samhlaiocht.com news

Tango Classes in Castlemaine

2010-08-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Tralee's very own resident Tango master, Cristina Aguilera, will teach classes at The Phoenix Restaurant in Castlemaine on Saturday, 7 August. The 90 minute class will cost 10 euro, which is quite a deal when you think about it, and begins at 4:00pm.

Saturday 7th August:
Tango Argentino: 4PM -5.30PM €10

THE PHOENIX
GARDENS CAFÉ B&B
066 9766284 - 0879054334
Find us: Castlemaine & Inch on the R561

2010 Photo Competition

2010-05-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hanging Out by Michael Gannon 2009 Samhlaiocht Photo Competition Winner

Samhlaiocht is issuing a call for photographs for the Samhlaiocht Photo Competition.

"The Samhlaiocht Photo Competition is always a huge success," said Mike Foley, Samhlaiocht Photo Competition co-ordinator. "In previous years the quality and variety of photographs has been simply astonishing. In fact this year we've decided to have two separate heats because of the number of entries we've had in the past."

The closing date for the first heat is Friday, 28 May and entries are asked to bear the theme, "Landscape or Nature", in mind. The closing date for the second heat will be Friday, 6 August and photographs with a theme of "Portrait or Still Life" are requested.

"This year we've chosen Andre Corvin of Andre Corvin Photography to adjudicate the competition. Andre has a stellar reputation and has judged national photo competitions in the past. He's a consummate professional and his portfolio is full of fantastic shots of everything from wedding photography to fine art pieces, so he's a perfect choice for adjudicator," added Mike.

This year's Samhlaiocht Photo Competition is being run in association with Bank of Ireland. "We're delighted that the Samhlaiocht Photo Competition is being run in association with Bank of Ireland. The winning shots and a selection of other photographs will tour Bank of Ireland branches throughout Kerry," said Mike. "It's a way to expand the reach of the competition and, even at this early stage, feed back has been extremely positive. We're hoping that next year the Samhlaiocht Photo Competition will have a national dimension."

As part of the prize this year all winning entries will be professionally mounted and framed and will remain the property of the artist after the exhibition. The Framing Prize is kindly sponsored by O' Meara Fast Framing Service in Tralee Shopping Centre. Selected photographs will be displayed in the Bank of Ireland branch on Castle Street in the heart of Tralee from 16 September to 8 October 2010.

The photographers are asked to bear the themes in mind when submitting work. A liberal interpretation of the theme is encouraged, however, and the organisers look forward to receiving a wide diversity of styles and subject matter.

"With two distinct themes this year, 'Landscape or Nature' for the 28 May deadline and 'Portrait or Still Life' for the 6 August deadline, the sky is really the limit and we're all very excited to see the entries this year," said Mike.

When asked about digital manipulation, Mike said, "With digital cameras in everyone's arsenal and this year's broad themes, we can't rule out digital manipulation, nor would we want to. Digital photography is an exciting medium and we encourage people to play around and to be as creative and artistic as they like!"

Photographs may be black and white or colour and must measure 8"X 10".

Contestants must submit a hard copy of the picture to Mike Foley at Samhlaiocht, Unit 1, The Windmill Complex, Blennerville, Tralee. For those submitting photographs taken with a digital camera please also email a copy to mike@samhlaiocht.com citing 'Samhlaiocht Photo Competition' in the subject line.

Interested parties should fill out an application form, which are available online, or in the Samhlaiocht office in The Windmill Complex in Blennerville. Application forms ask for name; address; contact phone number; email and the title of each photograph submitted. Hard and soft copies of each photograph are also requested.

The closing date for entries in the first heat, 'Landscape or Nature' is Friday, 28 May and the closing date for entries to the second heat, 'Portrait or Still Life', is Friday, 6 August.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com or call 066 712 9934.

KFF Announces German Lsanguage Screening

2010-04-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

THE COUNTERFEITERS

Kerry Film Festival (KFF), which is this year celebrating eleven years of bringing films to the people of Kerry, is delighted to announce a screening of the 2008 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, DIE FALSCHER (THE COUNTERFEITERS) as part of its Education Screenings for 2010. Working in close collaboration with the Irish Film Institute (IFI), Kerry County Council and various schools throughout the county the film will screen in Tralee Omniplex on Monday 26 April at 10:30 am.

"We're thrilled to be in a position to screen a film for German students and it's an amazing film," said Kerry Film Festival Director, Jason O' Mahony. "The education screenings that take place during the Kerry Film Festival are always a success and we're delighted to be able to extend those screenings throughout the year. We're also indebted to the support we receive from the IFI and Kerry County Council, which makes the screening possible."

The winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Stefan Ruzowitzky's THE COUNTERFEITERS is the first film from Austria to ever receive that prestigious honor. Based on the memoir by Adolf Burger, the film tells the inspiring story of a pre-World War II criminal whose cunning and fiery spirit enable him to overcome deadly odds and survive life in Germany's Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Before the war, Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) was one of the world's most ingenious counterfeiters, until he was finally caught and arrested by Friedrich Herzog (Devid Striesow). Years later, as the Nazi movement is in full swing, the nefariously charming Herzog, now a Nazi leader, recruits Sorowitsch to lead an enormous counterfeiting project called Operation Bernhard. Placed in a horrific position of moral corruption, Sorowitsch is forced to decide whether or not to save his own life or prevent the Nazis from causing further damage on an even grander scale. His fellow prisoner Adolf Burger (August Diehl) is determined to sabotage the operation, but Sorowitsch understands how dangerous a proposition this is.

While THE COUNTERFEITERS is based on real-life tragedy, it never loses its primary objective as a work of dramatic entertainment. This deft balancing act is what keeps Ruzowitzky's moving tale from becoming too bleak and depressing. The result is a deeply impressive work that addresses a topic not often explored in Holocaust cinema, the dilemma of victims who were forced to act immorally and illegally for the betterment of their captors. Powerfully acted by Markovics, THE COUNTERFEITERS is the type of film that the Oscars were made for.

Interested teachers are encouraged to contact Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934 to book places for students. Tickets are available at 5 euro per student or for 4 euro if paid in advance.

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2010-04-08T08:13:00.001-07:00

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Granparents & Grandchildren Active Retired Screening

2010-04-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

Kerry Film Festival (KFF) screens classic films on the first Wednesday of every month in Siamsa Tire for active retired groups and individuals but the April screening is a little different. Because most children have Easter holidays for the week the organisers thought it would be a nice idea to encourage all audience members to bring their grandchildren with them.

"We have active retired screenings in Siamsa every month," said Jason O' Mahony, KFF Director, "and we thought it would be a wonderful idea to do something a little different for our April screening. Because most kids are on Easter holidays for the week, we're encouraging our audience to bring younger people with them for the screening of John Huston's ANNIE."

The screening will take place in Siamsa Tire at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, 7 April. "Siamsa Tire is a wonderful venue, the screen and sound system are top class, and the members of staff are always so accommodating," added Jason.

ANNIE is the final film in a series of John Huston films, which began with the screening of his debut, THE MALTESE FALCON, on Wednesday, 3 February. That film was one of the most assured debuts of all time and the undoubted Hamlet of Film Noir. Starring Humphrey Bogart as a detective who takes on a case that involves him with eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and a quest for a priceless statuette, the film also stared Mary Astor and Peter Lorre. It was nominated for three Oscars and is consistently included in lists as one of the best movies of all time. It was followed by Huston's THE MISFITS, with Clark Gable and Marylyn Monroe, a little seen film nowadays but one with megawatt star power and a brilliant script by Arthur Miller.

"Huston is such a versatile director and we wanted to show a selection of films from his oeuvre as part of the active retired programme and the third and final film in the series, is crowd-pleasing musical, ANNIE," added Jason. "It was nominated for a couple of Oscars and stars Albert Finney and Aileen Quinn as Annie, but more than that, it is a perfect film for grandparents to share with their grandchildren"

The film is an all singing look at the life of orphan Annie in 1930's America and proves the breadth of Huston's directorial talents which saw him succeed in every genre of film imaginable from Noir to Musicals.

"All films cost just 2euro to anyone over the age of 65 and Kerry Film Festival serves teas and coffees before the films to all attendees," added Jason. "And this month we're going to let all grandchildren come for free - provided they come with their grandparents! The active retired screenings are always nice, social occasions, and give attendees the opportunity to see some fantastic films on the big screen. We're hoping that by encouraging our regular audience to share the film with their grandchildren that the April screening will be even more special for everyone involved!"

The film will screen in Siamsa Tire at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, 7 April. For more information please contact Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934

National Concert Hall Workshops

2010-03-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Samhlaiocht has programmed a number of music workshops for young families and Children. The workshops will take place on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday in Siamsa Tire and promise to be an absolute treat for the whole family, young and old alike.

"The National Concert Hall is an amazing resource and we're delighted that they're coming to Kerry," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "The NCH workshops have been a highlight of Easter weekend festivities for the past number of years and we're delighted to be able to continue with the workshops. While cutbacks have significantly reduced the Easter weekend festivities this year, it's great to be able to still put on the National Concert Hall workshops."

The workshops are geared towards younger children and their parents. Four classically trained musicians from the National Concert Hall lead the workshops and the participants in a wonderfully entertaining musical journey as children experience the magic of music.

The workshops are themed by age group with workshops aimed at the under 3's and their parents and at the 3-year-old to 8-year-old age group and their parents. Participants will create magical sounds and rhythms under the expert guidance of National Concert Hall musicians.

All workshops are child friendly and the facilitators are famous for bonding brilliantly with both children and parents! Workshops not to be missed!

The workshops take place in the Rehearsal room of Siamsa Tire in the Tralee Town Park. Booking is with Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934.

Samhlaiocht Workshops, Easter Saturday and Sunday, April 3rd and 4th, 2010

Saturday:
10.00 am to 11.00 am - Family session with U3's
11.45 am to 12.45 pm - Family session with 3 to 8 yr olds

Sunday:
10.00 am to 11.00 am - Family session with U3's
11.45 am to 12.45 pm - Family session with 3 to 8yr olds
2.30 pm to 3.30 pm - Family session with U3's

Pricing:
Family session with U3's - one parent obligatory - 5 euro per child - one parent free
Family session with 3 to 8yr olds 5 euro per child and 5 euro per adult

Interested parties should call Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934 to book places. Places are limited and have booked out quickly in past years.

Rock for Experience

2010-03-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

Trench at Rock For Experience 2009

When Sympathy for the Devil first played way back in 1968 it caused a media furore with concerned citizens worried that The Rolling Stones were a corrupt influence on youth!

Nowadays with The Stones music being used to sell insurance on TV, Led Zepplin's music used as the score to a Car commercial and even the iconic image of Jimi Hendrix being used to sell a new health drink called 'Liquid Experience', it's becoming increasingly difficult to find an unsullied rock gig.

Step forward Samhlaiocht's 'Rock for Experience' which will bring a host of unsigned amateur and semi-professional Rock artists from all areas of Kerry together for one night over Easter, for a rock experience as pure as driven snow.

"We're really looking forward to this year's gig," said Mike Foley, organizer of Rock for Experience. "We're anticipating a fantastic buzz and an atmosphere that's even more electric than ever before."

Rock for Experience provides an opportunity for budding musicians to perform in front of an audience using a professional PA system which is provided free of charge by Samhlaiocht. The organizers will also supply a drum kit but bands are encouraged to bring their own instruments and snare drum. It's an alcohol-free event for all ages and will be taking place in The Big Tent, located next to The Carlton Hotel on Dan Spring Road, on Monday, April 5th.

"This is the first year the gig is taking place in the Big Tent," said Mike. "It's an amazing venue, and a fantastic opportunity for young musicians. It's a huge plus for young bands and a fantastic experience for younger musicians to play in a venue like this. We'll have a fantastic turnout this year with 10 bands and more than 500 screaming fans in the audience. We have CO2, one of the hottest up and coming acts in Ireland, headlining the gig so it's bound to be a wonderful night!"

Busking Competition - Easter Weekend

2010-03-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Matt Vaughan 2nd Place Winner at 2009 Busking Competition

Samhlaiocht today issued a call for entries for the Annual Busking and Street Entertainment Competition which will take place on Easter Saturday, April 3rd. All street entertainers and musicians are invited to take part in the festivities, everything from talented musicians, jugglers, singers, dancers, comedians, fire-eaters and street artists will be welcome. The competition will take place on Easter Saturday, April 3rd from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with registration taking place from 2pm in the Samhlaiocht office.

"Music and entertainment have always played a huge part in everything Samhlaiocht does," said Jason O' Mahony, the Director of Samhlaiocht. "This is the fourth year of the Busking and Street Entertainment competition and we're hoping to build on last year's competition that brought such fun and excitement to the streets of Tralee."

"We're really looking forward to the Easter weekend and we know that the Busking and Street Entertainment Competition will complement all the other free activities that we organise for Tralee," said Kieran Herlihy, co-ordinator of the competition. "The town will come alive with all kinds of wonderful entertainment. This will be the second year the Samhlaiocht Perpetual Shield will be up for grabs to the overall winners, kindly sponsored by Trophy World Tralee, The Shield will be on display in the Samhlaiocht offices and the winning act every year will have their names inscribed on the Shield. But there's also a trophy for the winners and a wee medal for all competitors - so everyone's a winner!"

The people of Kerry have proven to be very supportive of Samhlaiocht and of the Easter Festival as well as being enthusiastic supporters of the Artists and Entertainers that come to the County each Easter weekend. Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann and the Tralee Branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, as a show of appreciation, have offered to sponsor the Busking and Street Entertainment Competition.

"The support we receive from local business people quite literally keeps Samhlaiocht alive," added Jason O' Mahony. "We're indebted to them all and especially grateful to Comhaltas and the Vintners' Federation for supporting the Street Entertainment competition."

With artists from all over Ireland descending on Tralee over Easter, and the new Tir na nOg festival taking place from April 1st to April 11th, Tralee is sure to be a favourite bank holiday treat for lovers of the Arts, Culture and Craic!

Avatar Launch Second Album

2010-03-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

Avatar will launch its second album, LIKE RIVER TO OCEAN, at Club Head Bang Bang, The Greyhound Bar, Tralee on March 11th at 9.30 pm

Like River To Ocean is the second album from Kerry born natives, James Kennedy and Tony O Flaherty who together form Avatar. The duo is a synthesis of Kennedy's original compositions and arrangements coupled with O' Flaherty's engineering skills. The services of some of Ireland's finest musicians known as The Avatar Massive are also enlisted. Avatar produce a fusion of 70's Dub Reggae, Jazz and Ambient Sounds which are uniquely their own and present a ten strong band at live performances. Like River To Ocean has been described as delightfully melodic with Kennedy's flowing bass lines being complimented superbly by some beautiful brass harmonies and a diverse range of instrumentation.

Like River To Ocean has been particularly influenced by the exquisite landscape around Fenit harbour in north Kerry. This area has had a significant resonance for Kennedy since early childhood. It is a place of amazing beauty. The eight tracks comprising the album Like River To Ocean have each their own individual rhythm, from the opening track Sunrise Dub with its hypnotic bass line to the crescendo of Loving Kindness Dub's searing horn section the album holds many delights for the discerning listener, culminating in the final track, Like River To Ocean Dub.

Following on from the acclaim of Avatar's first album Summa Iru in 2005, Like River To Ocean has already received praise in The Irish Examiner, Hot Press, United Reggae Magazine and German publications such as Hanfblatt and Dubblog as well as significant national and international radio play. The band's services have also been required by many established artists for remix work, most recently by German Reggae group, The Senior Allstars, and Ireland's Liam O Maonlai. They are also currently involved in collaborations with Dutch Reggae DJ, Esta Selecta's Haiti Project, and have just completed a new video of Heart Of Wisdom Dub with Irish film maker Shaun O' Connor featuring the hauntingly beautiful voice of Aine Whelan.

For more on Avatar, check out Avatar Sounds

John Huston's THE MISFITS to screen March 3rd

2010-02-25T12:06:00.001-08:00

THE MISFITS, with Clark Gable and Marylyn Monroe, giving what many believe to be her strongest performance of all time will screen on Wednesday, March 3rd, in Siamsa Tire as part of Kerry Film Festival's Active Retired Programme.

The film saw Huston nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement by the Directors' Guild of America. It's a little seen movie nowadays but has megawatt star power and a brilliant script by Arthur Miller and its critical reputation has only improved over time. It was the last film made by Hollywood icons Gable and Monroe.

All films cost just 2euro to anyone over the age of 65 and Kerry Film Festival will serve teas and coffees before the film to all attendees. The active retired screenings are a nice social occasion, as well as giving attendees the opportunity to see some fantastic films on the big screen!

For more on the film is available here: THE MISFITS. All are welcome!

Kerry Film Festival Active Retired Screenings 2010

2010-01-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

It's Oscar season and to celebrate Kerry Film Festival and Siamsa Tire have partnered to bring some fabulous films from the distant past and the not so distant past to a big screen in Tralee. The screenings will take place in Siamsa Tire and are for active-retired groups and all retired individuals.

"We have active retired screenings as part of the Kerry Film Festival," said Jason O' Mahony, Festival Director, "and we thought it would be a wonderful idea to do some additional screenings during the winter months. Siamsa Tire is a wonderful venue, the screen and sound system are top class, and the staff there are always so accommodating, so thankfully we're able to programme a whole series of films for active retired groups and retired individuals. We also thought it would be a great idea to screen three John Huston films because of his Irish connections."

The first film to screen is Huston's debut, THE MALTESE FALCON, screening on Wednesday, February 3rd, one of the most assured debuts of all time and the undoubted Hamlet of Noir. Starring Humphrey Bogart as a detective who takes on a case that involves him with eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and a quest for a priceless statuette, the film also stars Mary Astor and Peter Lorre. It was nominated for three Oscars and is consistently included in lists as one of the best movies of all time.

Next up is THE MISFITS, with Clark Gable and Marylyn Monroe, giving what many believe to be her strongest performance of all time. The film, which will screen on Wednesday, March 3rd, saw Huston nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement by the Directors' Guild of America. It's a little seen movie nowadays but has megawatt star power and a brilliant script by Arthur Miller and its critical reputation has only improved over time. It was the last film made by Hollywood icons Gable and Monroe.

The third and final film in the series, screening on Wednesday, April 7th, is crowd-pleasing musical, ANNIE, which was also nominated for two Oscars. Starring Albert Finney and Aileen Quinn as Annie, the film is an all singing look at the life of orphan Annie in 1930's America, proving the breadth of Huston's directorial talents which saw him succeed in every genre of film imaginable from Noir to Musicals.

"All films cost just 2euro to anyone over the age of 65 and Kerry Film Festival will serve teas and coffees before the film to all attendees," added Jason. "The active retired screenings are a nice social occasion, as well as giving attendees the opportunity to see some fantastic films on the big screen!"

All films will screen in Siamsa Tire at 2:00 pm. For more information please call Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934 or log onto www.kerryfilmfestival.com

Easter Parade Call for Interest - Funding Available for Community Groups

2010-01-28T04:31:00.000-08:00

The Mortal Orchestra at the 2009 Easter Arts Festival

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival, which is this year celebrating 18 years of bringing the Arts to the streets of Tralee, has issued a call for entries for its upcoming Easter Arts Festival Parade.

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts parade is always a wonderfully lively and colourful event featuring over twenty groups from all over the county as well as samba bands, other professional street artists and on one memorable occasion a host of bikini clad Brazilians!

"The parade is always one of our most vibrant events," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "The streets of Tralee come alive, full of colourful characters, colourful costumes and with a real festival atmosphere. You need only watch the parade to realise the spirit of the Arts is very much alive in Kerry."

This year the theme of the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival is 'Legends' and the Festival will feature all aspects of the Arts from music, tradition, craft, culture, food and film to literature, with a special emphasis on street theatre and children arts.

The Parade will take place on Sunday, April 4th at approximately 7.30pm and groups that are interested are encouraged to get in touch with Samhlaiocht and fill out an application form.

"We've had a fantastically high calibre of community groups taking part in previous years," added Jason, "and the interest has been huge even at this early stage, so I'd really encourage interested groups to get in touch as quickly as possible. We'll finish the parade this year with a spectacular fire-work display and I bet that all the communities that take part will set off fire-works in their own right!"

There two types of funding available including funding for the Kerry Group Five Community Project. Five groups will be selected from among the applicants. Each group will receive funding of 1000 euro to provide artists fees, prop building, costumes and transport.

Funding is also available for Participant Groups. All kinds of groups from play schools to active retired groups are welcome to apply. The groups will each receive funding to assist towards expenses incurred.

"We hope that this can be the biggest year ever," added Jason. "We're delighted that Kerry Group which has supported Samhlaiocht since its inception is on board. Quite literally without their ongoing support the festival would cease to exist. The feedback from the participating groups is always wonderful and the financial support of Kerry Group makes it possible."

Application forms for both streams of funding are available online at www.samhlaiocht.com Forms are also available for the Samhlaiocht offices in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the Heart of Tralee. For More Information please contact Trish Thompson of Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934, by email on trish@samhlaiocht.com , or by simply calling into the office.

Rebecca Miller to pick up Maureen O' Hara Award

2009-10-12T10:10:00.001-07:00

Robin Wright Penn, Rebecca Miller and Keanu Reeves

The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating ten years of bringing film to Kerry, today announced that Rebecca Miller is to receive an award at the Kerry Film Festival, which runs from October 31st to November 7th.

The award is named in honour of one of the most glamorous leading ladies of Hollywood's golden era, Maureen O' Hara.

"It's an honour to have Rebecca Miller pick up the Award." said Maureen O'Hara. "Rebecca is a wonderful director and it is magnificent to see such a strong character having success in film. One more example of the incredible talent present in today's Ireland. I am absolutely delighted that Rebecca will accept this award and I wish her the very best in her career, in film, and most importantly, in life with her husband and young family."

Rebecca Miller worked as a painter and an actress before becoming a writer and director. She is the author of the short story collection, Personal Velocity (2001), and the novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. For the film version of PERSONAL VELOCITY (2002), she won several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. She has also written and directed the award-winning films ANGELA (1995), THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE (2005), which starred her husband Daniel Day Lewis, and again premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and this year's THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE (2009).

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee was her first novel and has been published in 30 countries. The film version was released earlier this year, playing at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival, and had a cast that includes Robin Wright Penn, Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Alan Arkin and Winona Ryder.

Rebecca Miller lives in Ireland and New York with her family.

While Maureen O' Hara was undoubtedly one of Hollywood's best loved actresses, she was much more than just a pretty face. When Maureen became an American citizen on January 25, 1946 she retained her Irish citizenship, which was the first time in history that the United States government recognized an Irish citizen as Irish and it led to a change in process for all Irish immigrants. Maureen was also the first female CEO of an American airline company. Whether in the movies, in politics or in business Maureen demonstrated a quality for leadership and a bravery that was extraordinary and Rebecca Miller displays many of the same characteristics.

