growing up in the Newry of the Troubles. They perform in Glór on December 7 and speaking to The Champion, vocalist and songwriter Brendan Murphy said they will be playing material from the new record along with some of their older songs. “We’ve an album coming out next spring and it’s also our 25th anniversary next year, so we’re gearing up for that. We decided to do a number of shows before Christmas; we’re in Vicar Street in March and we wanted to test out the new record. It’s nearly done and we’re doing maybe half the new album. It’s a longer show because we still play the songs people would expect us to play. Bruce Springsteen is never out of the country now, so you have …

AN audience of 600 already have their tickets for what will be one of the most unique experiences for traditional and classical music lovers on the Clare stage. Premiering The Clare Concerto, composed by Dave Flynn, The Clare Memory Orchestra, which has grown to an ensemble of 70 musicians, will perform for one night only in Glór. In what is a fusion of the classical orchestral structure and traditional aural learning, the performance has already sold out. Featuring musicians from classical and traditional backgrounds, as well as those who have experience in both, this is the first orchestra of its kind and was the brainchild of Dublin native and North Clare resident Dave Flynn. He outlined how the ambitious project came about. “I had the idea for a long time and it kind of originated from working with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill in 2006, when I was commissioned to write a piece for them with a classical violinist. From …

BEYOND The Brooklyn Sky, a play about returned emigrants and the tensions amid a group of old friends, will be performed in Glór on October 18 and 19. The play was written by Kerry man Michael Hilliard Mulcahy and is set in his native town of Brandon. It is directed by Peter Sheridan. A group of friends are reuniting after 20 years but their shared past is a powder keg that can easily explode. They all grew up together in Brandon, before leaving for America in the late ’80s. As sometimes happens, the land of opportunity didn’t live up to their expectations and they returned home, chastened, but wiser. However, things happened between them in America, things of the heart and things of the purse and many of the issues were never resolved. The reunion is because one of their group, Jack Flynn, has flown solo across the Atlantic and the stage is set for a celebration. Peter outlined some …