Syra

There's something magical about Kerry, its ability to inspire great art and artists is as legendary as its footballers. One such artist who has made Kerry her home is Syra Larkin, and Louise Cody, of Gallery 53, is hosting an exhibition of Syra's figurative paintings titled Going Solo at Gallery 53 on Capel Street in Dublin.

"We've lived in the Maharees for almost 30 years," explains Syra. "We discovered the place by accident. My husband, Chris, and I were holidaying in Ireland, visiting Chris' relatives in New Ross. His boss had hired a cottage in Kilshannig and couldn't make it so he offered us the cottage for a week. We fell in love with the place immediately."

Syra, who studied art at Hammersmith College of Art in London, and Chris packed up their belongings in a tiny Renault and open topped trailer and moved to Ireland in 1977. They've lived in the Maharees ever since.

Syra's love of her home and family life shines through in the immediacy of her exquisite work. Using family and friends, the past and present and images or ideas that she finds striking as the subject of many of her paintings, Syra's work evokes an almost Picasso-esque view of the world.

Her paintings of a group of Pilot Whales that beached themselves in the Maharees in 2002 and the tender care lavished on them by people of the area reveals an empathy that is excruciating to behold, while her painting of her autistic nephew, Eamon, is, after a moments glance, equally as revealing and indicative of autism, to my uncultured mind at least, as one of my favourite films, Rain Man.

"When people ask me about my work I often feel at a loss to put into words what I do," says Syra. "I feel that in some way everybody wants to tie you up into a neat little package but, like most things in life, it's not that easy to explain or understand the things we do."

Perhaps it's best not to explain. Perhaps it's best to simply look and wonder at the beauty of the work.

For more information on Syra Larkin please visit the Shoreline Studio in Kilshannig, Castlegregory but please call first to make sure it's open! Syra may be contacted on 066 713 9330 by email syra@syralarkin.com or on the web at www.syralarkin.com

For more information on Gallery 53 please contact Louise Cody on 086 326 0118 or by email gallery53@hotmail.com Gallery 53 is located on 53 Capel Street in Dublin.

Delorentos

Delorentos, Dublin-based four-piece band, released their debut album "In Love with Detail" on the independent Irish label Cottage on 20th April. This has gotten them some pretty complimentary comments by the press and music media.

Hot Press gave "In Love with Detail" 9 out of 10 and called it "the first truly great Irish album of 2007 and the finest debut from a home-grown act in years." On Soundsxp.com Delorentos are described as having a "Ready Brek glow of gravitas, ability and that certain, peculiar something most bands simply don't possess."

Delorentos would be classified as Garage/Indie/Alternative. They played at Club Head Bang Bang in the Greyhound Bar recently, with the support of local band Stupid Betty. Standing in the hallowed ground of Club Head Bang Bang, dark and alive with intelligent young music lovers, their sound to me seemed to be mainly punk influenced, though tight, controlled, more clinical than chaotic.

They don't speak to the heart. Or perhaps it's more true to say they don't appease the emotions. Their music is more enervating and energising than soothing or healing. Passionate? Yes. It's that type of passion that is particularly young and masculine. It might strike one as hackneyed but it's probably as honest as any group of musicians in their twenties can be. Or any of us for that matter.

Delorentos have been together for less than two years. Up to the release of "In Love with Detail" they released the EP "Leave it On" and the single "The Rules". Both went into the Irish charts, with "The Rules" reaching No 14 in May 2006.

Last year they featured on the popular and influential television series recorded in Dingle "Other Voices: Songs from a Room" and they were even nominated as the Best New Irish band at the Irish Meteor Awards.

Along with Kila, they will be supporting the giantess of Irish music, Sinead O'Connor, at Dublin Castle on Sunday 6th May. It can probably be concluded that they are going places.

For more information on the band please visit www.delorentos.net. For more information on Club Head Bang Bang please log onto www.clubheadbangbang.org

May Screenings

Bealtaine, the May-time festival, celebrating creativity in older age is bringing the film Ladies in Lavender to locations through out Kerry in conjunction with the Arts Office of Kerry County Council. The Festival which has grown every year since its inception in 1996, covers all art forms including theatre, literature, dance, film, storytelling, music, painting and sculpture while also offering debates and critical events has over 1,000 events in the national programme in the 26 counties created by over 260 event organizers. But that's a little too much to cover in one small article so let's look at the film!