Maureen currently lives in County Cork and to honour her Kerry Film Festival is screening the John Ford classic THE QUIET MAN.

The Maureen O' Hara Award acknowledges women that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their respective fields and Rebecca Miller is a most worthy recipient. The award giving will take place at the Kerry Film Festival Awards Ceremony at Fels Point Hotel in Tralee on Saturday, November 7th at 4:00 pm.

The Award Ceremony is the culmination of a week of films at Kerry Film Festival. The Awards ceremony will also feature the screening of award winning short films as adjudicated by Kerry Film Festival's panel of judges Jeremy Irons, Michael Fassbender, Simon Brown and James Christopher.

Jeremy Irons to Adjudicate at Kerry Film Festival

2009-10-06T10:28:00.001-07:00

The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating ten years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, today announced the adjudicators for the 2009 Kerry Film Festival, which runs from October 31st to November 7th.

The adjudicators that will judge this year's Kerry Film Festival short film competitions are:
Jeremy Irons, Michael Fassbender, Simon Brown and James Christopher.

"The Kerry Film Festival is delighted to announce its line up of adjudicators," said Jason O' Mahony, Director, Kerry Film Festival. "From Jeremy Irons, an Oscar winning actor and one of the finest actors of all time; to Michael Fassbender, who set the film world alight with his unflinching portrayal of Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's HUNGER, a role which, for my money at least, should have seen him win an Oscar; to James Christopher, one of the most respected film critics in the world and Chief Critic on The Times in the UK for many years; to Simon Brown, a fantastic Irish animator, who was lead animator on the recent Ice Age films and also worked with James Cameron on the upcoming AVATAR, every member of the adjudication panel is at the very forefront of their chosen profession and we're absolutely thrilled that they have decided to help adjudicate the 2009 Kerry Film Festival."

"This will be the tenth year of the Kerry Film Festival and both the quantity and quality of the films has risen year on year," continued O' Mahony. "And we felt it was important to have an adjudication panel of the very highest standing to adjudicate the short films. We're hugely grateful to all the adjudicators for giving so selflessly of their time and for agreeing to adjudicate at this year's Kerry Film Festival."

The adjudicators have the unenviable task of selecting the best films from this year's selection. Close to five hundred films were submitted to the 2009 Kerry Film Festival, up significantly on the total number of films submitted last year and more than double the number of films submitted in previous years.

For a brief Bio on the Adjudicators please see below:

Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons is one of today's most respected actors and has been honored for his work on stage, screen and television. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his chilling portrayal of Claus von Bulow in REVERSAL OF FORTUNE and won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in ELIZABETH I.

From roles in THE MISSION and David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS to roles in David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE, Ridley Scott's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE with Al Pacino, Irons has displayed a talent and acting range that has seldom, if ever, been matched.

Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender exploded on the Film world with his unflinching portrayal of Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's Cannes Film Festival Camera D'or winning HUNGER. He is one of the hottest young actors on the planet with acclaimed directors lining up to work with him. Last seen in Quentin Tarantino's INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, Michael, who grew up in Killarney, is a most welcome addition to the Kerry Film Festival Adjudication Panel.

Simon Brown
Simon Brown grew up in the countryside of Co. Clare, Ireland where he read books about the space-time continuum and practiced painting. It was an ideal background for his work as a visual effects artist which has led him around the world to London, California, New York and New Zealand. He's worked on many films including MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, STAR WARS - REVENGE OF THE SITH, ICE AGE - THE MELTDOWN and the upcoming AVATAR. Simon has just been accepted into the prestigious American Film Institute Conservatory for their directing program where he will further develop his craft.

James Christopher
James Christopher is a distinguished author and critic who has contributed to numerous newspapers. He was deputy theatre editor of Time Out Magazine, theatre critic for the Sunday Express, and for many years chief film critic of The Times. He has been the subject of several BBC documentaries. His book on Elizabeth Taylor: The Illustrated Biography is a much-loved staple. He lives in Essex but has spent many happy weeks in Kerry, notably Camp on the Dingle peninsula.

Culture Night Tralee Launches Programme Guide

2009-09-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

Culture Night Tralee is certainly shaping up to be a fantastic night. Taking place on September 25th the organizers have put together a stellar mix of artistic and cultural events which will kick off with Dancing the Street, an attempt on the Guinness World Record for Largest Irish Dance ever. That, however, promises only to be the beginning of a wonderful evening's entertainment with more than twenty other events programmed for the night, all of which are family oriented and fun with the added bonus that the vast majority of them are absolutely free! The organizers have just announced the launch of the programme guide which details all the fun and exciting events taking place. It's available from Siamsa Tíre or can be downloaded from the web.

"We're absolutely delighted with how the programme guide turned out. We'd love if everyone in Tralee popped down to Siamsa to pick up a copy, because Culture Night is for everyone," said Collette Haverty, Producer of Culture Night Tralee, which is a joint venture between Kerry County Museum, Samhlaiocht and Siamsa Tíre, the leading cultural and artistic organisations in Kerry. "We think the programme guide does credit to all the events that are taking place. And we're sure that people will have a fantastic night. We'd encourage everyone to pick up a programme, it's a wonderful way to plan an evening's free entertainment."

Highlights of the night include the premier of a new dance show from San Francisco, Rithm Rhythm, which is a collaboration between the renowned Printz Dance Project, one of America's most exciting dance companies, and Siamsa Tíre.

"We're also delighted to announce that Senator Mark Daly will MC the event, he's a complete character and appeared on the Treasure Island reality TV show," added Collette. "He'll definitely bring a lot to the main event - Dancing the Street."

Dancing the Street promises to be one of the highlights of the evening, while offering people the chance to return home as World Champions. Culture Night Tralee has taken on the ambitious task of beating the Guinness World Record for the largest Irish dance ever, a record which is currently held by a town called Dublin in Ohio in the USA.

"We think it's time that the record returned home," laughed Collette. "And it doesn't matter if people don't know how to do the Irish dance we'll have Dance buddies placed all along Denny Street to help people do the step."

Dancing the Street will take place on Denny Street, beginning at 6:30pm on the evening of Friday, September 25th. There will be a stage set up outside the Ashe Memorial Hall and there will be face painters, stilt walkers and street entertainers on hand to keep the crowd entertained while the countdown to the big event takes place.

And with events ranging from Basket Weaving to free film screenings by way of traditional music and live bands after Dancing the Street, there's something for everyone at Culture Night Tralee.

Programme Guides can be picked up from Siamsa Tíre or downloaded from the website www.culturetralee.com For more information please contact Collette Haverty on 066 712 3055 or by email at culturetralee@ymail.com

For more information on Kerry County Museum please log onto www.kerrymuseum.ie

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

For more information on Siamsa Tire please log onto www.siamsatire.com

Mordern Art Platform presents PILOT in Ballybunion

2009-09-10T03:03:00.000-07:00

PILOT the debut exhibition of MODERN ART PLATFORM in Kerry will be opening on September 11th at 8pm. The show will be used to gauge the demand for a contemporary art gallery in Ballybunnion, based on attendance, sales and general feedback. The show will run until September 25th. MODERN ART PLATFORM is located on Ahafona Cross in Ballybunion.

The show will feature work from a number of local and international artists including Brendan Butler and Conrado de Velasco.

Brendan Butler attended the Crawford College of Art and Design, graduating in 2001. He has been working as a professional Artist ever since, exhibiting his work at both solo and group exhibitions. Brendan's work is part of The Cork Opera House Collection as well as forming an integral part of many other state collections. His work is also part of several Irish and international private collections.

Conrado de Velasco's work inhabits the spaces where art, design and technology intersect. His career crosses the whole range of disciplines - graphic design, photography, sculpture, industrial design, visual merchandising, illustration, motion graphics and electronic arts. He believes the future of art lies in the volatile mix of technology and ideas. Conrado de Velasco was born in Manila and presently divides his time between Ireland and the Philippines.

For more information please email the gallery modernartplatform@hotmail.com

Guinness World Record Attempt in Tralee

2009-09-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

Though the summer has been a bit of a wash out, the autumn is looking decidedly brighter with Kerry County Museum, Samhlaiocht and Siamsa Tire, the leading artistic and cultural organisations in Kerry partnering to bring Culture Night to Tralee. The partners have just announced a tantalising line-up of events for Culture Night Tralee, which will take place on September 25th as part of the National Culture Night celebrations.

Top of the bill is an event called 'Dancing The Street' which is an attempt at the Guinness World Record for the largest Irish Dance ever, which will kick off at 6:30 pm on Denny Street in the heart of Tralee.

"We wanted to put on an event that was fun, free and family-friendly and Karl and Jonathan at Siamsa came up with the idea of attempting to break the Guinness World Record for largest Irish Dance ever," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht.

"Yeah, but I didn't realize we'd need more than 10,000 people when we came up with the idea," laughed Karl Wallace, Director of Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, which is located in Tralee.

Helen O' Carroll, Director of Kerry Museum, concurs, "We thought we would only need about two or three thousand people but when we did a little research we were blown away by the number of people required."

But in true Kerry style they decided to go ahead with it anyway!

Dancing The Street, is just the centerpiece of Tralee's stellar line-up of events, however, with more than 20 other events taking place. The leading arts and cultural organisations of the town have all chipped in, opening their doors until 11pm to give the citizens of Tralee and beyond a chance to experience the cultural delights of the town.

The idea behind Culture Night follows the success of Ireland's first Culture Night which took place in Dublin and was initiated by Temple Bar Cultural Trust in 2006, the event has grown from 40 organizations attracting 40,0000 people to over 100 participating organizations in 2008 with a public turnout of 100,000 people. Building on the enormous success of this initiative in public access and participation in cultural activity, Temple Bar Cultural Trust, in partnership with the Department of Arts Sport and Tourism launched Culture Night Goes National in 2008 involving the cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford which was managed by The Arts Officers in each of the respective cities. This was an overwhelming success and in 2009 an additional six towns were added, including Tralee.

"We were absolutely thrilled to be invited to take part," said Karl Wallace, Director of Siamsa. "Tralee is a fantastic town and we're achieved a critical mass of artistic and cultural organisations and to be invited to take part in a national event like this is an honour for us and for Tralee."

"We really wanted to do something spectacular," added Jason O' Mahony, "and Dancing The Street will certainly be spectacular!"

Highlights promise to include the Irish Premiere of Rithim Rhythm, a dynamic collaboration between one of America's most exciting dance companies, Printz Dance Project, and Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland. It's a heavy mix of traditional and contemporary dance, Rithim Rhythm is crammed with Irish step, beat boxing and funky moves.

The line up other events has something for everyone and the vast majority are either completely free or offer a large number of free tickets to the public.

And with Street Entertainment, stilt walkers, face painters and more Culture Night Tralee is bound to offer something for everyone.

For more information on Culture Night and a complete listing of events please log onto www.culturetralee.com

For more information on Kerry County Museum please log onto www.kerrymuseum.ie

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

For more information on Siamsa Tire please log onto www.siamsatire.com

Winter Screenings at Kerry Film Festival

2009-08-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Though the summer has been a bit of a wash out, winter is looking decidedly brighter as Kerry Film Festival, in association with Siamsa Tire, have announced a tantalising line-up of films for their Winter season of active retired screenings. The screenings will take place in Siamsa Tire in Tralee, on the first Thursday of every month, and are for active-retired groups and all retired individuals.

"We've been delighted with the turn out for the spring and summer seasons of screenings for the active retired," said Jason O' Mahony, Kerry Film Festival Director, "and we thought it would be a wonderful idea to do some additional screenings through out the Winter. Thankfully Siamsa Tire agreed and we're delighted to be able to screen classic films in such a wonderful venue!"

First out of the gates is the multi Oscar winning FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) starring Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. It also stars Frank Sinatra in possibly the best role of his career. Sinatra went on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The film will screen in Siamsa Tire at 2:00 pm on Thursday, September 3^rd, the first Thursday in September, and it's not to be missed!

Next up, on Thursday, October 1^st, is Audrey Hepburn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961). It tells the tale of struggling writer Paul Varjak who moves into a New York apartment building and becomes intrigued by his pretty, quirky neighbor Holly Golightly. Holly's lifestyle confuses and fascinates Paul; in public she flits through parties with a sexy, sophisticated air, but when they're alone she changes into a sweetly vulnerable bundle of neuroses. Audrey Hepburn plays that daring, darling Holly Golightly and is an absolute delight in the adaptation of Truman Capote's classic novel.

Then on Thursday, November 5^th, Peter O' Toole will light up the screen in the title role in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962). David Lean's film is a brilliant and truly epic rumination on a flamboyant and controversial British military figure and his conflicted loyalties during wartime service. It won 7 Oscars and immortality for its charismatic Irish star. Because of the length of the film, the screening will start at 12 noon as opposed to 2:00 pm.

The final screening of 2009 will take place on Thursday, December 3^rd, and is an all time Christmas classic. WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) stars Bing Crosby. It's a romantic mix-up and features one of the best known and most loved songs of all time and will definitely get people in the Christmas mood.

"Our 2009 active retired screenings have been a monumental success so far and the audience begged us to keep going for the rest of the year," said Jason. "And we're delighted to oblige. If truth be told I love the screenings because it gives me a chance to see some of my favourite films on the big screen! And with a cost of just 2 euro per head that includes teas or coffees and biscuits for everyone attending we really think it's a recession busting deal!"

The films will all start at 2:00 pm sharp, with the exception of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA which begins at 12 noon because of the length of the film, and groups are encouraged to arrive half an hour before screening time to enjoy the social atmosphere, have a chat and grab a cup of tea or coffee. Interested parties are asked to contact the Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934 and all active retired groups and individuals are welcome at the Kerry Film Festival Active Retired Winter Season where they will enjoy their Golden Years with classic films on the Silver Screen!

All films screen at 2:00 pm, except LAWRENCE which screens at 12 noon, in Siamsa Tire in Tralee and all take place on the first Thursday of the month. For more information please call Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934.

For more information on the Kerry Film Festival please log onto www.kerryfilmfestival.com

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Celebrate Heritage Week with new Exhibition

2009-08-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

Next week sees the launch of Ireland's Heritage Week, which runs from the 22nd to the 30th of August, and to celebrate Samhlaiocht, the leading Arts Organisation in Kerry, is holding a special week-long exhibition featuring work from Christa Vonhof and Donal Stack.

Heritage week is designed to appeal to almost everyone and the main aim is to build awareness of Ireland's built, natural and cultural heritage thereby encouraging its conservation and preservation. In Ireland Heritage Week is co-ordinated by the Heritage Council with support from the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Fáilte Ireland.

"Every year hundreds of national and local community organisations take part in Heritage week, organising events throughout the country to help build awareness of Ireland's beautiful and unique cultural heritage," said Trish Thompson, Samhlaiocht Gallery Coordinator. "We're delighted to play a small part and would encourage people to come and see this wonderful exhibition which features work from Christa Vonhof and Donal Stack. The exhibition pays respect to Ireland’s amazing cultural heritage through Christa Vonhof's wonderfully eclectic letter boxes and Donal Stack's pictorial maps."

Donal Stack is an artist that lives and works in North Kerry. After graduating from the Crawford Municipal College of Art, Donal went on to teach art at secondary level and at adult night classes for a period of five years.

"I've always had an interest in illustration and decided to pursue if for this exhibition," said Donal. "The work is a series of limited edition giclee prints of illustrated pictorial maps."

The maps are simply stunning and the level of work involved in creating them is mind-boggling. As Donal explains, "These maps are influenced by 16th and 17th Century pictorial maps showing the topography of the landscape and include text, icons and depictions of towns and other landmarks."

All the maps are pictorial maps of Kerry and the Giclee process which Donal used ensures a high quality reproduction on fine art acid-free paper. The original work was done in watercolour and each print is signed and numbered by the artist.

While Donal's maps are inspired by Kerry, Christa Vonhof, who grew up in Bavaria, has been similarily inspired by the county. She always loved painting and drawing.

"Art classes were always my favourite in school," says Christa, "and I continued to paint through my early adulthood." After raising her family and moving to Ireland, Christa became a member of an art group in which she is still active and exhibits regularly.

In addition to painting, Christa is interested in local history and archaeology and quite often combines these two interests.

"One day I was walking in the countryside and I saw this quaint box hanging off a telegraph pole. It was in the middle of nowhere and it sparked an interest," explains Christa. "Every now and then I would come across another post box and the most amazing array of different letter boxes appeared with different shapes, sizes and patterns and I decided to capture and record them."

"The work on the exhibit is by no means a complete collection," laughs Christa, "I fully expect to find many more to record. My hope is to continue finding and recording them in my drawings for years to come!"

The exhibition in Samhlaiocht is a perfect opportunity to see something a little different.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, August 20th and runs for one week until Friday, August 28th in the New Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Call for Entries for Samhlaiocht Photo Exhibition

2009-08-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Lucie Harwood's winning photograph, Sunset, from Samhlaiocht's 2007 competition

Samhlaiocht is issuing a call for photographs for the second round of its Open Submission Photography Exhibition competition.

"The first heat, which had a theme of 'Winter Light', has been a huge success," said Mike Foley, Samhlaiocht, Photography Co-ordinator. "The number of submissions has been simply astounding and the quality of the work was fantastic. It's great to see photographers producing such outstanding work, much of it inspired by the beautiful county of Kerry."

The theme for the second round is 'Summer Light' and the closing date is Friday, August 28th.

"The judging panel includes Kerry Kennelly of Kerry's Eye, Dan Muphy, who is a fine art and portrait photographer with Red Couch Studios, Michael Diggin of Irish Landscape Photography and Michael O' Meara of Custom Framing Services. All the judges agreed that the standard of the photographs received for the first round was beyond all expectations," added Mike.

When quizzed about the entries for the first heat, Mike said, "The sheer number of entries was only seconded by the overall technical quality of the pics. And we're expecting a flood of entries for the second phase of the competition by the August 28th deadline because of the huge numbers of photos that are taken in the summertime."

"The photographers are asked to bear the theme in mind when submitting their work," added Mike, "but we encourage a liberal interpretation and we're looking forward to receiving a wide diversity of styles and subject matter."

When asked about digital manipulation, Mike had this to say, "With digital cameras in everyone's arsenal and this year's broad theme, we can't rule out digital manipulation, nor would we want to. Digital photography is an exciting medium and we encourage people to play around and to be as creative and artistic as they like!"

Photographs may be black and white or colour and must measure 6" X 8". Contestants must submit a hard copy of the picture to Mike Foley at Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, Lower Castle Street, Tralee. For those submitting photographs taken with a digital camera please also email a copy to mike@samhlaiocht.com citing 'Samhlaiocht Photography Competition' in the subject line.

All winning entries will be professionally mounted and framed and will remain the property of the artist after the exhibition. The Framing Prize is kindly sponsored by O' Meara Fast Framing Service in Tralee Shopping Centre. Selected photographs will be displayed in the Samhlaiocht gallery in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee as part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing search for emerging talent.

The exhibition will take place from the October 1st until October 23rd, 2009.

Please include your name, address, a contact phone number, email and the title of each photograph submitted with both hard and soft copies of the photographs.

The closing date for entries to the second heat is Friday, August 28^th.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com or call 066 712 9934

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and Culture Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group

Kerry Film Festival Issues Call for Entries

2009-06-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Declan Cassidy's WHATEVER TURNS YOU ON
Winner Best Irish Short KFF 2008

The Samhlaiocht Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating ten years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, has issued a call for entries for the Kerry Film Festival 2009, which runs from October 31st to November 7th.

"The Kerry Film Festival is committed to playing a leading role in providing a forum for emerging talent in film," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of the Kerry Film Festival. "This dedication is evidenced by both the quality of the films screened and the prizes on offer, with a top cash prize of 5,000 euro for KFF's Best Director, as well as a number of prizes in other categories including Best Irish Short, Best International Short, Best Documentary Short and Best Animated Short."

All prizes including Best Director will be selected by a jury of internationally renowned film professionals. Past adjudicators of the Kerry Film Festival Short Film Competition have included such luminaries as Liam Neeson, Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and Gabriel Byrne.

When asked what makes KFF special O, Mahony said, "I think having so many of the filmmakers on hand to speak about their films and their creative journey ensures a rewarding film festival experience for both the filmmaker and the audience. One of the advantages of KFF, I suppose, is that it's such an intimate little festival but the quality of the films and quality of the adjudicators consistently punches above its weight."

While the main focus of the festival will continue to be on shorts, this year sees an extension of the programme. "Last year was our most successful Festival so far," said O' Mahony. "We screened more films to more people in more venues that ever before and this year we're hoping to top that!" The 2009 edition of the Festival will see an expansion of the feature programme which proved so successful in 2008, KFF 2009 will also see more Education screenings, more active retired screenings and a larger workshop programme.

For more information on the Kerry Film Festival or to download application forms please log on to www.kerryfilmfestival.com

Samhlaiocht Issues Call for 2010 Gallery Programme

2009-06-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

"As part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing collaboration with Artists we're inviting them to submit work for consideration for our 2010 Gallery programme," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "The past two years have been wonderfully successful for us in terms of exhibitions. We had more exhibitions, sold more paintings and discovered more talent than ever before. We're hoping that 2010 will bring more of the same and that this call for entries will attract the best and brightest up-and-coming artists from through out Ireland, while also attracting more established artists looking for an additional platform for their work."

The submission is open to all Artists. Applications are invited from individual artists, or groups of artists, working in any medium for inclusion in the 2010 Samhlaiocht Gallery Programme.

Applications should be submitted in writing by Friday, July 10th.

The Application should contain:
1. Current Biography or CV.
2. Artist's Statement (max. 400 words) and Exhibition Proposal (max. 200 words)
3. 10 - 12 high quality images of the work. Images can be submitted as digital prints, photographs, slides, or jpeg format.
4. Image list with titles, medium and dimensions clearly labelled.

The Samhlaiocht Gallery first 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 Artists, provide a platform for more established artists and facilitate community groups working in any artistic medium.

The New Samhlaiocht Gallery is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

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

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Golden Years on the Silver Screen

2009-05-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

With the Cannes Film Festival just finishing and a wonderfully successful spring season behind them Kerry Film Festival, in association with Siamsa Tire, have announced a tantalising line-up of films for their summer season of active retired screenings. The screenings will take place in Siamsa Tire in Tralee, on the first Thursday of the month, and are for active-retired groups and all retired individuals.

"We were delighted with the turn out for the spring season of screenings for the active retired," said Jason O' Mahony, Kerry Film Festival Director, "and we thought it would be a wonderful idea to do some additional screenings during the summer months. Thankfully Siamsa Tire agreed and we're delighted to be able to screen classic films in such a wonderful venue!"

First out of the gates is Billy Wilder's screwball masterpiece SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and the immortal Marilyn Monroe handed the best comedy roles of their careers. When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all female band disguised as women, but further complications, as was always the way in Wilder's films, set in. The film will screen in Siamsa Tire at 2:00 pm on June 4th, the first Thursday in June, and it's not to be missed!

