Tag Archives: Mountshannon Trad Festival

REGENERATION and resilience will be celebrated in Mountshannon later this month, thanks to a collaboration between diverse members of the East Clare arts community. The pandemic presented all kinds of hurdles in terms of live performance and, after taking their offerings online in 2020, Mountshannon Arts Festival this year opted for two mini-festivals on the theme of ‘regeneration’. The first event was held in June and the second is scheduled for September 24-26, traditionally the weekend of the Mountshannon Trad Festival, which ran to huge acclaim between 2010 and 2019. Aistear Park will be the focal point for a weekend of arts events and traditional music and will host an open air market for the duration. The collaboration has been made possible thanks to a funding award secured by Cliodhna Donnellan, artist, promoter, producer and co-ordinator of Mountshannon Trad Festival, under the Live Outdoor Local Performance Scheme from Clare County Council. The event will provide a platform for traditional artists …

LOCKDOWN has been put to good use by Mounthsannon musician and researcher Cliodhna Donnellan, who took advantage of the period to record a debut album and to revisit a CD released in memory of her late father. “For everybody involved in the arts, this has been a very different year,” said Cliodhna. “The slow down gave me an opportunity to just go for it in terms of the album and I recorded it in six weeks. It was probably at the back of my mind for two years though.” Finding time for a solo project was all the more important, given Cliodhna’s recent PhD studies at the University of Limerick (UL) and her long stint with the Mountshannon Trad Festival. “I was working part-time and studying at UL, looking at how traditional musicians can enhance their own performance experience,” she explained. “In terms of the festival, I had established that and coordinated it for ten years and it was winding …