Set in a close knit Cornish community in 1936 the film centres around two spinster sisters, Ursula and Janet Widdington, played by those two Dames of English acting, Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith and Andrea, a handsome young Polish-Jewish violinist who is washed ashore.

Ursula and Janet take him to him immediately and the film unfolds to a cacophony of jealousies and rivalries as the two Dames act each other off the screen! Ursula become infatuated with Andrea and her story is so lovingly, so empathically, so convincingly portrayed by Judi Dench while Ursula provides the perfect foil in a role perfectly suited to Maggie Smith. Their performances alone would be worth the entrance fee except that the movies are completely free - so you've no excuse not to go!

Ladies in Lavender will screen at the following locations during the month of May:

TRALEE LIBRARY: Wednesday, 16th May at 11a.m. and 3p.m.
KILLARNEY LIBRARY: Thursday, 17th May at 11a.m.
CAHERCIVEEN LIBRARY: Friday, 18th May at 11a.m. and 2.30p.m.

For more information please contact Kerry County Council Arts Office on 066 718 3500 or log onto www.kerrycoco.ie

For more information on some of the wonderful events which are taking place in Kerry as part of Bealtaine Festival please get in touch with the following groups:
Ballybunion Active Retirement Group - Marian Moloney 068 25804; Ballyduff Active Retirement - Bob Scott 066 714 8103; Sean Chairde - South Kerry Older People's Network - Maura Fitzgerald 066 976 6017; Tralee Older People's Forum - Mary O Brien 066 718 0190; Tralee Probus Clubs - Donal O Sullivan 066 712 5696

Arts Council Awards

The Arts and Disability Forum (ADF) has just announced the 2007 Arts and Disability Awards which will distribute awards of up to 7,000 euro to individual disabled artists or a partnership of individual artists living in Ireland and working in any art-form.

The ADF was formed in 1993 by a group of like-minded people who aspired to create a forum for people with disabilities in the arts. It exists to facilitate the empowerment of people with disabilities through the development of Arts and Disability culture, promoting equal access to mainstream arts for people with disabilities (as both consumers and participants) and campaigns for increased opportunities in arts education, training and employment.

The Arts & Disability Awards Ireland is a bursary programme for artists with disabilities living in Ireland and working in all art forms. The awards aim to challenge creativity, experimentation and artistic excellence, supporting artists to develop new work and increase skills.

"We work alongside the Arts Councils, both North and South, community groups, artists with disabilities and the mainstream arts sector to work towards increasing opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in the arts and other cultural activities," said Louise Stevenson, Information Officer ADF.

The scheme is funded by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaion and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and is administered by the ADF. Awards of up to 5,000/7,000 euro are available and over 50,000/70,000 euro is distributed every year.

The application deadlines for 2007 are 4pm on Monday 21 May and 4pm on Wednesday 21 November. Application packs are available in standard print, Braille, large print, audio tape, floppy disk, CD and via email. For further information contact Gilliam Porter, Administration Officer on 048 9023 9450, or e-mail gillian@adf.ie or visit www.adf.ie

40 Years At Siamsa

There's a double celebration in the air as Siamsa Tire's 40th Summer Season opens and Fr Pat Ahern's Jubilee Concert sells out.

The National Folk Theatre marks a very special anniversary with the opening of its 40th Summer Season on Wednesday April 25th. Four days later, on Sunday 29th, Fr Pat Ahern, who was Siamsa Tire's first Artistic Director and founding member, presents a Golden Jubilee Concert featuring St John's Gregorian Choir as well as many past and present members of Siamsa Tire.

There has always been a strong link between Siamsa Tire and St John's Choir. Indeed, members of the Choir, established in 1957, along with Fr Pat were instrumental in the founding of Siamsa Tire. Motivated by a strong desire to preserve traditions which were in danger of vanishing, the founder members of Siamsa Tire strove to retain some of the Kingdom's precious legacy in music, song and dance.

The fruits of their efforts can still be seen today. Siamsa Tire has grown from a small local organisation to one that is internationally recognised, staging over 120 performances in the last year in Tralee alone, in addition to performances in New York, Dublin, and Venezuela. Whilst always retaining strong links with its roots and local traditions, Siamsa Tire has embraced contemporary choreography and themes, blending these seamlessly into its more recent productions thereby ensuring that its folk-theatre productions are alive and authentic, avoiding stagnation and a surfeit of nostalgia!