Next up, on Thursday, July 2nd, is Gene Kelly in SINGING IN THE RAIN (1952). It tells the tale of a silent film production company and cast that make a difficult transition to sound. It's an all singing, all swinging, glorious feeling Technicolor Musical! Gene Kelly co-directed as well as starring in this double Oscar nominated classic.

Finally on Thursday, August 6th, John Wayne stars as Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran that spends years searching for his young niece who was captured by Indians in the John Ford classic THE SEARCHERS (1956). As the film sweeps from the glorious, great Southwest to the Canadian border, Ethan's motivation becomes increasingly questionable. Possibly the best western ever made, starring the unquestionably greatest Cowboy of all time - John Wayne!

"Our Spring screenings were a monumental success and the audience begged us not to shut down for the Summer as had been originally planned but we were in a difficult position financially and didn't think we would be able to continue with the free screenings," said Jason. "But we examined out finances and discovered that with a nominal charge to the audience we would be able to keep going so we asked the audience and they were all for it!"

"We're delighted to be able to continue," added Jason, "and with a cost of just 2 euro per head that includes teas or coffees and biscuits for everyone attending we really think it's a recession busting deal!"

The films will start at 2:00 pm sharp, so groups are encouraged to arrive at 1:30 pm to enjoy the social atmosphere, have a chat and grab a cup of tea or coffee. Interested parties are asked to contact the Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934 and all active retired groups and individuals are welcome at the Kerry Film Festival Active Retired Summer Season where they will enjoy their Golden Years with classic films on the Silver Screen!

All films screen at 2:00 pm in Siamsa Tire in Tralee and all take place on the first Thursday of the month. For more information please call Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934.

For more information on the Kerry Film Festival please log onto www.kerryfilmfestival.com

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

A fusion of Roots, Folk & Rock from Donnacha Toomey

2009-05-11T03:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick pop quiz for you: How many times has Bob Dylan hit the top of the Billboard Album charts in America? Before this week the answer was four - this week it's five - now that his latest, TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE, has debuted at the very top of the charts.

This could bode well for Kerry's latest singer / songwriter, Donnacha Toomey. Donnacha's album has also just been released and, while he can't match Sir Bob for longevity, there are very definite similarities between their song writing styles - both write lyrics that speak to the soul while stirring the mind.

The similarities finish there, however, and Donnacha would, while tipping his hat at Dylan, acknowledge the greater influences of legendary John Martyn, the electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock 'n' roll and the blues.

"The man was simply one of the most gifted artists of our time," says Donnacha, "the world suffered a huge loss with his untimely passing in January."

The album, titled Carnival of Colours, is Donnacha's debut album release. It's an 11 track studio recording and is the perfect introduction to his thoughtful, intelligent style of roots based material. He has a broad, eclectic mix of influences which he magically yet subtly blends together. Drawing on Irish, US and British folk and inspired by the aforementioned legends Dylan and Martyn by way of Chet Atkins via cult favourites Ron Sexsmith and Kings of Convenience, Donnacha has produced an album that has been hailed for its thoughtful and thought-provoking qualities.

"I know there are a lot of influences in there," laughs Donnacha, "I suppose I've been playing music since I was seven or eight years old. My parents are musically inclined, my Mom sings in a choir and my Dad is a button accordion player who loves traditional Irish music. I was a big fan of all the music they listened to but especially early rock 'n' roll."

Listening to Donnacha expound on music is a near educational experience! He draws from such a rich assortment of influences and diversity of styles, yet is so adept at linking them together and forming interesting and reflective asides that it's no wonder the songs on the album are so perfectly formed!

"Back when I started playing music I was listening to a lot of 50's and 60's music. I’ve been a lifelong fan of Scotty Moore, who played in Elvis' band, and a fan of a lot of fingerstyle guitarists ever since," adds Donnacha. "I listened mostly to Chet Atkins, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and Ry Cooder. I also listened to a lot of folk musicians, like John Martyn, who is actually Scottish but settled down here in Ireland before he passed away so tragically in January. So, I try to take many elements of roots, bluegrass, folk, country and different kinds of acoustic material and put it together into something of my own."

It's a rich mix that comes to fruition on Carnival of Colours. He's helped out on the album by local Bass legend James Kennedy.

"I loved James's bass playing from the minute I heard it," says Donnacha. "It adds a whole new dimension to the music and has really brought out the best in the songs, I couldn't ask for anything more. The first thing that got my foot tapping when I was a child was Elvis' original 3 piece band with Scotty Moore and Bill Black. There was no drummer, they just used that thumping bass line for rhythm and I hear that energy in the way James plays the bass. To fully appreciate James's music you just have to hear him play!"

And despite its relative newness, Donnacha's debut is picking up quite a bit of radio play. "Emilia" was featured on RTE Radio 1's Late Date programme on the week of its release while the opening track, "Early One", was featured on Roots Freeway, also on RTE Radio 1. The album was recently featured on 4 FM and has gained interest in the UK. Another of the songs, "Been a Long Time Now", has been picked to feature on an American compilation album, "Acoustika", that will be out next month on general release.

Donnacha, who is based in Tralee is taking all this success in his stride. The songs exude a quiet confidence and you get the feeling that it’s only a matter of time before people are listing Donnacha Toomey as an influence!

"Carnival of Colours" is now available on iTunes, CDbaby and Amazon and in all good music stores.

For more information please visit www.donnachatoomey.com or www.myspace.com/donnachatoomey

Arts Council April Newsletter

2009-04-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

1. Statement by Pat Moylan, Chairman of the Arts Council

A statement by Chairman, Pat Moylan on the additional reduction to the Arts Council budget for 2009.

2. Arts Council’s event guide ready for launch

The Arts Council is requesting all funded organisations and individuals to submit public events for inclusion in a new online guide.

3. Traditional arts information meetings

In the coming months, the Arts Council's traditional arts team, will be traveling around the midlands/Leinster to take part in a number of information meetings.

4. Theatre consultation process

The Arts Council is to consult with members of the theatre community on how best to meet future challenges regarding funding the production and presentation of professional theatre.

5. New public art website

The new public art website will now be launched in May.

6. News from the arts community

Opportunities in the arts community in April include information on the upcoming deadline for submitting short films to the Galway Film Fleadh; a scholarship opportunity from Music Network for an intensive professional development course called Making Overtures 2009 and a call for artists/projects for use of the Back Loft, the multi-purpose space of La Cathedral Studios.

7. International news from the Cultural Contact Point

News from the CCP in April includes: information on upcoming culture programme infodays in Barcelona, Vilnius and Brussels; a call for proposals for a youth in action programme; an open call for applications for a space pilot project for artist mobility; a notice on the photo contest IMAGO europae 2009 and details of a seminar on delivering public services in times of a financial crises in Maastricht in July.

Ground Breaking Musician Coming to Club Head

2009-04-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ground breaking electronic musician Matt Elliott whose music has matured into a more folk inspired acoustic sound plays a special Easter Weekend ClubHeadBangBang event this Saturday, 11th of April, support act on the Night is local trio 'ToneVain', as well as ClubHeadBangBang dj's.

Entry to the concert is free to all and doors open at 9pm.

Matt's long-awaited return to Ireland will see him playing only two exclusive dates, Whelans in Dublin and ClubHeadBangBang in Tralee. On previous visits to Ireland Matt has played at the Electric Picnic and as part of Donal Dineen's 'Month of Sundays' tour alongside the likes of Milosh, Lisa Hannigan and Jape.

About Matt Elliott:
Matt Elliott has rather an atypical course. He used to work under the pseudo name The Third Eye Foundation, an emblematic figure of the English electronic scene recognized for his atypical electro tinted by drum' N bass.

Since his first album under his own name "The mess we made" ( on Domino Records), Matt Elliott has turned to compositions much more folk based, forsaking the laptop and the machines and turning more traditional instruments, guitar, piano and violin.

Amongst the many products of the fertile Bristol music scene of the 1990s, Matt Elliott represents something of an oddity.

When "trip-hop" was flavour of the month, Matt was instead exploring space rock and experimental drone music. In 1996, Matt began releasing under the moniker Third Eye Foundation, and with his stark and brutal approach to electronica unwittingly became a pioneer of something called "drill'n'bass". Then, whilst many were struggling to transcend the electronic aesthetic that had become associated with the city, Matt married sampling and electronics with acoustic instruments, song and voice for the critically-acclaimed The Mess We Made. Now, having left his native Bristol altogether and settled in rural France, Matt continues to release albums that have variously been described as folk, vaudeville and chanson française.

His fiercely independent approach has won him many admirers, and Matt has completed remixes for Mogwai, Thurston Moore, Blonde Redhead, and Yann Tiersen amongst others. Matt also continues to collaborate with long-term friends Hood, and lends his playing to many more records, as guitarist, drummer, clarinetest, viola player and programmer. Matt has toured far and wide over the last twelve years, recently appearing at Primavera Sound, Benicassim and Electric Picnic.

For more information please log onto:

http://www.thirdeyefoundation.com

http://www.myspace.com/mattelliotandthethirdeye

http://www.fiverosespress.net/?p=1169

Samhlaiocht Transforms Empty Tralee Shop

2009-04-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

It's difficult to open a newspaper or turn on a television or radio these days without hearing about the current economic climate. Evidence of the downturn is palpable in the number of disused and vacant shops in the towns and villages through out Ireland. Tralee, unfortunately, is currently suffering from a similar fate and the current talk of Tralee town is the number of empty shops in the town centre.

Help, however, is on hand. Samhlaiocht, the leading Arts Organisation in Kerry, has come up with an innovative and Artistic way to brighten the town, offer a free Artistic event to the public while at the same time tying in with their landmark Easter Arts Festival, which takes place from April 10th to April 13th, over the Easter Weekend.

Imaginarium, an exhibition of contemporary art, will take place during the Festival, but Imaginarium is not the usual type of exhibition, it will take place in a disused shop on Castle Street! Gary Brosnan, who owns the vacant shop, says, "I thought it was great when Samhlaiocht came to me to see if they could use the shop. I think it’s a fantastic idea."

Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht, is equally full of praise for Gary, "I think it's brilliant that he's agreed to get involved. It shows a willingness to work towards some greater common good. This is about brightening up Tralee and Gary's selflessly giving us the premises completely free of charge for the weekend and we're absolutely delighted about it! We'd love to turn the whole town into one huge interactive Arts exhibition!"

Imaginarium is one of a series of short-term exhibitions that will take place in Ireland and America during 2009 and is the brain wave of American Artist and organizer, Sean Naftel. The exhibition will feature work from six artists from home and abroad, coming from as far away as America and Germany and from as close to home as Kerry.

"I'm delighted that the exhibition will take place as part of the Samhlaíocht Easter Arts Festival," said Sean, "it's great to get the opportunity to showcase work by exciting, emerging international artists to new audiences."

Imaginarium is part of a larger programme which Sean is curating called Roving Project, which is a wandering gallery project that occupies empty storefronts, transforming them into short-term gallery spaces. This year the project will use empty shops in Ballyvaughan and Tralee as well as venues in Kansas City and Boston.

Sean goes on to explain, "There are a lot of empty shops around at this time both in Ireland and America with the economy slowing down, but it turns out to have a positive side because it provides a great chance for young artists to have their work seen even if only for a few days. It's really exciting."

The theme of this year's Samhlaiocht Festival is 'Imagination' to coincide with 2009 being the European Year of Creativity and with the fact that 'Samhlaiocht' is a translation of 'Imagination' as Gaeilge. In addition to this all artists use the imagination, whether in the exploration of their work or in devising new and exciting venues to display their work. The Imaginarium Exhibition embraces all these ideals, creating a space where imagination can be born and thrive without interruption or judgment, free from everyday restrictions, the exhibition will reveal possibilities heretofore unknown.

Imaginarium will be officially opened at 7:00 pm on Thursday, April 9th and will open at various hours over the Easter Festival Weekend. It features work by Sean Naftel, Chris Attenborough, Erin Traecy, Emmet Kierans, Kerstin Schaefer and Kerry artist Roisín McGuigan. For more information or to find out exact opening times please call into the Samhlaiocht office, located in The Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and pick up a Programme Guide.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log onto www.samhlaiocht.com

For more information on Roving Project please log onto www.rovingproject.com

Getting a Handel on It

2009-04-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Dublin Handel Festival is well and truly launched and tickets are selling fast with some shows already sold out!

The festival takes place from the 13th to the 19th of April in the Old City area of Temple Bar and other historic venues throughout Dublin. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Handel's death, Temple Bar Cultural Trust presents a full programme packed with Handel highlights including concerts, theatre, workshops, tours, talk, family activities and newly commissioned work. The hugely popular "Messiah on the Street" which opens the festival on April 13th is an outdoor experience not to be missed!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

Coffee Morning at Carnegie

2009-04-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

This Thursday 2nd April from 11am - 1pm
Coffee Morning @ The Carnegie

The Carnegie Arts Centre in Kenamre are pleased to invite their patrons, friends and interested parties to join them for the launch of their Spring Programme - it's their first printed event guide and the launch promises to be a wonderful wee morning.

They are holding a special Coffee Morning at the Carnegie where guides will be available and people will be on hand to chat about any events in the programme that may interest you!

There will be a performance from some of the students of Pobailscoil Inbhear Scéine and Jazz.

The Carnegie Spring Season promises to hold something for everyone, with music from Dr Strangely Strange, John Spillane and many Cinema and Film screenings for fans including Club Zoom, Film Club and Saturday Matinees to name a few!

So make the 2nd April a date in your diary and tell all your friends - remember how much the Carnegie needs your support, come and join in and see what’s happening in Kenmare's Arts Centre.

For mor info please log onto www.carnegieartskenmare.ie

Critical Writing in Irish Craft Award 2009

2009-03-27T03:37:00.000-07:00

The Critical Writing in Irish Craft Award 2009 is a Crafts Council of Ireland and Irish Arts Review initiative to advance, expand and support excellence in critical writing about Irish craft and to provide a platform for new critical voices in Irish craft.

They invite submissions from writers, craftspeople and those with an interest in Irish craft, based in Ireland or Northern Ireland and aged 18 and over.

Essays are invited on the following topics:

Craft as visual culture
The missing link – craft, cultural heritage and identity
21st century craft - the shape of things to come
Critical essay on the work of an Irish craftsperson

The winner of the Critical Writing in Irish Craft Award 2009 will receive a cash award of E500 and the winning essay will be published in Irish Craft 2009, the annual craft edition of the Irish Arts Review.

How to enter:
Entries should not exceed 1200 words, submitted as a Word attachment via email to awards@ccoi.ie

The cover page must include the writer's name, address, email, and phone number. Hard copy entries will not be accepted.

The closing date for submissions is 30 June 2009.

Terms and conditions
Entries must be unpublished and the entrants' original work.
All submissions must reflect a critical understanding of Irish craft and, where appropriate, reference international comparisons.
Entrants must be aged 18 and over.
Late entries and / or those in breach of the entry conditions will be excluded.
By submitting an article to be considered for the Critical Writing in Irish Craft Award 2009, each author grants permission to Irish Arts Review to publish the article in Irish Craft.
The Crafts Council of Ireland and Irish Arts Review reserve the right to publish all or part of the work for promotional purposes where they see fit, both online and in print.
No correspondence will be entered into and the judges' decision is final.

Information on the Critical Writing in Irish Craft Award is available on www.ccoi.ie
and on www.irishartsreview.com

Enquiries to awards@ccoi.ie

www.ccoi.ie
www.irishartsreview.com

Calling all Street Entertainers & Musicians

2009-03-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

Samhlaiocht today issued a call for entries for the Annual Busking and Street Entertainment Competition which will take place as part of the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival, which runs in Tralee from April 11th to April 13th, inclusive.

All street entertainers are invited to take part in the festivities, everything from talented musicians, jugglers, singers, dancers, comedians, fire-eaters and street artists will be welcome. The competition will take place on Easter Saturday, April 12th from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with registration taking place from 2pm in the Samhlaiocht office.

"Music and entertainment have always played a huge part in the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival," said Jason O' Mahony, the Director of Samhlaiocht. "This is the third year of the Busking and Street Entertainment competition and we’re hoping to build on last year's competition that brought such fun and excitement to the streets of Tralee."

"We're really looking forward to the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival and we know that the Busking and Street Entertainment Competition will complement all the other free activities that we organise for Tralee," said Michele Sheehan, co-ordinator of the competition. "The town will come alive with all kinds of wonderful entertainment. This year we're introducing the Samhlaiocht Perpetual Shield, which is kindly sponsored by Trophy World Tralee. The Shield will be on display in the Samhlaiocht offices and the winning act every year will have their names inscribed on the Shield. But there's also a trophy for the winners and a wee medal for all competitors, so everyone's a winner!"

The people of Kerry have proven to be very supportive of Samhlaiocht and of the Easter Festival as well as being enthusiastic supporters of the Artists and Entertainers that come to the County each Easter weekend. Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann and the Tralee Branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, as a show of appreciation, have offered to sponsor the Busking and Street Entertainment Competition.

"The support we receive from local business people and our main corporate sponsors, Kerry Group, quite literally keeps the festival alive," added Jason O' Mahony. "We're indebted to them all and especially grateful to Comhaltas and the Vintners' Federation for supporting the Street Entertainment competition."

With artists from all over Ireland descending on Tralee for three days over Easter, the annual Easter Arts Festival has become a favourite bank holiday treat for lovers of the Arts, Culture and Craic. This year the festival promises to whip up a whirlwind of fresh, exciting music, dance, literature, street theatre, workshops, children's activities, markets, a parade and much more.

Finnegan's Hostel on Denny Street Tralee, which is a long time supporter of Samhlaiocht, has offered a discount rate to entertainers that come from outside of Tralee. To book a room please call 066 712 7610 or log onto www.finneganshostel.com

Anyone interested in taking part in the competition should contact Mike Foley or Michelle Sheehan of Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934 or through email on mike@samhlaiocht.com

Costelloe, Cunningham and Usher to Exhibit in Samhlaiocht

2009-03-05T05:10:00.001-08:00

Exhibition Titled 'Made in Kerry' to Open on Thursday March 12th

From the delicacy of watercolours to the vibrancy of acrylics by way of sculpture in both wood and ceramics, the latest exhibition from Samhlaiocht, the premier Arts organisation in Kerry, showcases three of the very best Kerry-based Artists. The exhibition, titled 'Made in Kerry', features work from Judy Costelloe, Marjorie Cunningham and Jacinta Scully Usher.

"Kerry is an absolute inspiration," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht, "from the beautiful scenery, to the colourful characters to the weather, there's no denying the undoubted influence that the county has on all our lives. This is doubly true for Artists that are lucky enough to live here."

Take Jacinta Usher, for example, she's a textile artist, living and working on Banna Mountain in North Kerry. Working in woven tapestry and felt, her art is created from natural fibres including merino wool, silk and silk filaments. She draws inspiration from the natural environment, in particular from the beauty found in the distinctive costal grassland, or Machair, found on the sand dunes just above the shore line. "My work is inspired by the shore, the sea and sky," says Jacinta, "and I hope that through my work, I can raise awareness about the threats that exist to the flora and fauna and help preserve the wonderfully delicate balance of nature."

This balance is something that is echoed in the work of Marjorie Cunningham. Her work, in wood and ceramics, was created with the broad them of 'Balance' in mind. "It occurred to me that life is balanced around a sphere and everything flows from that," says Marjorie. "My ideas are very influenced by Celtic design and I love the fact that wood grows from the ground, from clay, and, ultimately, returns to clay when the tree dies. So my work achieves that same balance, that journey, as clay and wood are one."

She prefers, however, to say little about her work, allowing the viewer to form his or her own interpretation. Marjorie graduated from the Crawford School of Art in 1982, having received a Guinness Peat Aviation Award for her sculpture. She has worked in her studio in Blennerville for the past 18 years and the ceramic work in the current exhibition has been created thanks to a Kerry County Council Creative Work Bursary.

Judy Costelloe is no stranger to working in different media and her Art is also a jouney. She has, over her long and illustrious career, worked with watercolours, acrylics, oils, clay and printmaking. "Working in a variety of media has been a wonderful learning process for me and has afforded me a wealth of experience, many challenges and even a little success," says Judy. "My silk-painting continues to evolve and the creation of each individual piece acts like a stepping-stone on my longer journey. The delicacy, but also the resilience of the silk fabric and the jewel like colours of the paints provides tremendous opportunities for expression."

Her work in the current exhibition explores colour as a visual element that defines our world and our moods.

"The exhibition definitely offers the viewer something a little different," says Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator. "With a selection of beautifully handmade silk painting by Judy Costelloe, tactile woven tapestries and felt work by Jacinta Scully Usher and fascinating organic sculpture pieces by Marjorie Cunningham, it neatly encapsulates the magical experience of living in Kerry."

The exhibition opens on Thursday, March 12th in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and runs right through until Friday 3rd of April.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, the gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and generous corporate sponsorship from Kerry Group.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Latest from the Arts Council of Ireland

2009-02-28T05:05:00.001-08:00

February saw the Arts Council starting work on Arts Audiences, a project devised and managed by the Arts Council and Temple Bar Cultural Trust. The project seeks to clarify and address issues around audience development and experience in the arts, recognising the importance of maximising engagement with, and revenue from, audiences in times of an economic downturn.

A new liaison group has been formed between the Arts Council and the County and City Managers Association, which seeks to establish greater co-operation and partnership, to secure all that has been achieved in local arts development over the past twenty years.

In addition, we have made plans to redevelop the publicart.ie website. This dynamic new site will act as a tremendous information resource, and will feature a great range of public art projects taking place all around the country.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, we have news of changes that have taken place in the Deis scheme for 2009; we update readers on progress with the Reel Art awards, and announce Dublin City Councils new Filmmaker in Residence.

Finally, closing the newsletter are our regular articles from the Cultural Contact Point and news from the arts community.

Mary Cloake
Director

1. Arts Audiences - a partnership project between the Arts Council and Temple Bar Cultural Trust

Work is beginning on 'Arts Audiences', a project devised and managed by the Arts Council and Temple Bar Cultural Trust.

2. A new liasion group formed between the Arts Council and the County and City Managers' Association

A new liasion group has been formed between the Arts Council and the County and City Managers' Association, to establish greater co-operation and partnership in securing all that has been achieved in local arts development over the past twenty years.

3. New public art website

The Arts Council, with the support of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, is currently redeveloping the publicart.ie website.

4. Notice: Deis scheme 2009

The traditional arts community are reminded that there have been some changes to the Deis scheme, most notably in regards to the funding of recording projects and CD production.

5. An update on the Reel Art awards

Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme designed to provide film artists with an opportunity to make highly creative and imaginative documentaries on an artistic theme.

6. Dublin City Council announce Filmmaker in Residence

Dublin City Council, in association with the Arts Council, has announced that filmmaker Joe Lee has been selected as Dublin City Council's filmmaker in residence.

