Tag Archives: glor

TEENAGERS will be showcasing and sharing their creativity at a special gathering in Ennis this weekend. ‘A Teenage Gathering’is part of the Local Creative Youth Partnership’s Call & Response Festival and will be held on Saturday, September 17 in glór. Monica Spencer, Creative Youth Partnership Co-ordinator with the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board explained, “It is a social and cultural event taking place over an afternoon where young people can share their creative skills in dance, music, spoken word, make-up, photography, henna tattoo, drawing and food. “This event is presented by the Local Creative Youth Partnership in response to requests from teenagers through consultations throughout Clare in recent years.” A Teenage Gathering is free but participants are asked to bring something to share in the form of a song, poem, drawing technique, some food or any part of their everyday culture that others might like to see or hear. LCYP is now in its third year of running …

THE POWER of the Pair in traditional music is the theme of a new series of concerts, curated by musicologist and broadcaster, Feakle’s Paula Carroll, starting at Glór next month. Paula is a presenter on The West Wind on Clare FM and curator of several hugely successful live music initiatives, including Folk Nights at Glór and The Kitchen Sessions, broadcast live from venues across the region. Her latest live series, ’Just the Two’, will feature duos who are in tune musically and emotionally, sometimes linked by bonds of family or friendship. It will explore the power of the pair in music and song. Paula, who has also worked on a number of documentary and oral history projects, believes that if the solo voice is where the authentic expression of traditional music is found, then the duo is where musical communication is at its most creative. When two musicians really understand each other, audiences witness an almost indescribable ‘flow’ between them. …

LOCAL artist  Dympna Bonfield will launch a new exhibition of her work this September in glór. The exhibition, titled Reflections will run upstairs in glór gallery until Saturday, October 1. The exhibition comprises 25 vibrant paintings inspired by the unique landscape of Clare and will be launched on Thursday, September 1 at 6.30pm by Joe Lynch. Dympna exhibits work both nationally and internationally. After spending many years living and working in Dublin she returned west, to her native County Clare. Much of her recent work can be seen to reflect this move, and draws inspiration from the surrounding landscape resulting in a new found freedom of expression that reflects the essential character and culture of the west of Ireland. This exhibition takes us on a wonderful, winding road of seashores, surf and sea-swells, of soft bog cotton, of furze, of stony Burren, of childhood, of sand, of home, of friends, of solitude. From an early age Dympna Bonfield was interested …

The Irish Chamber Orchestra has announced its autumn/winter season and it includes a trip to Ennis in December for a concert in glór. The performance entitled Breith, will celebrate the multifarious contributions of Clare men and women during this revolutionary period of Irish History. The orchestra along with Tim Collins and guests will present this ambitious programme of original music, song, dance, poetry, and drama on Saturday December 10 at glór. Elsewhere, the ICO present a rich body of diverse works with a variety of top-class soloists with performances around the country as well as its main base at University Concert Hall, Limerick. On Sunday September 4, the orchestra performs under the direction of Desmond Earley with organist Tristan Russcher and the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin for a Handel celebration. This performance is part of the Dun Laoghaire Organ Concert Series as ICO showcase Handel’s choral anthem The Ways of Zion do Mourn alongside two Organ Concertos at Dun Laoghaire Organ Concert Series. The following week, Katherine Hunka directs ICO in Shostakovich, Frost and Glass featuring Fiachra Garvey performing Shostakovich’s infectious Piano Concerto No.1, with solo trumpet …

GLÓR has appointed 17-year-old Sean Shannon as its first Young Associate Artist. Through its Associate Artists programme glór aims to support artists in practical ways, enabling connections between artists, audiences and communities throughout Clare, and facilitating the creation of new work inspired by Clare’s unique culture and landscape. Sean received his initial piano lessons from Meaghan Dineen through the Music Generation programme. He is currently studying with Tatiana Timofeeva, and in September he will commence a Bachelor in Music Performance on an entrance scholarship at the Royal Irish Academy of Music under Professor Réamonn Keary. In 2018 he performed for President Michael D. Higgins at Clarecare charity’s 50th anniversary celebration, and at the age of 14 he gave his debut solo recital at Glór in 2019. Last year  he featured on RTÉ’s Nationwide. Sean has also successfully participated in numerous national piano competitions, most recently the Feis Ceoil and previously received a scholarship funded by Maoin Cheoil an Chláir/Limerick School …

MUSIC has always been a part of John Hennessy’s life, and the soundtrack to his childhood was an eclectic one. No surprise, because the Drumcliffe native’s dad is the legendary Michael, a music teacher and an inspiration to generations of budding performers.  Now based between Berlin, Cork and Ennis, John is fast making his own name in music. Credited by none other than Mojo magazine with developing a “neo rock ’n’ roll” style, John’s on stage persona is Black Pope. Blending darkly beautiful lyrics with impeccably smooth guitar riffs and a flavour of fizzling glam rock, Black Pope’s sound defies easy comparisons. A multi-instrumentalist and song writer, John is modest about the waves he has been making since bursting onto the music scene. Ahead of a hometown gig at Glór later this month, he is reflective about his musical influences.  “The piano was a constant when we were growing up,” he tells The Champion. “I played violin for a while, …

ONE hundred years after its publication Ulysses is still one of the most revered novels ever written in English, but it’s also seen as inaccessible by many readers. ‘Strolling through Ulysses’, a one-man show by Robert Gogan will be in Glór on June 9 and it offers both a celebration of the novel and a gentle introduction for the uninitiated. It brings the audience through the curious events and quirky characters of the novel, in a humorous, entertaining and informative manner, with extracts from the novel which best illustrate the various aspects of Joyce’s writing – the comical, the descriptive and the complex – without compromising the integrity of the book. Asked about his love for the novel, Robert said he was an early starter. “When I was about 17 years of age, still going to school, I was very interested in English literature. I’d heard of Ulysses and I said I’ll have a go at this now and I …

WOMEN are often driven by a sense of social injustice as a pathway to politics and more women need to support each other as allies in a bid to bring about a cultural shift. That was one of the key messages from the ‘Promoting Gender Equality & Diversity in Local Government’ event hosted by Clare County Council and See Her Elected in glór, Ennis last week. Madeleine Taylor Quinn, the first female TD for County Clare and one of the first women elected to the council in 1979 was the keynote speaker at the event.  She said that finance and childcare issues are still some of the major barriers for women entering politics as well as a lack of maternity leave for county councillors. “My first child was only two weeks old when I got a call to say you better be in Dublin tomorrow for a vote of the Government could fall- imagine being put under that sort of …