The links between St John's Choir and Siamsa Tire are still strong. Many of the current choir members are also past members of Siamsa Tire, while some still manage to be active members of both groups! Particularly striking is the fact that three generations of the same family, the Heaslips are involved in these two celebrations -Liam, Pierce and David.

Sadly, for those still looking for tickets for the Jubilee Concert, there is a long waiting list, but there's already talk of a reprise in the not too distant future.

Roisin McGuigan

Images Ghost through for Kerry Artist

Kerry based Artist Roisin McGuigan opened an art exhibition in the prestigious Paul Kane gallery on Thursday, April 26th at 6:00 p.m. to rave reviews and brisk sales.

Titled Pentimenti, an art term that refers to an underlying image in a painting, such as an earlier painting or original draft that shows through, usually when the top layer of paint has become transparent with age, the exhibition runs until Saturday 19th of May.

As Roisin explains, "the title of this exhibition refers to the process of the work; a process which involved time spent thinking and rethinking, of changing and revising, all the while being conscious of the need to allow the painting to be self defining, dictated, not by me as an artist, but by each painting's individual properties. The work, therefore, continually changes and each work concludes according to its own logical and pictorial need."

Roisin's interest in the process of painting led her to learn fresco, a process entirely dependent on the materials used and their particular application. She studied at the NCAD, earning a Bachelor of Arts in the history of art and fine art. "Studies in Art History describe how artists changed their mind while painting, altering certain parts entirely. These alterations, particularly with fresco works, are revealed only by the ageing and fading of the work through time allowing the ghosts of the original painting, the pentimenti, to show through from underneath."

The frescoes included in this exhibition, however, do not refer to the art historic context of fresco paintings and their religious and political arenas but, rather, to the specifics of fresco as a painting technique. They are an experiment with the particularly complex processes of layering, image mapping and painting; processes that are also integral to the development of each oil painting yet, for all that, are processes that return a complexity of differing images.

While trees, the key subject in Roisin's paintings for the past few years, remain the pictorial subject of the works in the exhibition, the process of both the paintings in oil and fresco becomes as important, if not more so, than the subject. These, then, are paintings about trees, which undoubtedly reference the landscape, yet also are paintings about painting.

For more information please log onto www.thepaulkanegallery.com or call 087 647 8423. The Paul Kane Gallery is located in 6 Merrion Square in Dublin 2.

Bealtine Festival

This years Feile na Bealtaine celebrates its 13th birthday and while 13 is unlucky for some it will be anything but for the lucky residents of the Dingle peninsula as this year's festival promises to be the best yet. The festival is the largest arts festival on the Dingle Peninsula and this year offers a huge range of activities and events in traditional arts such as storytelling, song, music and dance as well as in contemporary visual arts and literature.

"The Celtic year was divided into two," explains Trish Hendrick, Assistant Artistic Director of the Festival, "from May to November and then again from November to May. So Feile na Bealtaine is a festival that celebrates the arrival of summer and if the past few weeks have been anything to go by, 2007 will be a summer worth celebrating!"

The theme of this year's festival is Santiago de Compostela & Spain with the official opening taking place on board the Jeannie Johnston on May 1st at 2.00 p.m. and right after the Jeannie Johnston departs from Dingle to Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain with 20 people from the Dingle Peninsula on board!

Trish is full of praise for Feile na Bealtaine's Artistic Director, Michael Fanning. "If it wasn't for Michael there wouldn't be a festival. He's the local doctor in Dingle and a poet at heart and a poet in real life too!" laughs Trish.

"He does everything on a totally voluntary basis and his work permeates everything we do. You can look at the Arts as being holistic, so I suppose the Festival is almost an extension of Michael's holistic approach to medicine."

One of the ways in which this 'holistic' viewpoint has positively influenced the Festival is the way in which the Arts are presented in non-traditional settings with film screenings in the Dingle Pub being a prime example.

Feile na Bealtaine has put it's money where it's community-based mouth is by physically cleaning up the local park. Explains Trish, "We have an amazing bunch of local volunteers and a fantastic community spirit. We organised groups to help clean the local park so we could use it as an Art venue and put on events for children in a safer, cleaner environment."