7. News from the arts community

Opportunities in the arts community in February include a invitation for submissions for the 2009 Dublin Fringe Festival; a music recording assistance opportunity from Dublin City Council in partnership with axis arts & community resource centre, Ballymun; and details about a National Music Symposium which will compile and present findings from the research report Local Authorities & Music: Knowing the Score.

8. International News from the Cultural Contact Point

News from the CCP in February includes: further EU cultural co-operation with Mexico; information on EU co-operation with Russia; a deadline for the EU Youth in Action Programme; a call for proposals for 'Preparatory Actions MEDIA International'; an announcement on the finalists for the Mies van der Rohe Award; an information day on European Capitals of Culture; a conference report on intercultural dialogue and digital culture; a paper of creativity and innovation; an IETM spring plenary meeting and details on the International Conference of National Trusts.

Samhlaiocht Story Telling Sessions in Kerry Library

2009-02-26T03:28:00.000-08:00

Laura Gutierrez Martin and Trish Thompson from Samhlaiocht

Kerry is probably best known as home to the most successful footballers in the GAA's illustrious history but it is nearly as well known as a home for writers, poets and storytellers. Kerry can boast a wonderfully strong literary tradition, in both English and As Gaeilge, having produced such fine writers as John B. Keane, Brendan Kennelly and Maurice Walsh.

To honour that strong tradition Samhlaiocht, the premier Arts organisation in Kerry, and Kerry Library are holding a number of Storytelling Seminars in Libraries in Kerry.

"Kerry has such a wealth of writers and a fantastically strong history of storytelling. We're also blessed with a strong infrastructure of libraries, with 9 branches throughout the county, and these act as focal point for cultural activities within the community," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "We've worked with Kerry Library in the past and were only too happy to get on board when they suggested holding Storytelling sessions in the libraries."

Two story telling sessions will take place in Listowel Library on Friday March 6th and in Castlesisland Library on Saturday March 7th, both sessions will take place at 11 am and are aimed at the four-year-old to six-year-old age group.

"The sessions are aimed at smaller children to encourage a love of reading and of storytelling from a very young age," added Jason. "The Libraries are such a wonderful resource and these sessions will bring younger children through the doors and hopefully go some way towards introducing them to the magic of reading. And we've lined up a stellar story teller in Laura Gutierrez Martin to make the introduction as rewarding as possible. I bet the attendees have an absolutely amazing time!"

Laura, who originally hails from Catalonia, but has been living in Ireland for three years has been facilitating workshops and seminars in storytelling for more than a decade. She has worked with Samhlaiocht in the past and will facilitate workshops as part of the upcoming Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival, to take place over the Easter weekend, April 11th to April 13th.

"I love working with younger children," says Laura. "Their imagination knows no limit and there is a freedom from the restraints that adults sometimes experience. I'm looking forward to the sessions and I'm sure the children will have a brilliant time, discover the wonders of the library and, who knows, perhaps some of them will grow up to be writers and storytellers in the years to come!"

As the Listowel Library session is on a Friday, the Library will take bookings directly for primary school children, interested teachers are asked to contact the Library on (068) 23044.

Castleisland Library will also take bookings directly on (066) 716 3403. As it takes place on a Saturday all interested parents and children are encouraged to get involved or to drop by on the day.

For more information on Kerry County Libraries please log onto www.kerrycolib.ie or call 066 712 1200

KFF presents MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS

2009-02-24T06:38:00.001-08:00

With the Oscars just over and a hugely successful screening for Active Retired Groups and Individuals in January, Kerry Film Festival and Siamsa Tire have partnered to bring a wonderful double Oscar nominated film to the big screen in Tralee. The screening of MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS will take place in Siamsa Tire on Thursday, March 5th at 2:00 pm and is absolutely free to everyone over the age of 65.

"We screened Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps last month to a rapturous crowd. Everyone that came seemed to love the movie but I think they really enjoyed the social aspect of the afternoon too," said Jason O' Mahony, Kerry Film Festival Director. The Festival offers free refreshments to the film fans before each screening.

"I haven't been to the cinema in years. It's hard to know what to see. But I love old Hitchcock films and it was nice to see an old classic film like The 39 Steps on the big screen. We got a lovely warm welcome from everyone at Kerry Film Festival too. In fact I think we enjoyed the wee chat and cup of tea every bit as much as the film," said Mary Walsh, from Tralee, with a laugh.

Mrs. Henderson Presents is directed by Stephen Frears and was nominated for two Oscars. It stars Bob Hoskins and Judi Dench, in an Oscar nominated role, and was made in 2005. It tells the true life story of Laura Henderson who bought an old London theater and opened it up as the Windmill, a performance hall which has gone down in history for, among other things, its all-nude revues!

"It sounds a little racy but isn't at all," added Jason, "I'm sure that everyone that comes will have a great time."

And while many of the attendees are from the Tralee area organizers received a call from a gentleman from Dublin who saw a piece on the January screening in the Irish Times. Apparently he'll use his free travel-pass to come down by train for this one and head home again in the evening!

The final film of the series is Sidney Lumet's 1957 classic, 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb and will screen in Siamsa on Thursday, April 9th at 2:00 pm. 12 Angry Men is consistently voted among the top ten films of all time and was nominated for 3 Oscars. Henry Fonda gives an absolutely riveting performance as a dissenting juror in a murder trial who slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

All films will screen in Siamsa Tire at 2:00 pm. For more information please call Kerry Film Festival on 066 712 9934.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Call to all Photographers

2009-02-05T03:06:00.000-08:00

Lucie Harwood's winning entry, Sunset, from Samhlaiocht's 2007 Competition

Samhlaiocht is issuing a call for photographs for its upcoming Open Submission Photography Exhibition.

"The photography competition is always a huge success," said Mike Foley, Samhlaiocht competition Coordinator. "In previous years the quality and variety of photographs has been simply astonishing. In fact this year we've decided to have two separate heats because of the number of entries we have had in previous years."

The closing date for the first heat is Friday, May 1st with the theme being Winter Light. The closing date for the second heat will be Friday, August 28th with a theme of Summer Light.

"This year we've put together a fantastic judging panel including Kerry Kennelly of Kerry's Eye, Dan Murphy, who is a fine art and portrait photographer with Red Couch Studios, Michael Diggin of Irish Landscape Photography and Michael O' Meara of Custom Framing Services," added Mike.

When quizzed about the number of judges, Mike said, "Well we figured it was important to get an expert on all different styles of photography. Kerry is an obvious candidate to judge photo journalism, while Michael Diggin is a wonderful Landscape photographer, Dan Murphy, on the other hand, has an eye for fine art photography, which folks can see in his current exhibition running in Siamsa until February 16th, and Michael O' Meara is an all-rounder that prints his own landscapes and the work of other artists."

As part of the prize this year all winning entries will be professionally mounted and framed and will remain the property of the artist after the exhibition. The Framing Prize is kindly sponsored by O' Meara Fast Framing Service in Tralee Shopping Center. Selected photographs will be displayed in the Samhlaiocht gallery in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee as part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing search for emerging talent. The exhibition will take place from the October 1st until October 23rd, 2009.

The photographers are asked to bear the theme in mind when submitting their work. A liberal interpretation of the theme is encouraged, however, and the organisers look forward to receiving a wide diversity of styles and subject matter.

"With themes like Winter Light and Summer Light the sky is really the limit and we're all very excited to see the entries this year," said Mike.

Photographs may be black and white or colour and must measure 8" X 6". Contestants must submit a hard copy of the picture to Mike Foley at Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, Lower Castle Street, Tralee. For those submitting photographs taken with a digital camera please also email a a copy to mike@samhlaiocht.com citing 'Samhlaiocht Photography Competition' in the subject line.

Please include your name, address, a contact phone number, email and the title of each photograph submitted with both hard and soft copies of the photographs.

The closing date for entries in the first heat is Friday, May 1st and the closing date for entries to the second heat is Friday, August 28th.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com or call 066 712 9934

Festival Parade looking for Entrants

2009-01-30T06:06:00.000-08:00

Funding of up to 8,000 available, Parade to take place on Easter Sunday Night, April 12^th

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival, which is this year celebrating 17 years of bringing the Arts to the street of Tralee, has issued a call for entries for its upcoming Easter Arts Festival Parade.

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts parade is always a wonderfully lively and colourful event featuring over twenty groups from all over the county as well as samba bands, other professional street artists and on one memorable occasion a host of bikini clad Brazilians!

"The parade is always one of our most vibrant events," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "The streets of Tralee come alive, full of colourful characters, colourful costumes and with a real festival atmosphere. You need only watch the parade to realise the spirit of the Arts is very much alive in Kerry."

This year the theme of the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival is 'Imagination' and the Festival will feature all aspects of the Arts from music, tradition, craft, culture, food and film to literature.

The Parade will take place on Sunday, April 12^th at approximately 7.30pm and groups that are interested are encouraged to get in touch with Samhlaiocht and fill out an application form.

"We've had a fantastically high calibre of community groups taking part in previous years," added Jason, "and the interest has been huge even at this early stage, so I'd really encourage interested groups to get in touch as quickly as possible. We’ll finish the parade this year with a spectacular fire-work display and I bet that all the communities that take part will set off fire-works in their own right!"

There two types of funding available. The first is called the Kerry Group Five Community Project. Five groups will be selected from among the applicants. Each group will receive funding of 1000 euro to provide artists fees, prop building, costumes and transport.

Funding is also available for Participant Groups. All kinds of groups from play schools to active retired groups are welcome to apply. The groups will each receive funding to assist towards expenses incurred.

"We hope that this can be the biggest year ever," added Jason. "We're delighted that Kerry Group who have supported Samhlaiocht since its inception are on board. Quite literally without their ongoing support the festival would cease to exist."

Application forms for both streams of funding are available online at http://www.samhlaiocht.com/ Forms are also available for the Samhlaiocht offices in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the Heart of Tralee. For More Information please contact Trish Thompson of Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934, by email on trish@samhlaiocht.com , or by simply calling into the office.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and Culture Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Children's Art Competition Winners Announced

2009-01-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival and Children's Bumble Bee Festival are the highlight of the Easter weekend in Kerry. Since 1992 the Festivals have drawn lovers of the Arts from all over Kerry to Tralee where they participate in a wide variety of wonderful events that take place over the Easter weekend.

Samhlaiocht, which means 'imagination' as Gaeilge, has captured people's imagination and the Festivals offer something for young and old alike. The Festivals have a different theme every year and routinely see in excess of seventy artistic events taking place in Tralee.

The theme for the 2009 Festival is 'Imagination' and in an exciting new departure Samhlaiocht offered children from all over the county the opportunity to see their work immortalized in the pages of this year's Festivals' Programme Guide. And the winners of the competition have just been announced.

"We were absolutely inundated with entries," said Bridie Brassil, who coordinated the event for Samhlaioct. "We had entries from all over Kerry from Fenit to Kilcummin, Killarney to Castleisland. Students from close to 15 schools submitted entries as well as numerous individuals. We had well over 150 entries all told!"

"One of the hardest tasks was deciding who the eventual winner should be," said Michele Sheehan, Samhlaiocht. "We spent a few days with all the art, all over the walls and all over every single desk top space in the office. We had everyone in the office driven mad!"

"Originally we were planning on having just one winner but there were so many fantastic entries that we couldn't do that!" added Bridie with a laugh. "Eventually we picked one overall winner and six special merit winners. We framed all the winning entries and have shown them to the kids involved – they're absolutely delighted!"

The overall winner of the competition is Anna Sugrue from Blennerville National School who is 10 years old with her winning work titled, 'Smile'. The other winners are Clodagh Gaynor, 8, from Fenit, Bronte Hannafin, 9, from Blennerville, Jack heaslip, 10, from CBS Tralee, Mary Murphy, 8, from Kilcummin, Micheal Murphy, 11, from Blennerville and Erin Stack, 8, from Kilmoyle.

Anna's piece will grace the cover of the Easter Arts Festival Programme Guide which will be ready and full to the brim of wonderful artistic activities for people of all ages. "Every year our Programme Guide is snapped up by attendees at the festival," said Bridie, "so we've decided that the programme guide is now a vibrant and artistic part of the festival. Extracts from the winning pics will appear though-out the Programme Guide!"

A selection of the entries, including the over all winning entry and all the merit winners, will go on display in the Samhlaiocht Gallery. The exhibition will open on Thursday, April 9^th and will be on display through out Easter. The official prize giving will take place at the exhibition opening in the Samhlaiocht Gallery in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee, on the 9^th of April. Prizes are generously sponsored by Smyth's Toyshop, Polymath Book Shop and O' Mahony's Book Shop and will be presented at the exhibition opening.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Rock For Experience 2009

2009-01-22T03:24:00.000-08:00

Ross Brassil at the 2008 Rock for Experience

It's that time of year again, Samhlaiocht is planning events for its annual Easter Arts Festival, and with that in mind, dates have now being set for the annual Rock for Experience, an event that highlights the wealth of young talent in Tralee's music scene. The 2009 Rock for Experience will take place on Easter Monday, April 13th.

"The theme for this year's festival is 'Imagination'," said Michele Sheehan, organizer of Rock for Experience. "We're anticipating a fantastic buzz and an atmosphere that's even more electric than the past few years. And they were brilliant!"

Rock for Experience provides an opportunity for budding musicians to perform in front of an audience using a professional PA system which is provided free of charge by Samhlaiocht. The organizers will also supply a drum kit, but bands will need to bring their own instruments and snare drum. It's a non-alcoholic event for all ages and will take place in Benner's Hotel in The Syndicate Rooms in Tralee.

Mike Foley, a co-ordinator of the event, added, "We're filming and recording this year's Rock For Experience live, and we'll make it available to download from the web. We're very excited about this and it's wonderful to be able to take Rock for Experience to the next level. The feedback we're received from the bands, even at this early stage, is extremely positive."

"This is the second year that we're using the Syndicate Rooms," said Michele. "It's an amazing venue, the audience can see the bands playing live on eight screens which are located through out the venue. It's a huge plus for young bands and a fantastic experience for younger musicians to play in a venue like this. We had a fantastic turnout last year with 10 bands and more than 500 screaming fans in the audience. Roper headlined the gig last year and we'll bring in another big name act to play with the younger bands this year."

Samhlaiocht is currently searching for the young bands to star in this extravaganza. "We've built up a huge following over the years and our regulars are a great asset but we'd also encourage younger, up and coming bands to apply. You never know when we'll unearth the next Metallica or Led Zepplin," said Mike with a laugh.

Application forms are available to download from the web on www.samhlaiocht.com Interested parties can also get in touch with Michele or Mike in the Samhlaiocht office in The Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. Please call 066 712 9934 for more information or email Mike on mike@samhlaiocht.com

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Arts Council December Newsletter

2009-01-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

December was a very busy month for the Arts Council. The Council announced more than 400 funding decisions for next year, an investment totalling almost e60 million. These are the Council's major grants; the remaining, smaller grants will be announced throughout 2009.

With significantly less resources than in previous years, the Council has been mindful of its role as both a leader and a partner in arts provision, adopting a strategic approach. In its decisions it took as its priority maintaining the fabric of the arts -- the key infrastructure - across more than a dozen artforms. In all of this, the Council was guided by its long-term policy, Partnership for the Arts, and aims to steer the development of each sector through the current downturn.

Also in the newsletter, we publish the closing dates for grants and awards in 2009. It is important to note that there are a number of changes in the ways to which Arts Council Awards will be offered in 2009. Not all awards will be open to applicants in all artforms or arts practices, and for some awards only one deadline has been scheduled for 2009.

Following on from the New Media, New Audience? seminar in November, we are pleased to inform you that presentations and audio recordings from the seminar are now available online. We are delighted to share this thought-provoking and timely discussion with all our subscribers.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, we announce the decisions for the second round of bursaries in 2008, and inform you about the upcoming deadline for the Kevin Kieran Award.

Rounding off the newsletter are our regular articles on news from the arts community and international opportunities from the Cultural Contact Point.

Chamber Orchestra Visits Kenmare

2008-12-11T05:03:00.000-08:00

Kerry's very own Kerry Chamber Orchestra in residence is to play at the newest venue in the county, Carnegie Arts Centre, Kenmare. And the admission to the concert is absolutely free and all are welcome! Tickets are sure to be snapped up quickly to avoid dissapointment please call 064 48701.

The concert will take place on Saturday, December 13th at 8pm ane will include Kerry Chamber Orchestra with Guests Frederike and Jildau Laumans (Recorders and Flute) and
Aisling O' Carroll (Soprano), winner of the prestigious Killarney Rotary Club Young Musician of the Future 2008.

The concert will feature works by Mozart, Handel, Purcell, Charpentier, Sammartini and Grieg

School and Community Workshops, Thursday, December 10th commencing 10am.

An exciting series of workshops and concerts takes place in Kenmare in the next week in the company of the Kerry Chamber Orchestra. The series marks the first visit to the recently opened Carnegie Arts Centre by Kerry's professional music ensemble.

Kerry Chamber Orchestra's members are professional musicians who are resident in Kerry and perform and teach in association with Kerry School of Music. The orchestra is directed by Aidan O' Carroll and performs a wide repertoire from the Baroque to the 20th century often in tandem with the Kerry Chamber Choir. The Orchestra is augmented by Woodwind, Brass and Percussion every January for the Annual Kerry Symphony Orchestra Concert at Siamsa Tire Theatre.

Kerry County Council Steinway D piano will also transfer from its home in Kerry School of Music to the Carnegie Centre for the series of workshops and concerts.

The Chamber Orchestra's Education and Outreach programme which is supported by Kerry County Council has seen introductory workshops in strings and woodwind delivered in schools throughout Kerry over the past several months as well as a programme of high profile concerts in alternative venues such as the O' Connell Memorial Church, Cahersiveen, St. John's Arts Centre, Listowel, Castleisland Library and St. Mary's Church of Ireland, Killarney and Siamsa Tire Theatre, Tralee. The aim of the Education and Outreach programme is to encourage the study of orchestral instruments and to provide regular, high quality performances of chamber and symphonic music throughout the county.

The programme for the coming year includes Handel's Messiah (250th Anniversary performance) in April with the Kerry Chamber Choir, Liszt Piano Concerto (Soloist: Santa Ignacs) and world premieres of works by Siobhan Cleary and young Kerry-born composer Christopher Lynch.

Admission to the concert is absolutely free and all are welcome.

For more information please contact 064 48701.

For more information on the Carnegie Art Centre please log onto http://www.carnegieartscentre.com/

Children's Art Competition

2008-11-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

Winning Entries to Feature in Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival Programme Guide

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival and Children's Bumble Bee Festival are the highlight of the Easter weekend in Kerry. Since 1992 the Festivals have drawn lovers of the Arts from all over Kerry to Tralee where they participate in a wide variety of wonderful events that take place over the Easter weekend.

Samhlaiocht, which means 'imagination' as Gaeilge, has captured people's imagination and the Festivals offer something for young and old alike. The Festivals have a different theme every year and routinely see in excess of seventy artistic events taking place in Tralee.

The theme for the 2009 Festival is 'Imagination' and in an exciting new departure Samhlaiocht is offering children from all over the county the opportunity to see their work immortalized in the pages of next year's Festivals' Programme Guide.

"Every year our Programme Guide is snapped up by attendees at the festival," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht, "so we've decided that the programme guide should also be part of the festival. We're holding an art competition and encouraging children from all over the county to send us their drawings and paintings and we'll select work to appear though-out the Programme Guide!"

With winning entries being selected for the covers of the Programme Guide, for the Posters that appear during the lead-up to the Festival and appearing though-out the festival itself, the competition is expected to generate a lot of interest.

"Samhlaiocht has been encouraging artistic talent in Kerry since 1992," added O' Mahony, "and hopefully this extra little event will bring joy to the thousands of people that enjoy our programme guides. We're hoping that next year's guide will be the most imaginative and colourful ever!"

The closing date for the competition is December 1st and interested parties are asked to send entries to Easter Art Competition, Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, 20 Lower Castle Street, Tralee.

Entries should not be smaller than A4 and not larger than A2. All entries should have the following information printed on the reverse of each piece of work: Name and Age of Artist, Home Address or School Address of Artist, Contact Phone number of Artist and the title of the work.

Each entry should be accompanied by the name and signature of the artist's parent, teacher or guardian.

The 2009 Easter Arts and Children's Bumble Bee Festivals will run from April 11th to April 13th, 2009. If you would like to see your artwork appear in the Programme Guide or in the Festival please send entries or contact Samhlaiocht on 066 712 9934 or via email info@samhlaiocht.com for more information.

Samhlaiocht Exhibition Inspired by Arts Council Collection

2008-10-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Exhibition by Tralee Studetns, 'Re-Marked', on display from Friday, Oct 31st to Fri, Nov 14th

During the Samhlaiocht Easter Festival an exhibition of drawings from the collection of The Arts Council of Ireland was on display in the Samhlaiocht and Siamsa Galleries. The exhibition called 'Making Their Mark' was a huge success and represented an unprecedented and unique opportunity for the people of Kerry to see works by artists of national renown. Samhlaiocht invited local students to visit the exhibition and to produce work of their own in response to that exhibition - the current exhibition, Re-Marked, is their creative response.

"The Making Their Mark exhibition featured works by artists such as James Hanley, Camille Souter, Brian Bourke and Stephen Brandes," said Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator at Samhlaiocht. "From traditional to contemporary, the exhibition revealed the breadth and imagination within the drawing practices of artists working in Ireland over the past 40 years and we felt it a wonderful opportunity for students in Kerry to both see the work and create work in response to it."

"The opportunity to submit work for public exhibition is at once exhilarating and daunting. The process of making a considered response to the works of others challenged the students' creativity in surprising ways," said Lillie O' Sullivan, art teacher at Presentation Secondary School. "The range of techniques and experimental approaches they employed in their work included making paper by hand, marbling, sewing, carving lino, driving nails, tearing up perfectly respectable charcoal drawings and putting canvas through the printing press."

"Samhlaiocht would like to congratulate the students from both Presentation Secondary School and Tralee Community College who have picked up the gauntlet to respond to the work of those well-known Irish artists," added Trish. "Taking on board other artists' ideas and creative approaches is no easy task, but these students have done so with great flair, successfully pushing the boundaries of their own creativity resulting in innovative, challenging and exciting work of their own."

"While it was a frustrating and exasperating process at times," added Lilie with a laugh, "it was also hugely rewarding and enriching. It's a great opportunity for the students to participate fully as artists in a public exhibition, to have their work acknowledged and their achievements celebrated. The students sparkle with creativity and spirit and I am very proud of each and every one of them!"

Samhlaiocht is indebted to the consistent support and cooperation of Lillie O' Sullivan from the Presentation Secondary School Tralee, Mary Kirby from Tralee Community College, and to Helena Gorey, Collections Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland. This project and the resulting exhibitions would not have been possible without their enthusiasm and unwavering commitment.

