The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Four decades ago, Ennistymon was a town of 52 pubs, one for every week of the year. Over the years however, the North Clare market town has been transformed from a town of pubs into a town of 52 galleries, cafés and artisan food producers. The genesis of this unlikely transformation was in a year-long art project entitled Ennistymon 1984. That project was the brainchild of Marian Fitzgibbon, the Mid-West regional arts officer at the time, and was originally focused on the town’s unique shop fronts. It was spearheaded by Cork woman, Úna McCarthy, who relocated to North Clare for the year and, with massive support from the local community, helped to organise 100 different arts events and in the process reshape the destiny of the entire region. Miss McCarthy now runs the Limerick City Gallery and also sits on the board of the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon. She believes that Ennistymon 1984 helped transform the town and how we …
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