But it's not just about community spirit - Feile na Bealtaine is also about celebrating local artists and bringing national and internationally renowned performers to the streets of Dingle.

On the music front alone the festival has a wealth of talent on offer with local musician Clare Horgan launching her debut album The Stolen Child on Sunday May 6th while internationally famous artists such as Mary Black who plays in The Skellig Hotel at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, May 2nd; Moya Brennan is in The Blasket Centre at 8:00 pm on Sunday, May 6th; a fantastic double header event with The Four of Us and Scullion playing in The Skellig Hotel on Saturday May 5th while Aslan are playing in the Dingle Bay Hotel on Tuesday May 1st.

Because this year's theme is Spain the festival also features a flamenco spectacular on Thursday May 3rd in The Skellig Hotel. "Feile na Bealtaine is a hub of cultural activity. People on the Dingle Peninsula are exposed to the Arts and to things they wouldn't normally see on their doorsteps," says Trish, "the flamenco event will feature dancers, singers and musicians from Spain. It promises to be an absolutely spectacular treat for all the family with the creme de la creme of what's coming out of Seville at the moment. I'm really looking forward to it."

"The tickets are literally flying out the door," laughs Trish, "which is great for us, but I'd advise anyone that's interested to get in touch quickly to avoid disappointment."

Tickets for all events are available at the ticket office on Main Street in Dingle, which is besides the music shop, or on the door of the event on the night.

For more information on Feile na Bealtaine please ring 066 915 1082, log onto www.feilenabealtaine.ie or email fnabdaingean@eircom.net

Kerry Charity Music

Some people just can't do enough for others and Tralee is lucky to have two such generous souls living in our midst. First up is Padraig Dennehy, a chef in Kerry General Hospital (KGH) and his partner in crime Roel Villones, who is originally from the Philippines but has been living in Ireland for 5 years, and is working as an Intensive care nurse in KGH. Together they form DenVill productions, which takes its name from the first syllable in their last names, an organisation that strives to raise money for KGH.

And they've done a pretty good job of it to date raising almost 20,000 euro for the hospital. Though Padraig makes a living as a chef his background is in drama and theatre and three years back he decided to host a charity show, "to raise money for charity and as a social outlet staff."

"It's brilliant crack," he explains, "the variety show sells out every year, initially we started out worried that we might not fill one night and now it's selling three nights every year!"

"It's a great way to let off a bit of steam, poke fun at the managers, the consultants and of course the Health Sector," adds Roel. "It's important to keep a sense of humour, especially when working in a hospital environment."

Not content with the success of the annual variety show, the enterprising pair has decided to put on a charity event in the INEC in aid of Kerry Cancer Society and the Oncology Unit in KGH.

The night promises to be every bit as wonderful as the cause is worthy with Billy Curtin, of the famous musical Tralee based family, on board as musical director.

"The show will have everything, there'll be all kinds of different styles on offer," promises Padraig. "The show will offer different musical styles, for all musical tastes. There's definitely something for everyone in the show."
And with at least 7 different bands playing from Midnight Cafe and Zeppo to The Bogdale Ramblers and Iona Le Gros it's sure to be a night to remember.

"The event would be impossible without the generous backing support of Shane O Driscoll, the Ents manager at the INEC and The Glen Eagle Hotel and of course the very generous support of all the acts and musicians who are participating, in many cases for free so that every penny raised will go direct to charity," adds Padraig.

The big-hearted pair are quick to laugh off any questions about their undoubtedly generous natures. "Both of my parents died of cancer, so the charity is very close to my heart," said Roel. "Besides I feel very fortunate for the blessings I've received in my time in Ireland - so it's a wonderful opportunity to be able to give something back to the community that has given so much to me."

"Our philosophy is 'it's in giving that we receive' - especially if the night is a success!" laughed Padraig.

The Kerry Charity Music Extravaganza will play for one night only in the INEC in Killarney on Wednesday, April 25th at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available from Bank Of Ireland branches across the county for 25 euro and in Sam Macaulay's in Manor West. Tickets are also available on the door and from the INEC Box Office at 064 715 55.

Siamsa Turns 40

Whatever the weather over the coming months, Siamsa Tire can guarantee a lively and eventful season of events from April to August to tempt you into its Theatre and Arts Centre in Tralee.