The exhibition, which is titled 'Re-marked', opens on Friday, October 31st, and runs until Friday, November 14th , in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

Oscar Winner Brenda Fricker at Kerry Film Festival

2008-10-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating nine years of bringing film to Kerry, today announced that Brenda Fricker is to receive an award at the Kerry Film Festival, which runs from November 1st to November 8th.

The award is named in honour of one of the most glamorous leading ladies of Hollywood's golden era, Maureen O' Hara.

"It's a privilege for me to have Brenda Fricker pick up the inaugural award," said Maureen O' Hara. "Brenda has displayed courage and determination throughout her career and her Oscar Winning role as Mrs. Brown in MY LEFT FOOT is one of the great highlights in Irish acting. I'm absolutely delighted that Brenda will accept this award and I wish her the very best in her career, in film and, most importantly, in her life."

"I'm absolutely thrilled to accept the award. It's lovely to be honoured and there's a wee space on my mantle piece, right next to the Oscar, for this," said Brenda Fricker with a laugh. "I'm looking forward to the Kerry Film Festival and am honoured to receive the award!"

Brenda won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Christy Brown's mother in Jim Sheridan's MY LEFT FOOT in one of the two outstanding Oscar winning performances in the film. Working again with Sheridan she co-starred in THE FIELD which was based on the play of the same name by Kerry Legend, John B. Keane. The film was shot on location in Kerry.

Brenda has starred in other Irish classics including INSIDE I'M DANCING, VERONICA GUERIN and in films such as Pen Densham's MOLL FLANDERS and Joel Schumacher's A TIME TO KILL. Unusual for an actress with such a fine gift for characterisation and dramatic roles, Brenda is equally adept with comedy having played a homeless lady in the hugely successful HOME ALONE 2 and a Weekly World News obsessed Scottish Mom to Mike Myers in SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER.

While Maureen O' Hara was undoubtedly one of Hollywood's best loved actresses, she was much more than just a pretty face. When Maureen became an American citizen on January 25, 1946 she retained her Irish citizenship, which was the first time in history that the United States government recognized an Irish citizen as Irish and it led to a change in process for all Irish immigrants. Maureen was also the first female CEO of an American airline company. Whether in the movies, in politics or in business Maureen demonstrated a quality for leadership and a bravery that was extraordinary and Brenda Fricker displays many of the same characteristics.

Maureen currently lives in County Cork and to honour her Kerry Film Festival is screening the John Ford classic THE QUIET MAN in a special screening to take place in Siamsa Tire on November 1st at 8:00 pm

The Maureen O' Hara Award acknowledges women that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their respective fields and Brenda Fricker is a most worthy recipient. The award giving will take place at the Kerry Film Festival Awards Ceremony at Fels Point Hotel in Tralee on Saturday, November 8th at 3:00 pm.

The Award Ceremony is the culmination of a week of films at Kerry Film Festival. The Awards ceremony will also feature the screening of award winning short films as adjudicated by Kerry Film Festival's panel of judges Liam Neeson, Kirsten Sheridan, John Carney and Oscar winning short film makers Suzie Templeton and Vanessa Roth.

The closing night film, DAMBE: THE MALI PROJECT, a musical documentary that follows Irish musicians Liam O' Maonlai and Paddy Keenan on a trip of musical discovery to the most remote music festival in the world, Festival au Desert, which takes place in Mail in the heart of Africa. The film will be followed by a Liam O' Maonlai concert. Both screening and concert to take place in St. James' Church in Dingle, on Saturday, November 8th, at 8:00 pm.

For more information on the Kerry Film Festival, please log onto http://www.kerryfilmfestival.com/ or call 066 712 9934.

Call for Entries - 2nd Annual Salon de Chiarrai Show

2008-10-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

Salon Style Show to Open on Thursday, 20th November in Tralee

In the style of 18th Century French exhibitions, Samhlaiocht will unveil the second annual Salon de Chiarrai exhibition late this November. No wall space will be left uncovered!

Artists from all over Kerry are invited to submit work for the second annual Salon de Chiarrai, which will take place from 20th November to 23rd December at The Samhlaiocht Gallery in The Old Presbytery, Lower Castle Street Tralee.

"We were blown away with the number of entries for our first Salon De Chiarrai show," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director of Samhlaiocht. "We received original paintings, drawings and etchings, large and small pieces in a whole variety of styles."

All original paintings, drawings and etchings, in any medium are welcome and there is no limitation on the scale of the work, however, submissions are limited to one per Artist. The only conditions for submission are that all work must be framed and ready for hanging, all work must be for sale, and work must not have previously been exhibited at The Samhlaiocht Gallery.

Last year over 80 pieces of art were selected from the submitted works and hung all over the walls in Samhlaiocht's intimate gallery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee.

"Kerry has always been known for its writers but last year the amount of work that was submitted suggests that in the future it'll be every bit as famous for its Artists!" added O' Mahony.

Work must be delivered to The Samhlaiocht Gallery during the week of the 10th to the 14th November. Artists will be notified if their work has been selected by Tuesday 18th November.

The Salon De Chiarrai Exhibition opens on 20th November and runs right through the Christmas period until December 23rd.

Last year's Salon had a wonderfully eclectic feeling to it, featuring everything from stunning landscapes to sketches of colourful Kerry characters such as John B. Keane and sales were brisk as the public picked up unique Christmas gifts that were treasured long after the holiday season passed.

All work must be clearly labelled with name and address and contact details of the Artist. Artists are encouraged to contact Trish Thompson on 066 712 9934 or through email on trish@samhlaiocht.com for more information.

For more info on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and through generous corporate sponsorship from Kerry Group.

Kerry Film Festival Film Club Screenings

2008-09-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Kerry Film Festival & Siamsa Tire Present

Kerry Film Club's Winter Season 2008

INTO THE WILD, 8.00PM, TUES, 14TH OCT
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, 8.00 PM, TUES, 11TH NOV
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, 7:30 PM, TUES, 16TH DEC

If you like movies then you'll love this! Film Club Screenings - 2008 Winter Season

INTO THE WILD
Into the Wild - Tuesday 14th October
Run Time: 148 Mins
Director: Sean Penn
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

For more on the film please log on here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/

To view a trailer of the film please click here:

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
Taxi to the Dark Side - Tuesday 11th November
Run Time: 106
Director: Alex Gibney

An Oscar winning documentary that take an in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.

For more on the film please log on here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0854678/

To view a trailer of the film please click here:

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
Miracle on 34th Street - Tuesday 16th December
Run Time: 96 Mins
Director: George Seaton

When a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing. Starring Maureen O' Hara, John Payne and Edmund Gwenn this timeless classic, which won three Academy Awards in 1948, captures the spirit of Christmas perfectly and is a wonderful way to start the holiday season!

For more on the film please log on here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039628/
To view a trailer of the film please click here:

EXHIBITION OF NEW WORK BY JANET FITZGERALD & JJ SHEEHY

2008-09-23T03:03:00.000-07:00

JJ Sheehy and Con Houlihan

Work inspired by the People and Places of Kerry, exhibition titled Kerry: People & Place, Opens in Samhlaiocht, Thursday, October 2nd

Kerry is an exquisite, enchanting place and those of us lucky enough to live here can easily conjure up pictures of colourful characters and beautiful landscapes. It is these that form the basis of new work by Janet Tvedten Fitzgerald and JJ Sheehy.

Janet, who hails originally from Kansas City in the U.S., and JJ, who hails from Lyreacrompane, have, despite the differences in their birth places, an outlook on life and on art that is as similar as those two places are different. Each draws inspiration from Kerry and from the beautiful landscape, the countryside and from the personalities that live here.

"I have a natural love of what we see all around us," says JJ, "it's the magical things in every day life that I love. For instance, later on this evening, I'm off to the pub to play a game of 45 for a euro! It's those simple pleasures, those every day things that I love most and are closest to my heart."

It's this simple love of everyday things that creates a truth that shines from his work. Janet, who has been living in Ireland since 2001 and in Dingle since 2003, is similarly enamoured with the people she meets or comes across on a daily basis.

"My portrait drawings in the exhibition focus on people that live and work in the Dingle area," says Janet.

Yet from such seemingly ordinary inspiration, both artists have created work that is anything but commonplace. "The people in my portraits come from all walks of life," adds Janet. "A well know Kerry Politician, a respected writer and artists, an elderly gentleman often seen walking the streets of Dingle who never fails to offer a friendly smile, a salute, and a nod. A person's face is a window to the soul and a record of their life, loves, desires and experiences. What interests me is the humanity, honesty, integrity and, sometimes, pure 'character', shinning through each face. And that's what I endeavour to capture and relate to the viewer."

She succeeds in spades. JJ is equally fond of the characters that he comes across and well known, and better loved, Kerry writers feature strongly in his work. Men such as Con Houlihan, Brian McMahon and John B Keane. JJ's proud of the international renown in which these authors are held and prouder still to have known some of them personally, his love of portraiture comes to the fore in his treatment of his subjects.

"I love strong features," says JJ. "For example Brian McMahon had such striking features, yet really calm eyes. My father and mother told me about meeting him in Listowel. He was a man that loved to stop and chat. He liked to talk and to pass the time of day."

While inspired by similar traits the artists use different techniques to portray their subjects. JJ uses generous layers and applications that combine to form images full of character representing the great writers in a powerful yet subtle way while Janet uses sensitive, personal pencil drawings to capture the personalities of her subjects to perfection.

Both artists believe that their upbringing had a huge part to play in their artistic undertakings.

"I was involved in the arts from the time I could hold a pencil," says Janet. "My Father's method for minding his children was setting up a still life arrangement and passing out paper and pencils. I often accompanied him on sketching journeys to rural areas around Kansas City. And it's been a life long passion ever since."

"My father was a writer, a farmer first and foremost, but also a writer. He wrote a lot of songs and poems and many of them were printed in the local papers years back. If you saw where I was born and reared you'd know immediately why he was a writer and I'm a painter!" adds JJ with a laugh. "When you're surrounded by such beauty on a daily basis, it's hard not to try to express it in some way – either through writing or through art."

Two artists, one from Kerry and one from Kansas, despite all the differences, it seems both places are practically the same!

Janet Tvedten Fitzgerald

The exhibition, which is titled 'Kerry: People & Place', opens on Thursday, October 2nd, and runs until Friday, October 24th, in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The exhibition will be opened by Mike O' Shea, the well known west Kerry author and personality. Mike's portrait will form part of the exhibition. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

Credit Union Poster Competition

2008-09-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, time for the 2008 - 2009 Credit Union National Poster Competition.

The theme of this year's competition is "The Credit Union - CU At Your Place". And the credit Union is hoping that every student in the county will enter!

In the past, winning posters have been used in the National Credit Union Annual Calendar which is a real incentive for many artists as they will be rewarded not just with a prize at each stage of the competition but for those who go forward to national level they will get to see the fruits of their labours by having their poster displayed in calendars in every town in the country.

Last year, Tralee Credit Union had winners at regional and national level, last years national level winner was Aine Daly (13) from Tonevane in Tralee, a first year student in Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School was one of 34 national category winners to receive a prize at the Irish League of Credit Unions 2007 - 2008 National Poster Competition.

The closing date is Friday 24th October 08. For more information and to get application forms please contact Orla from Tralee Credit Union on 066 712 2373 or through email on orla@traleecu.ie

Entry forms are also available on Tralee Credit Union's website www.traleecu.ie Entries must reach any of the three offices in Tralee, Castleisland or Ardfert no later than Friday, 24th October 08.

Belfast Film Festival seeking New Marketing Manager

2008-09-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

The Belfast Film Festival is seeking a new Marketing Manager to help promote, publicise and market the festival which has achieved a staggering 35% annual growth over the past 5 years.

Requirements:
- Minimum of 3 years in a marketing and/or festival management role
- Good working knowledge of MS Office including Access and Excel
- Experience of marketing, press and publicity
- A 3rd level degree in a relevant subject, or equivalent professional qualification
- Experience in a management role of a festival or arts venue

The salary for the position is between 21,412 and 26,067, depending on skills and experience of successful applicant.

The application deadline is 24th of September. For more information or to receive an application pack please contact Mave at +44 (0)28 9032 5913 or through email on mave@belfastfilmfestival.org

Interviews will be held towards the end of September or in early October.

More about Belfast Film Festival
http://www.belfastfilmfestival.org/
The Belfast Film Festival originated in August 1995 as part of feile an Phobail (West Belfast Community Festival). After five years of rapid development we moved to city centre premises in 2000 and expanded to a range of venues throughout the city. The festival's growth has continued with audience levels increasing on average 35% annually over the past 5 years.

Belfast Film festival has been at the forefront in championing cultural film exhibition in Northern Ireland. The festival is now one of the key annual events in the city. After a serious setback in 2004 when fire totally destroyed our offices, 2005 saw the festival's most major development to date. With new capital investment from European Union, Department of Social Development and Arts Council NI we moved to our new offices in the Cathedral Quarter and launched our Studio Cinema a 50 seater digital screening room.

Belfast Film Festival is unique in that it is the only festival which has a defined 'socio-political' focus on films complemented by a commitment to bring the best of new international documentaries to Ireland in our Maysles Documentary Competition. Each year a range of films, speakers and seminars focussing on a selected theme provides a platform for debate and enagagement between diverse section of the audience. Themes to date have included Reconciliation and Divided Societies; Ulster Protestant Identity on Film; Irish Women Film-makers; Human Rights and Film; Racism, Community and Film and in 2007 Societies in Transition: Policing for the People.

2008-09-03T06:12:00.001-07:00

The Samhlaiocht Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating nine years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, today announced the adjudicators for the Kerry Film Festival 2008, which runs from November 1st to November 8th.

The adjudicators that will judge this year's Kerry Film Festival short film competitions are:
Liam Neeson - Best Director
John Carney - Best Irish Narrative Short
Kirsten Sheridan - Best International Narrative Short
Vanessa Roth - Best Documentary Short
Suzie Templeton - Best Animated Short

"The Kerry Film Festival is delighted to announce its line up of adjudicators," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director, Kerry Film Festival. "From Liam Neeson, a wonderful Oscar nominated Irish actor, to John Carney, director of ONCE, to Suzie Templeton an Oscar winner for her animated short PETER AND THE WOLF via Kirsten Sheridan, an Oscar nominated Irish writer and Vanessa Roth, who won an Oscar last year for her documentary short FREEHELD, every member of the adjudication panel is at the very forefront of their chosen profession and we're absolutely thrilled that they have decided to help adjudicate for the 2008 Kerry Film Festival."

"This will be the ninth year of the Kerry Film Festival and both the quantity and quality of the films has been rising every year," continued O' Mahony, "so we're delighted that the quality of adjudicators has kept pace with the growing importance of the festival. We're fantastically thankful to all our adjudicators for agreeing to judge the short films."

The adjudicators have an unenviable task in selecting the best film in each of the categories. Over four hundred films were submitted to the Kerry Film Festival this year, up significantly on the total number of films submitted to last year's festival and more than double the number of films submitted in previous years.

For a brief Bio on the Adjudicators please see below:
Liam Neeson - Best Director
Liam Neeson is one of the leading International film stars working today. Whether it is his Academy Award nominated role of Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's highly acclaimed SCHILDLER'S LIST (1993), his award-winning portrayal of legendary Irish Republican hero in MICHAEL COLLINS (1996), or his role as controversial sex therapist Alfred Kinsey in the critically acclaimed KINSEY (2004), Neeson continues to display an acting range which can be matched by very few.

John Carney - Best Irish Narrative Short
John Carney is a writer/director who exploded onto the world stage following the surprise box office hit of critically acclaimed, ONCE, which scooped many prestigious awards including the coveted World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance and an Oscar for Best Original Song, Falling Slowly, by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Steven Spielberg famously said that this "little movie (ONCE) gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year!" With hotly anticipated low budget comedy ZONAD about to bow, and two films in development, John is the most exciting Director to happen to Irish Film for a long time!

Kirsten Sheridan - Best International Narrative Short
Kirsten Sheridan was born in Dublin in 1976. She has had a remarkable career directing five short films including, THE BENCH (1995), PATTERNS (1998), and THE CASE OF MAJELLA MCGINTY (1999), which have all been showered with praise on the International Film Festival circuit. Her first feature film, DISCO PIGS was selected as one of the three finalists in Europe for the prestigious Sundance/NHK Award and went on to scoop many other awards including the Grand Prize Best Film at the Ourense Film Festival.

In 2003 she co-wrote the original screenplay for the critically acclaimed IN AMERICA (2003) for which she received an Academy Award Nomination. She was also nominated for the Golden Globes, the Writers Guild of America Award, and the Humanities Prize. In 2007, Kirsten completed her US feature film debut, AUGUST RUSH, which was a box office success and received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

Kirsten lives and works in Dublin, Ireland where she has her own film production company 'Blindside Films' and is the mother of two small children.

Vanessa Roth - Best Documentary Short
Vanessa Roth is the producer of the Oscar winning documentary short FREEHELD. She produced and directed the 2007 award-winning documentary THE THIRD MONDAY IN OCTOBER and co-produced and co-directed the award-winning 2004 PBS documentary AGING OUT, which is the center of a multi- million-dollar national foster care outreach campaign sponsored by the Annie Casey Foundation. Roth produced and directed the 2002 award-winning film CLOSE TO HOME which premiered at Sundance and aired as a prime-time special. Her 1998 PBS film TAKEN IN: THE LIVES OF AMERICA'S FOSTER CHILDREN won the coveted duPont Columbia award.

Suzie Templeton - Best Animated Short
Suzie Templeton is a writer, director and animator. She studied animation at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, UK where she made the award-winning stop-motion film STANLEY about a man who falls in love with a cabbage! She then studied at the RCA and made DOG, a BAFTA winning stop-motion film about a man and his son dealing with their bereavement. Her half-hour stop-motion adaptation of Prokofiev's PETER AND THE WOLF won a British Animation Award, a Golden Rose, and the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at Annecy. It then went on to win an Oscar earlier this year. She currently lives in Amsterdam.

About The Kerry Film Festival
The Kerry Film Festival was established in 2000 and brings films & filmmakers from around the globe to one of the world's most beautiful locations. With a rich and varied film history the delightfully scenic Kingdom of Kerry, which is located on the scenic South West Coast of Ireland, has starred in Oscar Winning classic films from David Lean's RYAN'S DAUGHTER to Jim Sheridan's THE FIELD.

The main feature of the festival is a short film competition which focuses on young filmmakers seeking exposure for their work. Past adjudicators of the Kerry Film Festival Short Film Competition have included such luminaries as Mike Leigh, Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and Gabriel Byrne.

The festival recognises film as an important art medium and provides a diverse range of quality film and has screenings in Tralee, Listowel, Dingle, Valencia, Killarney, Kenmare, Waterville and Caherciveen making it a film festival for all of Kerry. For more information or to download application forms please log onto http://www.kerryfilmfestival.com/ email info@samhlaiocht.com or call +353 66 712 9934

Arts Council August Newsletter

2008-09-02T03:42:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the August edition of the Arts Council newsletter

In August, the Arts Council published a new pamphlet as part of the series the Value of the Arts written by academic Kevin Whelan. The pamphlet, entitled Between filiation and affiliation: the space of art, describes the role art plays in our development as a society, and the role of the artistic imagination in creating the future. You can download a copy of this, and all the pamphlets in the series from our website.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, we present www.artsanddisability.com, the first all-Ireland website to provide information, resources and facts about arts and disability; we announce a further three-year initiative for the Traditional Arts, we remind you about deadlines for the Commissions Award, the Small Festivals scheme and Annual Funding 2009 and announce the latest Deis decisions.

The newsletter rounds off with our regular articles on news from the arts community and international opportunities from the Cultural Contact Point.

1. Dr Martin Mansergh launches Kevin Whelan pamphlet at the Arts Council The Arts Council has published a new pamphlet as part of the series the Value of the Arts, written by academic Kevin Whelan.Read more

2. Arts and disability website www.artsanddisability.com is the first all-Ireland website to provide information, resources and facts about arts and disability.Read more

3. Arts Council plans further three-year initiative for Traditional Arts The Arts Council announced its intention to develop a further three-year initiative for the Traditional Arts.Read more

4. Reminder: Small Festivals Scheme 2009, first closing date 19 September 2008 Reminder: Small Festivals Scheme 2009 first closing date - 19 September 2008Read more

5. Reminder: Commissions Award closing date - 5:30 p.m., Thursday 11 September The closing date for receipt of applications for Commissions Award is 5:30 p.m., Thursday 11 September 2008.Read more

6. Reminder: Annual Funding 2008 closing date - 5:30 p.m, Thursday, 2 October, 2008 The closing date for receipt of applications for Annual Funding is 5:30 p.m., Thursday, 2 Octber 2008. This deadline is for organisations seeking funding through the scheme for activities happening in 2009.Read more

7. Deis decisions: July 2008 Deis is a scheme established under the Arts Council's Traditional Arts Initiative, 2005-2008 for one-off or short-term projects. Applications are received on an ongoing basis and decisions are made monthly.Read more

8. News from the arts community Opportunities in the arts community in August include: Common Ground, the an arts development organisation working in the context of community development, seek a part-time Administrator for maternity leave and the Smithwick's Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny is seeking to recruit a Chief Executive Officer. Read more

9. International news from the Cultural Contact Point News from the CCP in August includes: a call for entries for the 2009 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage; a deadline reminder for the EU Culture Programme Strands 1.1. and 1.2.1; a call for proposals for a new EU Culture Programme; the European Commission renews its call for expression of interest from cultural experts; details about the ENCATC Annual Conference; and upcoming meetings and conferences of the French Presidency of the EU.Read more

Samhlaiocht to bring Entrepreneurs to Life!

2008-08-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

Theatre Techniques to get Students Thinking Outside the Box

"The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies." So said Michael Gerber, entrepreneur, small business guru and best selling author of five books.

And with just such an ideal in mind, Kerry Enterprise Board CEO, Tomas Hayes, came up with a novel way to help develop and nurture young entrepreneurs - using theatrical techniques, those used by actors to help them prepare for roles, to help Transition Year students investigate and develop their instinctive skills and talents and help them bring the 'Entrepreneur Within' to life! "I thought it would be a fantastic way to get students thinking about what it means to be an entrepreneur," says Tomas.

He then contacted Kerry-based Arts organisation, Samhlaiocht, who brought an understanding of the Arts and Theatre to the table to complement Tomas' experience in the business world. "We're delighted to be working with the Kerry County Enterprise Board," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "I did a Masters in Business at UCG and have always loved combining the Arts with Business and vice versa."

And while the programme will utilise techniques from the Arts it will be results oriented with students competing for a prize that will provide seed capital of 5,000 euro to over fifteen start-up businesses in five schools through out Kerry.

The project will be delivered by Jikijela, a Sligo based company that specialises in Brand, Customer Experience and Business Culture Design using creative facilitation techniques developed for the business community. A number of differing techniques will be used, including 'Forum Theatre', which is a method that centres on the students actively creating scenes that an entrepreneur is likely to face and then 'acting' out possible solutions. The students are involved in the construction of the scenes, and are encouraged to develop inputs and suggested altered outcomes.

Debate is encouraged and an arena for practical, interactive solutions is provided. The students take part as the 'scene' unfolds, further encouraging them to think, to reason and to act like entrepreneurs. It is crucially a collective experience where all the Students strive to see alternative angles to the problems of starting up a business and to then resolve those problems in an imaginative, creative fashion.

"We're looking forward to rolling out the programme," says Jason, "and we're convinced that it will work for one simple reason - because it's fun! The non-traditional methods used will encourage Students to think in non traditional ways. In the business world, entrepreneurs see opportunities everywhere but others see only problems. The programme encourages students to look beyond the problems and to actively seek out opportunities, teaching them to act like Entrepreneurs, teaching them to think like Entrepreneurs, teaching them, in short, to be Entrepreneurs!"

"We're going to roll out the programme in five schools through out Kerry," adds Tomas. "With Samhlaiocht and Jikijela on board, we have professional facilitators with a background in both business and theatre who will deliver a programme that's designed to dovetail with other work being done in the area. The programme can function as either a back-up Entrepreneur programme or a stand-alone project. We are anxious to get started, get feedback from the Schools and link into other programmes."

The programme will take place over the school year 2008 - 2009 and is designed to fit into individual schools learning plans and the school curriculum ensuring the least possible disruption with the maximum results.

The Programme is being delivered by Kerry County Enterprise Board and Samhlaiocht, the premier Arts Organisation in Kerry, and interested parties should contact Tomas Hayes of Kerry County Enterprise Board on 066 718 3522.

For more information on Kerry Enterprise Board, please log onto www.kerryenterprise.ie
For more information on Samhlaiocht, please log onto www.samhlaiocht.com
For more information on Jikijela, please log onto www.jikijela.com please also log onto www.jel.ie

New Exhibition of Work from Isabelle Gaborit to go on display in Samhlaiocht

2008-08-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

Isabelle Gaborit's 'Somewhere In Between' exhibition opens in Samhlaiocht, Thursday, September 4th

Tony Bennett's signature tune, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, speaks of the magical effect a place can have on a person and while Tony's heart was captured by the City by the Bay, many who visit Ireland experience the same feeling. Captivated by the beauty of the landscape or the beauty of the 'cailini' many a visitor has left their heart in Ireland!

One such visitor was Isabelle Gaborit who hails from La Rochelle in the South West of France. She visited Ireland, fell in love with the place, and stayed from the first! "I came to Ireland in 1993 on a student exchange from my college in France," says Isabelle. "But I came with my car fully packed because I knew I would love it and I have been here ever since!"

Her primary reason for visiting was to study English but she was also taking classes in Celtic Studies and has always had an interest in Art. "I was lucky, because while I was studying in France we were encouraged to take extra-curricular classes and I took Art. When I came to Ireland I found the place absolutely beautiful, just as I was expecting, and having graduated decided to dedicate myself to my Art."

Having completed her primary degree she remained in Ireland and since then she has become an active member of the artistic community and recently graduated from the Galway, Mayo Institute of Technology with an honours degree in Fine Art.

Isabelle is captivated by the landscape and her inspiration for this exhibition 'springs' from Holy Wells. "I once did a project called 'Sense of Place' that encouraged us, as Artists, to think about the place from where we come or the places that are dear to us," says Isabelle. "I'm inspired by the holy wells and ground waters of Ireland. They almost seem to record the relationship between the land and its people. The wells evoke a depth and stillness while also working as a reflection or mirror of the soul. The waters are gentle, soft and beautiful, but also there's a history to these places while many are legendary for their healing powers. So there are many different layers at work."

Her work mirrors this, "I use my art to explore these different layers," says Isabelle. "My work reminds me to look underneath, to unwrap the numerous layers and, hopefully, it allows the viewer a space in between, somewhere, perhaps, between reality and memory."

To this end her work uses a collage of objects which she has found while incorporating inks, watercolours, acrylics, pastels, and pencil drawings. "I guess my work is almost like a personal jigsaw," laughs Isabelle. "I deal with fragments of my own memory, things I have found and I try to work on different layers, planes or levels. The idea is to capture the eye of the viewer and draw him or her into the painting, into the different details in the work."

The paintings, which were completed between 2007 and 2008, became, almost, a mirror to the changing moods of the Artist and the many changing moods of Irish weather as the seasons passed, from winter to summer. The paintings reflect this passing with shades ranging from cool, cold tones to bright, cheerful splashes of colours.

Isabelle grew up next to the sea and admits to absolutely loving water but there may be just a little too much water for her here! "While I feel absolutely at home in Ireland, I have a two year old baby girl and a wonderful partner, I have to admit to sometimes missing the weather in the South of France," laughs Isabelle. "But at least the rain here keeps the holy wells full to brimming!"

The exhibition, which is titled 'Somewhere In Between', opens on Thursday, September 4th, and runs until Friday, September 26th, in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome. For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

Oscar winner to Join Take 2 Film Festival

2008-08-07T04:38:00.000-07:00

Laura Waters Hinson

The Take-2 International Student Film Festival (T2FF), which runs under the umbrella of The Kerry Film Festival, and takes place from November 3rd to November 7th, 2008, has announced that Laura Waters Hinson, a golden award winner at this year's 35th Student Academy awards, will adjudicate films for Take 2.

"We are overwhelmed and delighted at Laura coming on board as adjudicator," said Jerry Fitzgerald, Director of the Take 2 Film Festival. "We approached Laura, during a very busy time for her, off the back of huge success for her Documentary, so we thought the opportunity had passed us by, but when she accepted our proposal we were very happy. It’s always nice to have an Oscar winner on board!"

The Take-2 Film Festival (T2FF) will focus on student films and on the short film format in particular and will feature a competition in a number of categories including Best Irish Short, Best International Short, Best Short as Gaeilge, Best Animated Short, and best Documentary, which Laura Waters Hinson will adjudicate.

Laura Waters Hinson is a filmmaker and photographer based in the Washington, DC area. She is president of Image Bearer Pictures and has a Master of Fine Arts in Film from American University. Laura’s most recent project, As We Forgive, is an Oscar award-winning documentary about two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. Laura said, "I am honored to be a part of the Take-2 Festival and am eager to see the work of student filmmakers from around the world."

The organisation of the Take-2 Student International Film Festival is shaping up incredibly well with close to 200 entries expected at the festival in its pilot year. Kicking off on November 3rd, and running under the umbrella of the Kerry Film Festival, Take-2 will be host to many special short films as well as guest feature films, at the Institute of Technology, Tralee’s North and South Campuses. The Festival runs until Friday November 7th and it promises to be a festival that the people of Kerry and the enthusiastic students, both from home and abroad, who are involved won't forget in a hurry!

For more information on the Take-2 Student International Film Festival please log on to http://www.t2ff.com/

Arts Council Announces Funding

2008-08-07T04:27:00.000-07:00

The closing dates for the Arts Council's Small Festivals Scheme for 2009 are:
Round One Closing Date: Round One of the scheme is available to festivals taking place on or before the 30 June 2009. Closing date for receipt of applications for Round One is Friday 19 September 2008. If applicants are organising a series of events (e.g. concert series) taking place over the course of the year, i.e. continuing beyond 30 June, they should apply under Round One.
Round Two Closing Date Festivals and Events taking place in the second half of 2009, i.e. after 1 July 2009, should apply under Round Two of the scheme. The closing date for Round Two is to be confirmed (early to mid February – tentative date)

Application form The application form and guidance notes for this scheme is available through our online site http://applications.artscouncil.ie/smallfestivals or you can request a hard copy form by calling Regina O’Shea with full postal details on telephone +353 1 618 0260 or by email to smallfestivals@artscouncil.ie.

First Time Applications First time applicants to the scheme are advised to contact Una McCarthy, Head of Festivals and Events, prior to submitting an application; telephone +353 1 6180272 or by email to firsttime@artscouncil.ie.

Festivals, Local Arts and Venues Officer The Arts Council 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, 70 Cearnog Mhuirfean, Baile Atha Cliath 2.TEL: + 353 1 6180 260 Fax: +353 1 6761 302 E: regina.oshea@artscouncil.ie W: http://www.artscouncil.ie/

The Arts Council publishes an email newsletter that provides monthly updates on grants and awards, news and events, and arts policy. Register to receive the newsletter through the Council website by visiting http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/newsletter.aspx.

Commissions award-Arts Council
Closing date: 11/09/2008
Maximum awarded: e10000
Art area: All
Audience type: All
Collaborative application possible? Yes
Contact: Sara Stokes
Position: Grants and Awards Assistant
Telephone: 01 618 02 49
Email: awards@artscouncil.ie

Purpose and priorities of award
The primary purpose of this award is to facilitate creative partnerships between a diverse range of commissioners and artists that result in new work or repertoire renewal. These partnerships should lead to a public performance, a publication, an exhibition or another form of dissemination of the commissioned work in Ireland or abroad. In theatre the commission might lead to the completion of a script but not necessarily a full production.

In the context of this scheme the definition of a 'commission' is where one person or entity commissions another to create a new piece of artistic work or dynamic repertoire renewal, and where the creative results will be controlled by the commissioned artist(s).

ARTIST IN YOUTH WORK RESIDENCY 2008 SEEKING APPLICATIONS
The National Youth Council of Ireland is now seeking applications for this scheme. The Artist in Youth Work Residency award is offered as a means of extending and enhancing opportunities for young people to experience and participate in the arts. The aim of the Residency award is to encourage artistic collaboration between professional artists and young people. Young people will have the opportunity to work with and learn from practitioners of excellence in their field. Equally, artists will have the opportunity to enrich their own professional practice through the contextual experience of working with young people.

Funding of up to e15,000 will be awarded to successful residency applicants. This scheme is open to applications from established youth organizations, or a consortium of such youth organizations, whether locally based independent groups or groups affiliated to voluntary or statutory youth organizations. Closing date for receipt of applications is 5.pm on Friday the 3rd of October.

You can download the Application Form at: http://www.youth.ie/what_s_new/artist_in_youth_work_residency_scheme

For more information contact emmet@nyci.ie Emmet Sheerin Youth Arts Project Officer
National Youth Council of Ireland 3 Montague Street Dublin 2 01 4784122 http://www.youth.ie/

YOUTH ARTS DEVELOPMENT AWARD 2008 SEEKING APPLICATIONS
The National Youth Council of Ireland is now seeking applications for this scheme. The Youth Arts Development Award is offered to further sustainable development of youth arts practice at a local level. The aim of the Youth Arts Development Award is to encourage the formation of partnerships between relevant agencies and organisations at a local level, to work towards integrated development of long-term youth arts programmes in a specific geographical area. Awards of between e5,000 - e20,000 will be awarded to successful applicants. Applications are invited from local youth organizations, or a consortium of organisations with one or more of the following – Community Development Organisation, Local Authority, Arts Organisation/ Venue, Educational Institution (second or third level), Business Corporation, other.

Closing date for receipt of applications is 5.pm on Friday the 3rd of October.
You can download the Application Form at: http://www.youth.ie/what_s_new/youth_arts_development_award_2008

For more information contact emmet@nyci.ie Emmet Sheerin
Youth Arts Project Officer National Youth Council of Ireland 3 Montague Street
Dublin 2 01 4784122 http://www.youth.ie/

INTERNATIONAL ARTS GRANTS - CULTURE IRELAND
Culture Ireland offers awards to Irish artists or arts organisations to facilitate participation at strategic international arts events in other countries of Irish cultural activities of excellence. For information call (01) 6313905, Email cultureireland@dast.gov.ie or visit http://lists.visualartists.ie/lt/t_go.php?i=119&e=MjIw&l=-http--www.cultureireland.gov.ie. Deadlines: 15 August and 15 November.

The Arts Office of Galway County Council is pleased to announce a bursary initiative for musicians to attend the Music Network 2008 / 2009 Continuing Professional Development Programme.

This programme is aimed at professional musicians working and/or wishing to work in a variety of outreach scenarios, for example education, healthcare and audience development.
The 2008 / 2009 course will take place over three weekends between September and April: 6 and 7 September, 2008 (DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama, Rathmines, Dublin 6) 10 and 11 January, 2009 (The Coach House, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2) 25 and 26 April, 2009 (The Coach House, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2)

Musicians of all genres (classical, traditional, world, folk, jazz, contemporary, popular etc.) practicing in a variety of contexts (formal and non-formal education, youth, community, health etc.) are invited to apply for a bursary. Musicians in receipt of bursaries are required to attend all three training weekends.

The 2008 / 09 Facilitation Team will include:
Elaine Agnew (formal and non-formal education scenarios, healthcare, prison and other institutions)

Mel Mercier (Using tuned & untuned percussion as a resource in formal and non-formal settings)

Ros Hawley (Healthcare: children)

Joe McKenna (Healthcare: older people)

Kevin O’Shanahan (Healthcare: mental health scenarios)

Muireann Aherne (Drama and outreach workshops)

Jenny Elliot (Healthcare: dementia & adults with brain injury)

Paul Roe (Structure & Practicalities)

Lucy Champion (Song as Resource)

Naheed Cruickshank (Early years music)

The Facilitation team will also be supported by presentations from key representatives from the Arts Council including Rachel Holstead, Music Adviser to The Arts Council and Margaret Rogers, Child Welfare Officer, The Arts Council.

This course will offer musicians: - The highest standards of Facilitation - Training in a comprehensive range of outreach scenarios - Networking opportunities with musicians working in other counties and disciplines - Support, resources and materials - Appropriate standards of course facilities and services

Further information about this course is available from Music Network, The Coach House, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2 Ph: Tel: 01 6719429 / development@musicnetwork.ie / www.musicnetwork.ie Bursaries are valued at €750 – which covers course fee [e300] and e450 contribution to travel, accommodation and subsistence

To apply, please complete the application form together with an up to date CV and submit to the Arts Department, Galway County Council, County Hall, Galway . Ph: 091 746877 E: artsoffice@Galwaycoco.ie W: www.Galway.ie/Arts

The deadline for receipt of applications is 5.00 p.m. August 21st 2008 The Successful Applicants will be contacted no later than 25th August 2008
Late and/or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

The Arts Council, The IRMA Trust and Music Network Announce Details of the Music Capital Scheme and Research Project
The Arts Council, The IRMA Trust and Music Network announced details of the Music Capital Scheme and Research Project, an action-research initiative designed to provide support for the purchase of musical instruments in 2008. The scheme and research project will be operated on a pilot basis in 2008 and will be designed to recommend formalised structures for ongoing support in this area beyond 2008.

Closing date for applications 5:30pm Monday 29th September.

Commenting on the initiative, Mary Cloake, Director of The Arts Council said, "The Arts Council is aware of a range of needs for capital investment in music throughout Ireland. One of the principal areas of difficulty for musicians and for ensembles can be the purchasing of instruments. The costs of instrument purchase, maintenance and repair can be significant barriers to the development of many organisations and this scheme aims to address this."

There are three categories of support under the Music Capital Scheme aimed at highly skilled performing artists, non-professional performing groups/ensembles and those working in youth or community organisations supporting musical practice. This scheme marks a new departure for The Arts Council as for the first time non-professional music groups can apply for funding under one strand of the scheme.

The Music Capital Scheme, managed by Music Network, will focus exclusively on the area of music instrument purchase in 2008. Awards in this scheme will be made to individual artists, to ensembles and to organisations supporting musical practice in other ways. A total fund of up to e350,000 in grant aid is available in 2008, of which up to e130,000 is specifically intended to support the purchase of rehearsal equipment and instruments for use by youth and community groups, via a once-off investment in the scheme funded by the IRMA Trust.

Dick Doyle, IRMA Trust Director and CEO of IRMA & PPI, stated, "the IRMA Trust is pleased to partner with The Arts Council on a national scheme of this nature. The Trust has invested over €1.5 million to date in helping young people gain access to music. What this scheme is all about is bringing rehearsal facilities locally to young bands."

The Research Project, managed by the Arts Council, will look beyond the scope of the new scheme at a broader range of related issues including the needs for equipment purchase; for the provision of rehearsal venues; and for the development of performing venues for artists, ensembles, venues and support organisations working in all areas of musical practice.

Closing date for receipt of applications is 5:30 p.m. Monday 29th September 2008. For further information visit http://www.musicnetwork.ie/ or contact The Music Capital Scheme Manager, Music Network, Tel. 01 6719429 or email capitalscheme@musicnetwork.ie.

Arts Council July Newsletter

2008-08-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

1. The Arts Council announces new, three-year funding plan for the Abbey Theatre The Arts Council has announced the offer of new, three-year funding for the Abbey Theatre for the period 2009-2011. Read more

2. Arts Council awards over e900,000 to individual artists A total of 76 individual artists from across the country received the grants as part of the Arts Council's Bursary awards for 2008. Read more

3. Arts Council publishes arts and education report The Arts Council has published Points of Alignment the Report of the Special Committee on the Arts and Education. Read more

4. Music Capital Scheme and Research Project The Arts Council, the IRMA Trust and Music Network announced details of the Music Capital Scheme and Research Project, an action-research initiative designed to provide support for the purchase of musical instruments in 2008. Read more

5. Child welfare and protection - update July 2008 An update on child protection and welfare. Read more

6. Local Partnership Scheme 2008 Details of the three local authorities who were awarded funding to develop and deliver their proposals. Read more

7. Decisions: Commissions award 2008 (round 1) The Arts Council is pleased to announce funding for the first round of the Commissions award 2008. Read more

8. Decsions: Travel & Training (March - June 2008) The aim of this award is to improve the professional development, formation and networking opportunities of artists and people working professionally in the arts. Read more

9. Decisions: Projects: New Work Award, round 1, 2008 The Arts Council is pleased to announce funding for the first round of Projects: New Work in 2008. Read more

10. Decisions: Projects - Once-Off 2008 (round 1) The Arts Council is pleased to announce funding for the first round of Projects: Once off in 2008. Read more

11. Decisions: Deis June 2008 Deis is a scheme established under the Arts Council's Traditional Arts Initiative, 2005-2008 for one-off or short-term projects. Applications are received on an ongoing basis and decisions are made monthly. Read more

12. News from the arts community Opportunities in the arts community in July include: details of the Music Network Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Training Programme 2008/09; Dance Ireland is seeking applications for the post of Administrator; the National Youth Council invites applications for the Artist in Youth Work Residency 2008 and the Youth Arts Development Award; and St Patrick's College Drumcondra is seeking applications for an Irish language Writer-in-residence. Read more

13. International news from the Cultural Contact Point News from the CCP in July includes details about EU Culture Programme information meetings; corrections made to the EU Culture Programme application form; the publication of a call for proposal for ERASMUS for Young Entrepreneurs, the launch of a new publication reviewing sectoral training funds in Europe; and an announcement about Ljubljana as World Book Capital 2010. Read more

Samhlaiocht Exhibition is Rubbish!!

2008-07-30T03:52:00.000-07:00

Junk Art and Recycled Sculpture Competition and Exhibition to Open on August 7th

How often have you heard Art described as 'Rubbish'? Well in this instance, the opening of a new Exhibition in Samhlaiocht, the description is perfectly apt and, yet, as far from the truth as possible! The Exhibition titled, 'Don't Rubbish It', focuses on raising awareness of the creative potential of much of the rubbish that is thrown away on a daily basis. The challenge set to Artists was to create innovative art and sculpture from 'junk' materials that would, in the normal course of things, be thrown away.

The competition has been running for a few years now and the quality of the work and the number of entries received has continued to astound Jane Savage, one of the judges of the competition, and the lady charged with opening the exhibition in Samhlaiocht. "Sarah O' Brien, Michael O' Coilean, the Kerry County Council Environmental Awareness Officer, Paul Sherry, manager of the Killarney Outlet Centre, Tadgh Moriarty, manager of Killarney Summerfest and I were the judges of the competition. It was far too important a decision to leave to just one person!" laughs Jane.

The competition had four different categories for National Schools, Secondary Schools, Adults and Professional Artists and with the growing realisation of the importance of recycling and the environment the competition has certainly struck a chord across all age groups and categories with a wonderfully eclectic mix of Artwork. It also struck a chord amongst sponsors with The Kerryman, Astellas Ireland Ltd, Sport Corran Tuathail, KWD Recycling and Killarney Town Council Arts Committee climbing on board to offer a whole slew of prizes totalling over 4,000 euro in value!

"We're delighted the exhibition is coming to Samhlaiocht," said Trish Thompson, Samhlaiocht Gallery Coordinator. "I think it's hugely important that people become more environmentally aware and conscious of the decisions they make when it comes to reusing and recycling. Everyone can remember being children, getting lovely fancy toys, setting them aside and then having hours of fun playing in the box the toys came in! We should all try to rediscover that magic, and strive to ensure that absolutely nothing that can be used is carelessly discarded."

"I've always been environmentally conscious," adds Jane. "I live in Killarney on the outskirts of the National Park, one of the most beautiful locations in the whole county, if not the world, I love gardening, love the outdoors and this just ties so well into that."

Over twenty pieces were created for the competition all utilising materials that would otherwise have ended up in the bin and while one little competition is unlikely to change the world it is certainly proof that people are moving in the right direction.

"When we were young, my Mom used to chase after people and give out to them for littering," says Jane. "It used to embarrass me terribly. But I'm so proud of her now. And the funny thing is, she's still doing it and she's eighty eight years old!"

The exhibition opens on Thursday, August 7th, and runs until Friday, August 29th, in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

Askeaton Contemporary Arts presents Welcome to the Neighbourhood

2008-07-17T02:42:00.000-07:00

Taking place from July 14 to 26 2008

NOT ABEL (Ireland) / Peggy Franck (Holland) / Oliver Heinzenberger (Germany) / Marie Jeanne Hoffner (France) / Michael McLaughlin (Ireland) / Curated by Michele Horrigan

Founded in 2006, Askeaton Contemporary Arts aims to promote and provide contemporary visual art to the locale of Askeaton Co Limerick. July 2008 will see the third edition of Welcome to the Neighbourhood, an annual programme of invited international and Irish artists resident and working in the town.

By developing community involvement and understanding how art might be produced and experienced in this locality, ACA aims to open up new possibilities of how contemporary art might operate outside a city environment, while concurrently supporting the production of new artists' projects.

Two editions of Welcome to the Neighbourhood have been staged, introducing the work of artists from Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and Ireland to Askeaton. ACA has advocated an experimental approach to the production of artists' projects, furthering an understanding of the possibilities of the project in a very broad cultural sense, and allowing for the development of the festival as a fluid conceptual model rather than as a more traditionally-structured event.