This year, Siamsa Tire celebrates a very special anniversary with the National Folk Theatre staging its 40th Summer Season from April 25th to September 30th including some of its most popular productions in recent years, Tearmann, San Am Fado, Oilean and Clann Lir.

Whilst the focus of Siamsa's programme at this time of the year turns towards the activities of The National Folk Theatre, it also has a wide range of other artforms and performances. Drama, contemporary dance, traditional music and performances by local groups, as well as a full programme of visual arts events complete the line-up.

Traditional Music events are a focus throughout the coming months kicking off with a Music Network tour featuring Maeve Donnelly, Peadar O'Loughlin, Ronan Browne and Sean Corcoran on the 13th of May. The enchanting Karen Casey and her golden voice grace the theatre on Friday 22nd of June, followed by Seamus Begley and Jim Murray on the 29th.

Rex Levitates, the renowned contemporary dance company, makes a return visit to Siamsa on the 27th of April with their latest offering, The Same Jane & Cross Purposes.

Local groups, as always, form a key part of Siamsa's programme, and this season is no exception. Tralee Musical Society presents The Wiz from Sunday 15th to Saturday 21st of April and the Oliver Hurley School of Musical Theatre stage Musical Moments from the 4th to 6th of May.

The Gallery at Siamsa will be a constant hive of activity over the coming months, with In Pursuit curated by Maurice Galway continuing until the 5th of May, and the fruits of a younger generation of artists from Brookfield College and Tralee Community College will be on view throughout May and June. George Dugan presents his take on the landscape of West Kerry in July, and Tralee Art Group stages its annual exhibition in August.

Copies of Siamsa's event guide will be distributed throughout the county and are also available at its Box Office in Tralee. For more information please log onto www.siamsatire.com call 066 712 3055 or call into Siamsa Tire located in the heart of Tralee.

Vonnegut

"My goal as a writer is to catch people before they become generals and senators and presidents and poison their minds with humanity. Encourage them to make a better world."

Kurt Vonnegut, this century's Mark Twain, has passed away. It would be impossible to underestimate the influence of Vonnegut on youth culture since the publication of Cats Cradle in 1963, and though he was held up by the Baby Boomers, he came from an earlier generation. His war was not Vietnam but World War II.

Captured by the Germans and interred in Dresden in 1944 he witnessed first hand the Allied firebombing of the city and watched helpless as 30,000 people burned to death in the targeted city centre as the Allies ignored the industrial hinterland of Dresden, bent on exacting revenge for the London blitz on the civilian population.

He did not need Vietnam to see that the strong terrorize the weak, his view of war changed irrevocably on those fateful three days in February 1945 as the stench of thirty thousand burning corpses ravaged his prison cell.

But those dark days and his expansive imagination gave Vonnegut a darkly satirical writing style that perfectly captured the mood in the 1960's when student unrest and the Left sought to bring an end to the Vietnam conflict.

His books were read by students and the establishment alike, for he advocated humanity and his world weary gentleness was a result of first hand knowledge of the horrors of war. Whether blond-haired, blue-eyed, all-American boy, or black-haired, brown-eyed Vietnam boy - dead is dead and a hole in the ground is a hole in the ground.

Vonnegut, being a humanist, didn't believe in an afterlife. But people believed in him. And the reverberations of his death will be felt across the globe even in places like Tralee, where I came across a memorial to the greatest writer of the past half century. It was nice to see.

"When I think about my own death, I don't console myself with the idea that my descendants and my books and all that will live on. Anybody with any sense knows that the whole solar system will go up like a celluloid collar, by and by. I honestly believe, though, that we are wrong to think that moments go away, never to be seen again. This moment and every moment lasts forever."

Mr. Vonnegut died on a recent Wednesday, at the grand old age of 84. He made a better world. But people die. And so it goes.

The venue was Club Head Bang Bang @ The Greyhound Bar, the day a scorching hot Sunday with a definite smell of teen spirit in the air!

Rock For Experience, the annual Samhlaiocht event which gives young up and coming bands a chance to perform in front of a live audience, showcased a healthy collaboration of Kerry's finest punks, rockers and metal heads!

Fifteen bands played to an audience in excess of 300. The day began with an atmosphere of tense anticipation as bands nervously waited for the sound check. With equipment strewn all over and amps screaming for attention the bands mingled with one another adding to the excitement. As the sound check finished, the fans started to arrive and the atmosphere switched from tense anticipation to one of electric expectancy.