A series of events and talks and tours are scheduled during Welcome to the Neighbourhood, culminating with a reception for the artists on Friday, July 25, at 8pm at the Civic Trust. On Saturday, July 26, a daylong series of talks, tours and artists' project will be presented throughout Askeaton, and at Limerick City Gallery of Art. Also, other conversations and discussions will occur, as artists and artworks are infused into daily life in Askeaton town.

Askeaton Contemporary Arts is kindly supported by the Arts Council, Askeaton Civic Trust, Shannon Development, Limerick County Council, Limerick City Gallery of Art, and many local businesses and individuals. Further details, festival brochure and accommodation arrangements from Michele Horrigan on 087 297 7179, or askeatonarts@yahoo.ie

Feile na mBlath Festival is a Stunning Success

2008-06-27T07:06:00.001-07:00

Musicians entertaining the crowd at Feile na mBlath

The 2008 edition of Feile na mBlath was a fantastic success despite a torrential downpour on Saturday. With over 3000 people attending events over the three day course of the Festival, this year's Feile na mBlath was the best attended in the Festival's short history.

Samhlaiocht presented 18 workshops as part of the Festival. With 9 workshops taking place on Friday and an additional 9 workshops taking place on Saturday, that covered everything from flower making to painting.

Workshop participant at Feile na mBlath

Over 300 school children attended the workshops on Friday and Samhlaiocht brought in a magician, stilt walker and face painters to brighten up the proceedings further. The weather on Saturday tried its best to make a damp squib of things but those that braved the rain had a wonderful time.

Fire eaters and stilt walkers liven up proceedings

And while the weather did its worst, Tralee Town Council did its best providing entertainment, music, guided walks, gardening workshops and recitals for both adults and children ensuring that people left with a smile on their face.

Exhibition Of New Work By Eileen Kennedy

2008-06-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

Eileen Kennedy outside her studio in Ashgrove, Tralee

You sometimes hear an artist say they find art therapeutic and when you visit Eileen Kennedy's intimate little studio, it's easy to see why! Eileen, who is married to local music legend, James Kennedy, and has two children, Clare and Ciaran, has a delightful studio behind her house in Ashgrove in Tralee. Access to the studio is by way of a meticulously kept garden that features statues of the Buddha and is soothing to the senses from the first moment of entry.

"Before we built the studio, I used to paint in an upstairs bedroom and when I was preparing the dinner I'd move the easel down to the kitchen and place it next to the cooker," laughs Eileen, "so it's nice to have a space that's dedicated to Art."

Eileen, who is from Tralee originally, studied art at Crawford School of Art and Design where she was awarded Student of the Year by the Cork Arts Society. She is a born painter, sculptor and print-maker and finds inspiration in life but also in the tactile interaction with the materials she uses. In fact one of her earliest memories is of asking her grandfather to show her how to paint at the extraordinarily young age of two! "I love the freedom and sense of discovery every time I create something," she says, "and it's a feeling that I have loved for as long as I can remember."

And while Eileen works primarily from her painting studio at home she also travels to Cork Printmakers on a regular basis. Her work has been shown extensively in Ireland and she has exhibited in Belgium, China and right across the U.S.

One exhibition currently running in America was organised by Jimmy Deenihan, TD for Kerry North. The exhibition, titled, A Different Land: Irish Bogland Interpretations, opened in New York in March of this year at Magnan Projects and features Eileen's print, Windblown Cotton, as well as work from another 26 Irish artists. "Jimmy has been a huge help to me and many other Kerry artists," said Eileen, "not just for this but for all the work he puts into the annual art exhibition in Finuge, during The Sean McCarthy Weekend, and much more besides."

Another two of Eileen's prints were selected for a touring exhibition in the U.S., Prints from Ireland, and, as you read this, are on route to Hawaii.

Luckily, though, you won't have to go to Hawaii to view her prints, as an exhibition of her work will go on display at the new Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday, July 10th. The exhibition will be opened by Jimmy Deenihan. Eileen is no stranger to Samhlaiocht having exhibited at the gallery in 2004.

Paper Pool of Love. Watercolour by Eileen Kennedy

"Eileen's last show was a sell-out success," said Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator of Samhlaiocht, "and we're delighted to have her back for another exhibition. Her prints flow with an energy that mirrors life and while some are imbued with painterly vigour that belie the formal structure of the printmaking process others are implicitly adherent to the process. It's a wonderful combination and the work is both free flowing and immediate, yet, at the same time, structured and considered."

Eileen elaborates saying, "I relate to Art that is honest and real and reveals life with all its perfections and flaws. There is a beauty and rawness to life and Nature that I seek to express in my work."

This beauty and rawness resonates with the viewer and is surely, at least, partly responsible for Eileen's success to date. Not only are her exhibitions successes but her work features in a wide range of privately held Art Collections including those of AIB, Kerry County Council and Kerry Education Service while she has also been short-listed to design collectors' coins for the Central Bank.

Success aside, you get the feeling that if all sales were to dry up tomorrow Eileen would still paint and print in her little studio. "Sometimes when I feel exhausted that exhaustion is equally evident in the work and results in pieces that are softer and, somehow, more human," she says.And it's that honesty, that willingness to put herself into her work, which makes it so appealing both to Eileen as an artist and to the viewer.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, July 10th, and runs until Friday, August 1st, in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

KFF 2008 - Call for Submissions

2008-06-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

KFF ISSUES A CALL FOR ENTRIES TO THE 9th ANNUAL KERRY FILM FESTIVAL

Kerry Film Festival to offer a e5,000 cash prize in Best Director Competition

The Samhlaiocht Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating nine years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, has issued a call for entries for the Kerry Film Festival 2008, which runs from November 1st to November 8th.

"The Kerry Film Festival is committed to playing a leading role in providing a forum for emerging talent in film," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director Kerry Film Festival. "This dedication is evidenced by both the quality of the films screened and the prizes on offer, with a top cash prize of e5,000 for KFF's Best Director, as well as a number of prizes in other categories including Best Irish Short, Best International Short, Best Documentary Short and Best Animated Short."

All prizes including Best Director will be selected by a jury of internationally renowned film professionals. Past adjudicators of the Kerry Film Festival Short Film Competition have included such luminaries as Mike Leigh, Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and Gabriel Byrne. John Carney, director of ONCE, has agreed to adjudicate this year with more adjudicators to be announced shortly.

"We're delighted to have such an amazing filmmaker as John onboard to help adjudicate the shorts," said O' Mahony. "Short film is a compelling format with much of the work displaying a freshness and originality that is lacking from more formulaic studio releases, so it'll be interesting to see what John thinks of the films."

When asked what makes KFF special he said, "I think having so many of the filmmakers on hand to speak about their films and their creative journey ensures a rewarding film festival experience for both the filmmaker and the audience. One of the advantages of KFF, I suppose, is that it's such an intimate little festival but the quality of the films and quality of the adjudicators consistently punches above its weight."

While the main focus of the festival will continue to be on shorts, this year sees an extension of the programme. "Last year was our most successful Festival so far," said O' Mahony. "We screened more films to more people in more venues that ever before and this year we're hoping to top that!" The 2008 edition of the Festival will see an expansion of the feature programme which proved so successful in 2007, KFF 2008 will also see more Education screenings, more active retired screenings and a larger workshop programme.

Kerry Film Festival will work in conjunction with the Cork Film Centre to bring a top notch film workshop programme to Kerry, Cork Film Centre will also curate an experimental film programme. "The Cork Film Centre is delighted to be working with the Kerry Film Festival," said Chris Hurley, Cork Film Centre. "We are pleased to be collaborating in presenting an eye-opening programme of contemporary Irish experimental film, curated by Maximilian Le Cain. Additionally, we will sponsor a cash prize of e500 to be awarded to the winner in the Best Animated Short category."

For more information on the Samhlaiocht Kerry Film Festival please log on to http://www.kerryfilmfestival.com/ or to download application forms please log on to http://www.kerryfilmfestival.com/Application_Form_2008.pdf

For more info on Cork Film Centre please log onto http://www.corkfilmcentre.com/

Live @ 8 - Looking for Artists!

2008-06-10T05:09:00.001-07:00

Live @ Number Eight is a monthly event in Bar Number 8, Galway City, Ireland. Each month, the organisers curate an evening of screenings, music, performance, installation and sound.

The event provides an opportunity for artists and audience to come together to engage in new work in a relaxed and supportive environment.

Live @ Number 8 is now calling for submissions for its events in Autumn and Winter 2008. Live @ Number 8 is also interested in receiving submissions by curators wishing to curate a guest slot.

Submissions will be accepted by post and should include CV, statement and a CD Rom of images. Please include a DVD of your work if appropriate. To have your submission returned, please include a SAE.

Closing Date for applications is 30 June 2008. Please Post submissions to:

Live @ Number 8

c/o Galway Arts Centre

47 Dominick St

Galway

For more information please email Maeve, Aine or Vivienne on liveatnumber8@gmail.com

Knitters of the World Unite!!

2008-06-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

World Wide Knit in Public Day is a day for knitters, who generally work alone, to get together and show the general public that this craft is alive and thriving!

It is the largest knitting event in the world and will be open to all the fibre arts. It's not limited to knitters, so bring your knitting, crochet, spindle along and join in the fun!!

Meet other knitters in your area, start a knitting group, even learn how to knit. This event is free and family friendly. For more information check out http://www.wwkipday.com/ or email shebeens@gmail.com

Samhlaiocht Presents Feile na mBlath Workshops

2008-06-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Samhlaiocht is delighted to present 18 workshops as part of this year's Feile na mBlath. With 9 workshops taking place on Friday, June 20th and an additional 9 workshops taking place on Saturday, June 21st covering everything from flower making to painting there's something for every young budding artist and gardener at this year's festival.

There are only 12 places in each of the Children's workshops and they have been booking out quickly, with all places in Friday's workshops booked by interested local primary schools, but there are still places left in the Saturday workshops. Saturday's workshops take place from 12:00 noon until 3:00 pm, with three workshops starting every hour.

Samhlaiocht has also brought in a magician, stilt walker and face painters to brighten up the proceedings at the Teddy Bear's Picnic which will take place from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon on Friday.

We can't guarantee the weather but we can guarantee fun and with keepsakes from most of the workshops participants are sure to go home with smiles on their faces whether the sun is smiling down or not! And with Tralee Town Council pulling out all the stops providing entertainment, music, guided walks, gardening workshops and recitals for adults there's something for everyone.

Pop down to Tralee Town Park any time from 11:00 am on Friday June 20th to 5:00 pm on Sunday, June June 22nd to flavour the fun of the Feile na mBlath Festival.

Lisa Hannigan back in Killorglin

2008-06-06T02:50:00.000-07:00

Sol y Sombra Live Presents

Lisa Hannigan and Band

Lisa is no stranger to Killorglin, having played in Sol y Sombra for the Donal Dineen Month of Sunday concert as part of the Kerry Film Festival in November 07. As part of her first ever tour, she is playing Sol y Sombra on Thursday 19th June with her full band.
Sol Y Sombra expects the concert to sell quickly so please let them know if you need tickets.

Thursday 19th June

Tickets e15. Tapas Served from 17:00 - 19:15 (last orders)
Places limited. Reservations Essential
For Tickets Call 066 9762348 or email info@solysombra.ie

New Book from Mercier Press

2008-06-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

DARK CORNERS
Gerard Mac Manus

As a young man in 1960's Ireland, Gerard Mac Manus joined the Irish Army. This set in train a sequence of events that resulted in him:

-Guarding Europes borders during the Cold War
-Patrolling the meanest streets in the world as a cop in Atlanta
-Going undercover in high living and low life Florida
-Investigating the infamous Atlanta Child Murders
-Handling security for America’s banking industry

Among other adventures, Gerard Mac Manus nearly killed President Nixon's best friend, almost arrested one of the world's biggest rock groups at the 1969 Palm Beach Rock Festival and reluctantly found himself responsible for the security of Yitzhak Rabin, against his wishes.

Mac Manus has seen more action and witnessed more pivotal events - from the Cold War to responses to 9/11 - than most would ever dream about. His life is an Irishman's record of the violence, organised corruption, and compassion found in America and the west during the last fifty years.

Surrounded since childhood by literary and artistic achievement, but writing for the first time about his life experiences, Mac Manus digs deep into his dark times to reveal a powerful story.

Author Information
Gerard Mac Manus was born and raised in Dundalk. Having traveled widely throughout his life, he and his wife now spend their time between their homes in Asia and Europe.

Dark Corners is published in paperback at €12.99

For more information please log onto http://www.mercierpress.com/

Artist in the Community Scheme

2008-06-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

Are you an artist working in different social contexts or with communities? The deadline for the next Artist in the Community Scheme is 27 June. The scheme covers all art forms - visual arts, dance, film, literature and theatre.

The Artist in the Community Scheme 2008
Twice yearly, the Arts Council offers grants to enable artists and communities of place or interest to work together on projects. The Artist in the Community Scheme is managed by Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts, providing services for arts development and collaborative arts practice in Ireland. The aim of the scheme is to encourage intense collaboration between communities of place and/or interest and artists, culminating in an artwork or a project in which the members of the community group and the artists work together in order to realise an artistic project or an event. It is essential that meaningful consultation take place between the artist and the community group, so that both parties are involved in deciding on the nature of the project. Group ownership of the art should be maintained at every stage.

There are two phases to the scheme:

Phase One: Research & Development, is open to artists and arts practitioners who wish to research and develop a project in a community context. Maximum time frame is 3 months. The maximum amount awarded in this phase is e1,000.

Phase Two: Project Realisation, is open to communities of interest or place (or their representative organisations), planning a project of between 6 weeks and 5 months with a maximum award of e5000, and those who are planning a project of between 6 months and 9 months with a maximum award of e10,000.

The next deadline for this scheme is 5pm, Friday 27 June 2008.

For further information, application forms or to book an advisory session, contact Katherine Atkinson, Project Support and Professional Development, 01-4736600 support@create-ireland.ie

For more on Create Ireland please long onto http://www.create-ireland.ie/

Arts Council May Newsletter

2008-06-03T04:37:00.000-07:00

Mr Martin Cullen TD, the new Minister for Arts Sports and Tourism, made his first official visit to the Arts Council on Tuesday 27 May. The Minister met members of the Council and staff and had a short briefing on the work of the Arts Council. He also met members of the Circus community who were attending a consultation meeting at the Arts Council offices in Merrion Square.

The month of May marks the beginning of a busy arts festival season, and this month the Arts Council offered funding totalling e500,000 to 99 small festivals under round two of the Small Festivals scheme. We were particularly pleased to award 24 first time applicants funding this year. Festivals remain one of the most effective ways in which the arts are made available to large numbers of people. The role of the voluntary boards and committees in bringing these arts festival programmes together merits special mention. A list of the successful recipients of grant aid under the small festivals scheme is available on our website.

The Arts Council has a long standing commitment to the individual artist and this month announced an increase in the Cnuas payment to Aosdána members which will be phased in over three years. This increase is intended to bring the real value of the Cnuas back in line with the cost of living, and is one of a number of measures intended to improve the living and working conditions of artists.

We also have details of 10 new members of Aosdána and the election of Camille Souter as a new Saoi. The newly elected nominees will bring the current Aosdána membership to 235.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, we publish details of a new project intended to support greater public engagement with architecture in Ireland. The Arts Council will consider how it may best support public awareness of, and engagement with, architecture in Ireland with the assistance of this research. We draw your attention to a notice about a forthcoming project to build a public art website, and a temporary vacancy to cover maternity leave in the Arts Council for Head of Opera & Music and we have reminders about upcoming deadlines for the Bursary award, Annual Programming grants and the Artist in the Community scheme.

Finally, closing the newsletter are our regular articles from the Cultural Contact Point and news from the arts community.

1. e500,000 infusion for 99 small festivals across Ireland
The Arts Council has announced details of successful recipients under round two of the Small Festivals Scheme for 2008.Read more

2. Public engagement with architecture
The Arts Council has commissioned a team, led by Mullan Consulting, to carry out a study into the public's engagement with architecture in Ireland.Read more

3. Arts Council increases Cnuas to Aosdana members
The Arts Council has announced a significant increase in the Cnuas, the payment made to some Aosdána members to allow artists to devote themselves full time to creative work.Read more

4. Aosdana elects new Saoi and new members
Aosdana elects 10 new members and announces Camille Souter as Saoi.Read more

5. Public art website notice
A notice about the Arts Council's plans to develop a public art website.Read more

6. Head of Music and Opera (Temporary to cover Maternity Leave)
The Arts Council has a temporary vacancy for an exceptionally talented individual to take up the position of Head of Music and Opera.Read more

7. Closing date: Bursary award
The closing date for receipt of applications for the Bursary award is 5.30pm on Thursday 26 June 2008. Read more

8 Closing date: Artist in the Community scheme
Twice yearly, the Arts Council offers grants to enable artists and communities of place or interest to work together on projects.The next deadline for the scheme is 5pm Friday 27 June 2008.Read more

9. Closing date: Annual Programming Grants
The closing date for receipt of applications for Annual Programming Grants is 5.00 pm, Wednesday 25 June 2008.Read more

10. News from the arts community
Opportunities in the arts community in May include: Dance Research Forum Ireland invites applications for the position of Dance Archive Researcher; details of a professional development course for artists working in healthcare settings and Wexford Arts Centre and Wexford County Council are seeking applications for their annual Emerging Visual Artist Award; Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Public Library Serivce has a call for 'writer in residence at DLR libraries and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology also has a call for writer in residence, at IADT. Read more

11. International news from the Cultural Contact Point
News from the CCP in May includes: news on the upcoming publication of the new EU Culture Programme Guide; a notice about the Grundtvig contact seminars in Graz and Helsinki; call for Proposals to run EU Prize for Literature; and deadlines for the European Commission support for cultural activities in Egypt. Read more

A conversation with Artist Richard Hearns

2008-05-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

"Every Artist has a particular reason that they choose to express themselves. Regardless of the medium they work in, their inspiration has a 'source' or 'ultimate goal' in the realisation of their creative passions.

In my work I am ultimately expressing my love of nature, the mental connection between physical art and the inner need to express oneself, and the glory of human emotion.My work endeavours to express the solitude and meditation of life that surrounds each one of us and connects us to a larger whole – the source of all existence.

What compels and inspires me to translate these inner thoughts and emotions into a tangible form is the idea that 'something can come from nothing'. That fleeting thoughts and emotions can be captured and translated into a physical expression,that colour and light can be transmuted and laid down to express form.

My ultimate intentions in presenting my 'visions' to the world is to enrich peoples lives visually, emotionally, creatively and spiritually.I feel it is so important to endeavour to create and leave behind something of beauty to enrich the world."

To view works by Richard Hearns go to http://www.richardhearns.com/blog/index.php

An exhibition of his works will take place in The Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare. It will open on June 1st and runs until July 1st.

Samhlaiocht Faces the Music

2008-05-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

Bealtaine Music Event in Library - Wednesday, May 21st 2008

As time goes by music is losing some of its traditional communal aspects and becoming much more of an individualised experience with MP3 players replacing the radios and walkmans of old, not to mention record players and ancient old gramophones!

However, quite a few people still have a hankering for the communal experience, and prefer to enjoy music the old fashioned way, and now they have a wonderful opportunity to do just that at a music presentation on Wednesday 21st May, from 3pm to 5pm, in Tralee Library.

The presentation is part of the Bealtaine Festival, a nationwide festival which takes place throughout the month of May and celebrates creativity in older age.

This event will be presented by Sheila Kelly of Samhlaiocht Chiarrai. "Choosing and compiling a musical presentation to celebrate 'Planet Earth' for the Bealtaine Festival is truly a labour of love for me," says Sheila. "It brings together a whole number of things that I am passionate about like my appreciation of creativity in older people, my enjoyment in seeing older people appreciate art in all its various forms and my love of music, planet earth and, of course, people!"

"We're delighted to be working with Samhlaiocht to deliver this music programme as part of our overall programme of events for the Bealtaine Festival," Tommy O' Connor, County Librarian, explained. "We have over 20 events scheduled to take place over the month in seven different locations and with artistic pursuits from poetry to cinema, I think we have something for everyone."

"I read recently that Ireland is the only Country to have a musical instrument, the Harp, as its National Symbol," added Sheila. "That really crystallises for me how precious music has always been, is now and will continue to be in Ireland. As we say as Gaeilge 'Bogann an am, ach fanann an cheol'."

Kerry County Library has lined up a fantastic offering of events in libraries around the county to celebrate Bealtaine. These include art classes, writing classes, cinema screenings, poetry workshops and a myriad of other events and workshops taking place throughout Kerry in Tralee, Listowel, Cahirciveen, Ballybunion, Killorglin, Kenmare and Killarney. For more information please contact Ann Fitzgerald on 066 712 1200 or via email at afitzgerald@kerrrycolib.ie or log onto http://www.kerrycountylibrary.com/

Local libraries may also be contacted for a listing of events.

For information on other Bealtaine events in Kerry please telephone 1890 50 60 60 or email bealtine@mie.ie Interested parties can also visit the official website on http://www.bealtaine.com/

For more information on Samhlaíocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

Lesotho's Finest Exhibits In Siamsa

2008-04-23T07:21:00.001-07:00

Meshu Mokitimi is Lesotho's most prominent artist.

His career as a painter spans over fifty years and his work has earned him international recognition. Meshu spent eleven years of his life incarcerated for his political beliefs, when he and other political activists were fighting against the 'colour bar' in Lesotho.

While in prison he spent his time drawing and turned his cell into a studio and a sanctuary of peace. Meshu has been invited to Ireland by Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, Dingle, County Kerry, as an Artist in Residence. The exhibition in The Gallery, Siamsa Tire is presented as part of this residency.

The exhibition will be opened by Mayor of Tralee, Miriam McGillycuddy, on Saturday, April 26th. For more info on the exhibition please get in touch with Siamsa Tire on 066 712 3055 or on the web at http://www.siamsatire.com/

Tralee Band, PHILTRE, Break the Bank

2008-04-21T05:36:00.000-07:00

Tralee based, four piece, Philtre have been selected to play in The Bank of Ireland National Student Music Awards in The Village, Co. Dublin, on April 24th

And while it is a coup for the band to be selected, Philtre are no strangers to producing cutting edge live shows. With a sound that has been described as "infectious alternative rock," their live appearances are electric and have resulted in their status as one of today's hottest properties on the Irish Rock scene.

Following on from the success of their debut EP, Bullet from Nowhere, the band spent much of 2007 on the live circuit which saw them sharing the stage with international acts such as Reamonn and Republic of Loose.

Philtre were nominated as One's to Watch by the Murphy's Live judging panel which ensured mass exposure and acclaim for the band. 2007 also saw the production of a documentary, Morning Sun, which featured a live interview with band members and some exclusive stunning clips from this year's Irish tour including gigs in Whelan's, Cyprus Avenue and the coveted Murphy's live show.

Bullet from Nowhere was featured on RTE'S, The Sunday Game, and also was used this year in Setanta Sports', Magners League.