Adding to the atmosphere was a series of colourful backdrops that the individual bands created for the event ensuring that the gig was a feast for the eyes as well as the ears! Fear of the South decided to use some old garden materials to make their huge creative piece while The Montagues created an equally fabulous piece. Nephilim's colourful work of art was a truly amazing offering and came complete with the band's logo. Titus Groan's backdrop even became a "Wall of Fame" when band member Ciaran Concannon invited just about everyone present to write or draw on it.

Despite the high standard of previous year's performers, this years' line up was a quantum leap forward with the individual bands seemingly egging one another on to extraordinary heights. It was wonderfully fulfilling to see the improvement in some Rock For Experience regulars with bands like End of Fox, Sypher, Blank and Trench showing a maturity that belies their tender years. In fact Trench played at Rock For Experience despite being shattered from gigging the night before in Cork!

Then of came Stupid Betty who are currently recording an EP and Brick Ribbon whose EP has just been released. Well worth checking them out on Bebo!

Chaos Theory, who also played at the Cork gig with Trench, and Fear of the South put on head slamming performances that had fans wired to the max, dancing like lunatics and generally having a house raising time, much to the dread of the organisers, but well worth it in the end.

To see the fans filing out at the end of the gig, tired, rocked out but relishing coming back again next year made the whole event wonderfully worth while and all the emails received this week thanking me for organising the event is icing on the cake!

None of it would have been possible without the generous support of Kerry Group, Samhlaiocht's main corporate sponsor and the help and support of the following dedicated individuals Keith, Treasa and Ailbhe from Club Head Bang Bang, Aidan O'Connor from The Greyhound Bar, David McMahon the Sound Engineer, Ivan O'Connor from Stupid Betty and our wonderful Compere for the evening, Joe O'Brien.

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts & Children's Bumble Bee Festival was a stunning success in 2007. Celebrating its fifteenth year of bringing the Arts to Kerry, the festival kicked off on Thursday, April 6th, with the opening of the Photography Exhibition in the Samhlaiocht Gallery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee.

Over the next four days of the Easter Weekend more than seventy events took place. The annual Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival Parade on Saturday night proved to be a particular high point, with wonderfully vibrant community groups, professional street entertainers and a fantastic fireworks display livening up the streets of Tralee with fun-filled, family entertainment.

Community Groups from all over Kerry were involved with Kerry Deaf Resource Centre, Action for Young People with Special Needs, St. Brigid's Community Centre, Oilean Beo & Austin Stacks Brennan Services and Blennerville Cubs, Scouts & Beavers taking part in the Kerry Group 5 Communities Project which provides funding for the individual groups to work with artists and designers on their costumes and parade paraphernalia.

Other groups involved in the parade include, Mitchell Zone, Shanakill Family Resources, Cois Farraige and Trasnet. The parade also featured internationally renowned professional street entertainment acts like MaSamba, The Fanzini Brothers, Cork Circus and Coconut Samba.

The Tesco sponsored fireworks display was used as a fundraiser for Temple Street Children's Hospital and Jessica Foley a 6 year old from Listowel, who is a patient of the hospital, had the wonderfully enjoyable task of pushing the button that launched the first volley of fireworks.

The Food and Craft fair was also exceedingly well received with over forty participants exhibiting their wares, turning the sports hall in the KDYS into a delightfully colourful market selling everything from chocolates to cheeses and from fine art to jewellery.

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts & Children's Bumble Bee Festival had a distinctly musical quality to it this year with What the Good Thought, Poles Apart and The Camembert Quartet, from RTE's Tubridy Tonight playing gigs over the weekend.

Fifteen up and coming bands from Kerry played Rock for Experience which gives young bands the opportunity to perform in fromt of a huge live audience. Bands included Trench from Tralee, Blank from Tarbert, The Montegues from Castleisland, Titus Groan from Killarney, The End of Fox from Castlemaine and Stupid Betty from Ballyheigue.

Over twenty busking groups, which included many families and children as young as 6 to a gentleman "in his mid fifties", livened up the streets in the inaugural Samhlaiocht Busking Competition. Winners in this Tralee branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland sponsored competition, were Andrew Crenbar-Harvey from Castlemaine and the McClintnock family from Beaufort who were presented with cash prizes of 300 euro and 200 euro respectively by VFI chairman Danny Lean. The competition was judged by Catriona Ni Shuilleabhain, of Glor Tire, the TG4 Country Music competition, fame.

And with poetry, photography, music, art, street theatre, drama, film and dance events taking place, not to mention workshops galore, the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts & Children's Bumble Bee Festival truly offered something for everyone.

The trick of being an effective Samhlaiocht worker at Easter, I have learned, is to make it seem easy. At all costs make it look like you are having a wonderful time. That and having a fantastically generous corporate sponsor like Kerry Group!

Admittedly the weather this year really helped. Was it not stupendous? That and the meticulous planning. The general feedback is that this was probably the best festival ever.

The spheres within which I was orbiting this year were Literature and the Cultural Music Event. Literature is self-explanatory and we had seven different events, three of which were telescoped into one joint evening at Reubens Cafe on Ashe St on Easter Monday.

The Cultural Music Event is the umbrella title for those events in which we sought to welcome participation in the arts by people of non-Irish origin. Alternatively this event also invites Irish artists or musicians operating in a traditional mode, or any artists/musicians involving themselves in art/music that is rooted in a particular cultural context.

I take particular delight in the Cultural Music Event as it is challenging to organise and provides a beautiful, colourful and touching aspect to the Festival. This year our programme included Egyptian dance, Capoeira (a Brazilian martial art form that is part dance), tango, a pageant by members of Killarney's Bangladeshi Community on the cultural practice of arranged marriage and last, but most definitely not least, an end of festival gig in Club Head Bang Bang, Tralee by Cork-based band Poles Apart. A big shout out to Keith and all at Club Head for their help with this event.

The members of Poles Apart are all Polish and they moved to Cork two years ago. They are classically trained musicians of exceptional calibre and when you are at one of their gigs you know you are experiencing something unique, special and deeply significant. It's jazzy, it's pure, it's youthful, and it's friendly.

The popular and talented local band Scenes played support on the night and one of their members, Billy, described the Polish gig as "savage".This is good. We'd certainly like to see them play in the Kingdom again!

More Than Words

The old adage that 'everyone has at least one good book in them' seems perfectly apt in a county as full as characters as Kerry. But, at the risk of stating the frighteningly obvious, there's a lot more to writing a book than simply putting pen to paper and with this in mind the Seanchai Literary and Cultural Centre in Listowel has programmed an upcoming workshop that will focus on the art of writing a novel.

The workshop, which will be given by Dublin Native, Rose Doyle, winner of the Hennessy New Irish Writing Literary Award for a short story, and will concentrate on creative writing and aims to help participants navigate the troubled waters of novel writing.

Participants will learn techniques that help focus the writer's mind, allowing would be novelists to get their ideas down while helping them to find that elusive "voice" which suits, dialogue, plot and character development. And while focusing on the theoretical the workshop will concentrate primarily on the practical side involved in writing a novel.

Participants are encouraged to bring completed work along for advice, however, due to time constraints the main focus will be on developing ideas and generating new work.

Rose's novels include are Perfectly Natural, Gambling with Darkness as well as children's novels like The Invisible Monk and Goodbye, Summer, Goodbye.

The workshop takes place from April 20th to 22nd and costs 120 euro

For those who prefer reading books to writing books, best selling Author Michael Smith, he of Tom Crean - An Unsung Hero fame, will present a Slide Show of his latest book Tom Crean - An Illustrated Life on Wednesday, April 18th. His latest book was nominated for Irish Published Book of Year in 2007. The evening promises to be a rare treat and costs 8 euro.

For more information on the workshop or slide show please contact Seanchai - Kerry Literary & Cultural Centre, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland. You may also call 068 222 12 email info@kerrywritersmuseum.com or log onto www.kerrywritersmuseum.com

Dublin Gallery Hot For New Artists

Two Kerry based artists opened an exhibition in Gallery 53 in Dublin at 53 Capel Street on a recent Wednesday evening.

Gallery 53, which celebrated its first Anniversary on the Tuesday before the opening, hosted a collaborate exhibition of work by Kerry native, Eileen Kennedy, and Dublin born, but Tralee based, Maureen O' Mahony. The exhibition was opened by Fine Gael TD, Jimmy Deenihan, spokesperson for Arts, Sports & Tourism

The show, which includes a number of oil paintings as well as original print work, was a fantastic success with Gallery Owner, Louise Cody, saying, "It was the perfect way to celebrate our first birthday. The opening was wonderfully successful, we had a huge turnout and sales were brisk, which is always nice!"

Maureen, who is a self taught artist, has a life long passion for art. Working mainly in oils, she has developed her skill considerably over the past seven years and as she says, she is inspired by "the soft focus of the old masters and their ability to convey so much through light and shadow."

Since finishing college in 1984, Eileen Kennedy has been oil painting at her home in Tralee, where she has opened her own studio. In more recent years she has become involved in the art of print making.

Louise, though not from Kerry herself, has a life long association with the Kingdom. "We used to visit Glenbeigh every summer and I have fond memories of eating in Evan's Hotel. I love Kerry and Kerry people especially Jimmy Deenihan who is a fantastic speaker and did an amazing job of opening the exhibition and of presenting Kerry as a hot bed of the Arts," laughs Louise.

In fact Louise is so enamored with Kerry that the next exhibition which opens in Gallery 53 will also feature a Kerry based artist, Syra Larkin, who lives in the beautiful Maherees. Syra's exhibition will open on May 10th and run through to the first weekend in June.

The current exhibition runs until May 1st 2007. For more information please call Louise Cody on 01 872 4274 or 086 326 0118.

Irish Country Music Festival

Kerry fans of Irish Country Music are in for a treat when the twice yearly Irish Country Music festival returns to the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney. Playing from the 15th to the 19th of April and featuring the cream of Irish County, the festival has become one of the most popular events in the country calendar.

Building on the successes of previous years the Irish Country Music Festival is bringing a host of performers to Killarney for a week long country music extravaganza.

First up this year is the young Gary Gamble, who hails from Donegal and first came to fame as a Daniel O Donnell impersonator. Gary, who plays on the 15th of April, is sure to become a favorite on the Irish Country Music scene thanks to his bright and bubbly personality.

Next up is Thomas Maquire, who plays on the 16th of April, followed by Shawn Cuddy on the 17th with Mike Denver playing on Wednesday the 18th of April.

The Festival closes with a bang with Irish Country music favorite Robert Mizzell playing on Thursday night. Robert who hails originally from Shreveport in Louisians, but currently lives in Mullingar, is on the books of Willy Carty, the man behind such bands as The Conquers and The Showband Band.

Robert has achieved a huge support, often attracting capacity crowds to his sell-out shows that are dedicated to pure county music, often featuring songs by legend Johnny Cash.

Tickets are available on the door.  For more info please call the Gleneagle Hotel at 064 36 000 or log onto www.gleneaglehotel.com

Calling All Artists

The New Samhlaiocht Gallery has issued a call for entries from Artists interested in exhibiting in a group show which is slated to open on Thursday, September 6th as part of Samhlaiocht's 2007 Gallery programme.

"As part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing collaboration with Kerry Artists we're inviting artists to submit work for an open submission group show," said Trish Thompson, Samhlaiocht's Visual Arts Co-ordinator. "There is such a wealth of artistic talent throughout Kerry that group shows often offer the most equitable means of bringing young up and coming talent to the people of the area."

The submission is open for a group or joint exhibitions. Applications by an individual or group for an exhibition should be submitted in writing by Thursday, May 31st.

The Application should contain:
1. Short Biography and resume of the Artist's work to include a current C.V. Statement of work (the concept behind the work, no more than 400 words)
2. Visuals of the actual work or proposed work with all titles, medium and dimensions clearly labeled. Visuals can be hard copy or jpeg format on CD with a cover letter detailing the proposed exhibition. High quality slides or photographs will also suffice.
All applications will be submitted to an exhibition selection panel

The Samhlaiocht Gallery opened in July 1999 in Maine Street, Tralee. The philosophy behind the Gallery mirrors the overall philosophy of Samhlaiocht, which is to help promote and establish up-and coming Kerry Artists, provide an outlet for more established artists and facilitating community groups working in any artistic medium.

Samhlaiocht is based in new premises at the Old Presbytery, Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee.

Please address your applications to:
Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator, Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, Lower Castle St. Tralee or email trish@samhlaiocht.com or phone 066 7129934

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