In early 2008, the band recommenced work with Tralee native and acclaimed producer Garteh Mannix in Sun Studios, Dublin. Philtre are currently on their upcoming EP which will see a nation wide release in late September and will be supported by a national tour.

Bullet from Nowhere, EP, is available for purchase on download through iTunes, HMV, Napster, and also available through Roxy Records and Lee Records in Tralee.

To Contact Philtre please email, philtremusic@gmail.com, for more information on the band please log onto www.myspace.com/philtremusic

Further Information on The Bank of Ireland National Student Music Awards can be found at the following sites:
http://www.myspace.com/nsmaireland

http://www.nsma.ie/

Book Launch at Reubens

2008-04-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

The Seven Towers agency is launching Quincy R. Lehr's collection of poetry, Across the Grid of Streets, in Reubens on Saturday April 26th at 3.30 pm. The collection will be launched by John W. Sexton.

Interested parties should RSVP to seventowersmail@gmail.com

Quincy R. Lehr was born in Oklahoma City in 1975. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University in New York City before relocating to Ireland, where he teaches history. His poetry has been published on both sides of the Atlantic in journals and in a small collection, William Montgomery, by New York based chapbook publisher Modern Metrics which he founded with R. Nemo Hill. He has taken part in many readings and facilitates an on-line poetry workshop.

John W. Sexton is a poet, short story writer, dramatist, children's novelist, radio scriptwriter and sometime rockstar! He has published three collections of poetry, The Prince's Brief Career (Cairn Mountain Press, 1995); Shadows Bloom/Scathanna Faoi Bhlath and Vortex (Doghouse, 2005). He is the creator of RTE's children's radio serial The Ivory Tower. His books include The Prince's Brief Career (Cairn Mountain Publishing) and The Johnny Coffin Diaries (The O'Brien Press). He has also released an album, THE SONS OF SHIVA, with legendary Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell.

An event with Appeal

2008-04-17T03:25:00.000-07:00

Many cyclists got a very pleasant surprise this week when they returned to their trusty bicycles only to find a bright red bell had been attached in their absence. They were not completely left in the dark however. Their mysterious benefactors left a rather large clue. Attached to every red bell was a programme for the forthcoming Kerry Bicycle Festival. The red bells are part of Peal, a community bicycle project initiated by Michael Kelly that is to be undertaken in the week preceding the Kerry Bicycle Festival. The project involves the placing of 100 bells on 100 bikes around Tralee. The distinctive look of the bells will allow cyclists identify each other as fellow unwitting members of this project. When interviewed, Mike Kelly said, 'We hope to bring the sound of bicycle bells back into the streets of Tralee. Not only is it sociable and fun but it's safer too.'

The festival officially kicks off on Thursday night with a bicycle-inspired gig in Clubheadbangbang in the Greyhound Bar on Pembroke street. Friday night sees a public discussion take place in the Samhlaiocht Gallery on Castle Street.

This discussion is open to all and will be chaired by the Mayor of Tralee, Miriam McGillycuddy. Local bike-related issues will be discussed, including the possibility of opening a Fenit to Tralee and a Ballyroe to Tralee cycleway on the land currently occupied by disused railway line. The state of Tralee's cycle lanes will also be discussed. This discussion will be followed by a viewing of bicycled-related short movies.

Saturday sees a family cycle to Blennerville followed by general bicycle festivities in Tralee Town Square including the Fanzini brothers and Paddy Waters, the bicycle clown. There will be bicycle elves at the ready to oil your chain and the opportunity to get a bicycle portrait taken in the mobile bicycle studio. The Irish premier of a composition scored for 12 bicycles by avant garde composer Godfried-Willem Raes called 2nd Symphony for Singing Bicyles will also be performed.

A bicycle powered mobile phone charger will be at the ready if you run dry and a broken tandem found dumped in Tralee town has been carefully brought back to life for the day that's in it.

One of the highlights of the festival will be a 'Family Cycle' on Saturday Afternoon, where the organisers hope to get as many people as possible on to their bikes, the cycle will be fully supervised, and will have a 'Cycle Garda' Escort. All are welcome on this event, the meeting point is 12 noon at the Ashe Memorial Hall, and the cycle pace will be leisurely.

The festival will be brought to a close on Sunday afternoon with a bicycle picnic in Ballyseede Wood.

For more information please log onto http://www.kerrybicyclefestival.org/ or call Mike Kelly on
087 793 7471

Is Connecting Bits to Atoms Sufficient?

2008-04-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

CIDS is a discipline-agnostic platform for research convergence. We advocate a systems approach to problem solving to generate long term sustainable and adaptable solutions. Seamless integration and coordination of diverse sub-systems usually take longer to converge since multi-disciplinary domains need orchestration to address real-world problems.

08.00 Registration and Breakfast

09.00 Welcome: Evolution of RFID4SME in an Information Age
Dr Pat Doody , Executive Director, Centre for Innovation in Distributed Systems, ITT
Mr Ed Sheldon , RFID4SME Project Coordinator, ITT

09:15 Introduction: Connecting Bits to Bits in a Systems Age
Dr Shoumen Datta , School of Engineering, MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation, MIT

09.30 Information Arbitrage in Healthcare
Dr Jane Grimson , Professor of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin and Director of Health Information, HIQA

10.15 Information in EPC: Data from RFID
Mr Henri Barthel , Director, GS1-EPCGlobal

11.00 C O F F E E

11.30 RFID, Sensors, GPS and GSM: Abundance of Data yet Starved for Knowledge? ITT in cooperation with Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School

12.15 Information Identification in Decision Systems
Dr Shoumen Palit Austin Datta , School of Engineering, MIT

13.00 L U N C H

14:30 Delivering Data: Structure of Infrastructure
Drs Robbert Kuppens, CIO and Mr Ian Kennedy , Managing Director, CISCO (Europe)

15:00 Connecting Information: Global Bridge between Distributed Systems
Mr Mike Fitzgerald , CEO, Altobridge

15.30 Making Decisions: Pervasive Systemic Visibilty
Dr Joseph Salvo , Director, Pervasive Decision Lab, GE Global Research Headquarters (NY)

16.00 Data, Information, Decisions: Driving the Knowledge Economy?
Mr Mick Keyes , HP (Ireland)

16.30 C O F F E E

17:00 Opportunities for TransRegional Cooperation: ESTIIC
Mr Ivan Grimes , Assitant Director, Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly

17.15 Concluding Remarks: Convergence, Collaboration and Innovation as Catalysts
Dr Michael Hall , Head of Life Science and Chemistry, ITT

17:30 Refreshments and Networking

95,000 euro Limerick City Council Public Art Commission

2008-04-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Limerick City Council is offering a public art commission to commemorate in a permanent way the contribution the workers of Limerick Docks made to the cultural life of the city in the 19th and 20th Century. Limerick City Council therefore invites expressions of interest from artists who wish to be considered to undertake the project. A short list will be selected from the information submitted in the expression of interest.

The Budget available for the project is 95,000 euro

Expressions of interest should include an outline sketch of your proposal, a brief statement of the design concept and a general description of the size and the materials to be used. For a full artists' brief contact:

The Arts Office, Limerick City Council, City Hall, Merchant's Quay, Limerick.
E: artsoffice@limerickcity.ie T: (353) 61 407421 http://www.limerickcity.ie/

Deadline: Monday 28th April 2008

Young Ensembles Scheme Established

2008-04-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

Arts Council Invites Applications for New Scheme

The Arts Council is pleased to announce a new pilot funding scheme for young ensembles. The scheme targets groups of young people between the ages of 12 and 23 years who are working collaboratively to create art, across a range of art forms. Organisations supporting or hosting young ensembles are eligible to apply.

The primary purpose of this award is to support young ensembles in the development of their artistic practice in an out of schools context. It prioritises initiatives that demonstrate clear artistic vision in the specific art form(s) represented, coupled with a process that values young people's participation, creativity and critical engagement with the arts.

The Young Ensembles Scheme is a further expression of the Arts Council's commitment to create better opportunities for young people to experience the arts, as outlined in its current strategy Partnership for the Arts.

Closing date:
Applications and supporting material must be received by the Arts Council no later than 5:30 p.m., Friday 23rd May 2008. Emailed or faxed applications will not be accepted.

Full guidelines and application forms are available to download at http://www.artscouncil.ie/ and by following the links below:
Young Ensembles Scheme – Guidelines http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/view_fund.aspx?fid=fab83980-329f-4013-94d7-0a7789841f83&sdid=8a6f9df4-e9a7-4199-881f-e65dd027d588
Young Ensembles Scheme – Application Form http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/view_fund.aspx?fid=fab83980-329f-4013-94d7-0a7789841f83&sdid=d1413b58-b81e-4d26-936c-9e7d507e4c02

For further information:
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon
Young People, Children, and Education
Tel: +353 1 6180250
Email: mathilde.veldt@artscouncil.ie
Website: http://www.artscouncil.ie/

South Tipperary Dance Residency

2008-04-14T03:38:00.000-07:00

South Tipperary County Council Arts Service and Tipperary Excel Arts & Cultural Centre are developing a Dance Residency. Dance artists are invited to submit a proposal (including a budget), for this residency which will be selected by an independent panel of relevant arts experts and dance practitioners. The total budget for the residency is 20,000 euro. Proposals need to be submitted by 08.05.08 to Sally O' Leary, Arts Officer, South Tipperary County Council, County Museum, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. For further information and a residency brief contact Sally O' Leary, Tel 052 34565 email: sally.oleary@southtippcoco.ie

Residency brief also available at http://www.southtippcoco.ie/ and http://www.tipperary-excel.com/

Seisiuin Eolain d'Fhisealaiontoiri

2008-03-12T04:06:00.000-07:00

Visual Arts Information Sessions

A Chara, Le linn Mi Aibreain, beidh na Seisiuin Eolais seo a leanas a reachtail ag Ealain na Gaeltachta i bpairtiocht le Samhlaiocht Chiarrai agus le tacaiocht o Chomhairle Chontae Chiarrai:

Ealain na Gaeltachta in partnership with Samhlaiocht Chiarrai and supported by Kerry County Council will be running the following Arts Information Sessions during the month of April:

Coimisiuin, Damhachtain agus Sparanachtai Commissions, Awards and Bursaries Catriona Fallon De Luain, 7 Aibrean, 7.30i.n. Monday, 7th April, 7.30p.m. Do chuid oibre a chur i lathair Presenting your Work Roisin McGuigan De Luain, 14 Aibrean, 7.30i.n. Monday, 14th April, 7.30p.m.
An Craiceann agus a Luach! Maximising your Money! Diarmuid O Siochru De Luain, 21 Aibrean, 7.30i.n. Monday, 21st April, 7.30p.m.
Ag obair le Danlanna Working with Galleries Ciaran Walsh De Luain, 28 Aibrean, 7.30i.n. Monday, 28th April, 7.30p.m.

Kerry Film Festival presents FREE SCREENING of The Caiman

2008-02-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

FREE SCREENING at Siamsa Tire Thursday, February 28th, 8:00 p.m.

FREE SCREENING

If you like movies then you'll love this! THE CAIMAN follows Bruno, a famous trashy Italian B movie producer who, after a long hiatus, is to produce a film about Christopher Columbus's homecoming. When Bruno is approached by Teresa, an ambitious but novice writer-director who has written a dynamite yet damning script on Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, he gives the project the go-ahead. With his wife divorcing him and the bank knocking at his door, Bruno finds that making a socially conscious film might be the only thing worthwhile in his life! The Caiman is a classic movie-making movie and is, arguably, up there with the very best. It is funny throughout, and often hilarious. The rapid-fire dialogue doesn't give you a moment's peace as one-liners come thick and fast. The humour, and this happens so subtly you'll hardly notice, makes way for a more serious tone before the end and the movie becomes even better. As we said at the start – if you like movies then this is for you!

For more about the film please click here:
http://fest07.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=20

To see a Trailer of the film please click here:
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=vZS4PMxXg4c&feature=related

Avatar to play Samhlaiocht Easter Festival March 22nd 2008

2008-02-21T09:35:00.000-08:00

Dub Reggae at Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival Saturday, March 22nd, 10:00 pm

"We don't often publish reviews of new music from unknown bands or artists, but having made an unprecedented executive decision, I hereby offer you a fabulous album Summa Iru. The album is essentially an instrumental dub album, but also contains strong melodies and a diverse array of instrumentation. The album is enchantingly soothing, yet motivating and uplifting," reviews don’t get much more clear cut than that and when the review is written by the bible Bass Guitar Magazine then you know the band being discussed offer something by way of substance. The band, then, is Avatar and the album, Summa Iru, was their debut, launched in 2006.

Avatar are James Kennedy on bass guitar and guitar and Tony O' Flaherty on sax, flute and keys with other musicians drafted in to help fill out the rich and beautifully melodic sound where needed, and listening to the completed album it's impossible not to be moved by musicians so obviously on top of their game, with music born of life, love and spirituality.

Avatar frontman James Kennedy is a musician who's speech patterns are every bit as rich as his music. With conversation that floats from Bach to Margaret Thatcher via the smoking habits of Rastafarians and life in Ireland in the 80's, there's a truth to the man as much as there's a truth to the music.

"It's always been about the music," explains James, "and while that sounds cliched, it's nevertheless true. I love music, love playing it, love listening to it and I feel that a musician's ability to listen attentively determines the depth and sensitivity of their music. This quality is present in what we do and I believe it is largely responsible for people's positive response to us. We are all fans of music and we listen to what is going on whether on the stage or in the studio, and react to it honestly allowing it to direct the flow of what we are playing."

Avatar have certainly made an impact on Irish music and, on the back of stellar reviews, have begun to stir up interest internationally. The band was recently featured on one of the most influential and longest running shows in America, Saturday Night Rockers, hosted by the Brixton Hitman while legendary producer and engineer Dr. Dub has expressed an interest in working with the band. "It's an interest that we'll definitely be following up on," laughs James.

As remarkable as all of this International recognition is, James is still firmly rooted in his native Tralee. "I think there's been an absolute explosion in the music scene in Tralee in recent years," says James. "If someone was to tell me 15 years ago that I could start a dub band, get International exposure and do it all from my home in Kerry, I'd a thought they were nuts."

But with a presence on the web and glowing reviews that direct fans from all around the globe to the bands home-site and MySpace site then it’s increasingly becoming, while not exactly easy, then certainly less difficult to break music.

However, equally impressive to James has been the paradigm shift in local tastes. "Having a venue like Club Head Bang Bang on our doorsteps, a venue that brings internationally renowned world music acts to Kerry, while also giving young up and coming musicians from Tralee a chance to perform, is a fantastic resource. And when you take that in consideration with the fact that Keith and Treasa, the organisers, manage to do it all without charging a cover charge is little short of amazing. Not to mention all the great work that Samhlaiocht does in organising and promoting all the Arts throughout Kerry, and in Culloty's Music shop we've a surplus of riches. It's a definitely a good time to be living in Tralee if music is your thing," says James.

"I've always loved living in Kerry, the incredible landscapes, I think, influence our music and to now have a chance to bring this music to other like minded people is a gift," says James with a smile. Well, if it's a gift, it's a gift that will keep on giving - Avatar play in Club Head Bang Bang as part of the landmark Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival on Saturday night, March 22nd, at 10 pm and admission is completely free. Club Head Bang Bang is located in the Greyhound Bar on Pembroke Street.

Finnegan’s Hostel on Denny Street Tralee, which is a long time supporter of Samhlaiocht, has offered a discount rate, €16 per person sharing, to those interested in attending the Easter Arts Festival. To book a room please call 066 712 7610 or log onto http://www.finneganshostel.com/

To learn more about Avatar please log onto http://www.amarumusic.net/ or onto the band’s MySpace site www.myspace.com/avatarsound To learn more about Samhlaiocht please log onto http://www.samhlaiocht.com/ To learn more about Club Head Bang Bang please log onto http://www.clubheadbangbang.org/

Easter Arts Busking Competition Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival 2008

2008-02-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

Photo Caption

Cormac, Orla and Dara O' Connor, from Moorcraft Kilfinora, Fenit, taking part in the 2007 Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival Busking Competition.

Samhlaiocht today issued a call for entries for the Annual Busking and Street Entertainment Competition which will take place as part of the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival, which runs in Tralee from March 22nd to March 24th, 2008. All street entertainers are invited to take part in the festivities, everything from talented musicians, jugglers, singers, dancers, comedians, fire-eaters and street artists will be welcome. The competition will take place on the Easter Saturday, March 22nd, 2008, from 2 pm to 6 pm.

"Music and entertainment has always played a huge part in the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director, Samhlaiocht. "This is the second year of the Busking and Street Entertainment competition and we're hoping to build on last year's competition that brought such fun and excitement to the streets of Tralee."

"We're really looking forward to the Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival and we think that the Busking and Street Entertainment Competition will complement all the other free activities that we organise for Tralee," said Michele Sheehan, co-ordinator of the competition. "The town will come alive with all kinds of wonderful entertainment. This year we're having two distinct competitions – an 'open competition', for over eighteens and group performances, and a special 'youth performer' competition, for those under 18."

The people of Tralee are very supportive of the festival and always appreciate the wealth of talent brought to the town each Easter weekend. The Tralee Branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, as a show of appreciation, has offered to sponsor the cash prizes that the winning Entertainers will receive. The Tralee Vintners are sponsoring the 'open competition' prize, and many local businesses, including World of Wonder, Aqua Dome, Lee Records, Smyths and Tralee Pet Corner, are sponsors of the 'Youth competition' prizes.

"The support we receive from the business people of Tralee, quite literally keeps the festival alive," said O' Mahony, "and we're really grateful to the Tralee Branch of the Vitners Federation of Ireland and to it's chairman, Danny Leane from the Abbey Inn."

With artists from all over Ireland descending on Tralee for three days over Easter, the annual Easter Arts Festival has become a favourite bank holiday treat for lovers of culture and 'craic'. This year the festival promises to whip up a whirlwind of fresh, exciting music, dance, literature, street theatre, workshops, children's activities, markets, a parade and much more.

Finnegan's Hostel on Denny Street Tralee, which is a long time supporter of Samhlaiocht, has offered a discount rate, 16 euro per person sharing, to entertainers that come from outside of Tralee. To book a room please call 066 712 7610 or log onto http://www.finneganshostel.com/

All interested parties should contact Michele at michele@samhlaiocht.com or call 066 712 9934

Ethiopian Dance @ Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival 2008

2008-02-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

It's an unfortunate reality that when people think of Ethiopia the images that first spring to mind are those of its recent past, images of famine, rather than images that highlight the culture of this proud nation, a nation that may well have held the cradle of humanity, as many believe that Homo Sapiens first evolved in Ethiopia. From the earliest times, then, Ethiopia has had a strong cultural and artistic identity and this unique cultural heritage is found most prominently in Ethiopian Dance.

The Samhlaiocht Easter Arts Festival, which is this year celebrating 17 years of bringing the Arts and Culture to the people of Kerry, is showcasing Ethiopian Dance as part of its upcoming celebrations.

"Our theme this year is Planet Earth," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director of Samhlaiocht. "We're celebrating the artistic history and culture of the whole world this year and so having a rich cultural diversity throughout our many events is key to having a vibrant and successful festival. Ethiopian Dance is an art form that is moving, both figuratively and literally, while being just beautiful to watch. Irish Dancing is renowned world wide so we at Samhlaiocht feel it equally important to unearth an exciting alternative dance style for an Irish audience."

Ethiopian dancers move the head and shoulders back and forth as though they are only temporarily attached to the rest of the body. The movements are so uniquely beautiful to Ethiopian Dance that they invariably elicit gasps from the audience which often gives way to sheer delight at the pure virtuosity of the flowing movement.

And while the event will provide an opportunity for the audience to watch an energetic and inspiring performance it will also fashion an opportunity for them to learn, what is sure to be for most audience members, a brand new style of dance.

Betesaida Hailegeorgis, who hails for the Ethopian capital of Addis Ababa , and has resided in Kerry since 2000 will teach the Master class. "It will be a pleasure to share such an important part of the culture of my home country with the people of my new home," said Betesaida with a smile that's as beautiful as the traditional dance which she practices, "I'm really looking forward to performing the dance routines and then teaching the Irish audience how to Ethiopian dance."

The dance focuses on the shoulders, which seductively gyrate and undulate in a frenzied display of almost competitive energy. The workshop takes place on Easter Monday, March 24th at 4:00 pm in the Siamsa Tire Rehearsal Room. Those interested in taking part should get in touch with Michele Sheehan of Samhlaocht on 066 712 9934 or by emailing michele@samhlaiocht.com
For more info on Ethiopia please log onto http://www.dci.gov.ie/ethiopia.asp

Killarney on the Clubbing Map

2008-02-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Revered house pushers and producers Fish Go Deep who over the past few years have been denting buzz and hype charts with the help of Tralee girl Tracey Kelliher look set to put Killarney on the clubbing map.

They will play at the Crypt in Killarney on Friday February 29th

Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson have been playing records in public since the late 1980s. Their residency at Ireland's longest running and best known house club, Sweat at Sir Henry's in Cork, spanned more than a decade and influenced a generation of Irish clubbers and DJs, picking up numerous awards and accolades along the way.

Since finishing Sweat in 2001, Fish Go Deep's travels have taken them to clubs across Ireland, the UK, Europe and the Middle East and throughout the US and Canada. Although in recent years Greg and Shane have settled back into a weekly Go Deep residency in their hometown, they still guest regularly overseas.

They have presented the Go Deep radio show on Cork's Red FM since 2004 and also broadcast regular shows on Ireland's national music station, 2fm, and Istanbul's Power FM. They have contributed mixes to Spin FM (Dublin), Nova (Paris), FMR (Toulouse), Planet Soul (Toronto) and many other stations.

Greg and Shane's production work under the Fish Go Deep name has been enthusiastically received in recent years, earning praise from deejays, dancers and journalists around the globe.

In recent years, Fish Go Deep tracks have been included on dozens of compilations, on labels in the US, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland and South Africa.

In 2005 Greg and Shane launched two of their own imprints, Ork Recordings, with fellow Corkman, Mark O'Sullivan, and Go Deep. To date, releases on both labels have found favour with such heavyweight DJs as Danny Tenaglia, Laurent Garnier, Louie Vega, Timmy Regisford and Pete Tong, and have been licensed to many different territories.

They will play at the Crypt in Killarney on Friday February 29th

For more info please log onto http://www.myspace.com/houseproudirl

Samhlaiocht Announces Rock For Experience

2008-01-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

When Sympathy for the Devil first found the eager ears of young listeners in 1968 it caused a media furore with concerned citizens worried that The Rolling Stones were a corrupt influence on youth.

Nowadays with The Stones music being used to sell insurance on TV, Led Zepplin's music used as the score to a Cadillac commercial and even the iconic image of Jimi Hendrix being used to sell a new health drink called 'Liquid Experience', it's becoming increasingly difficult to find an unsullied rock gig.

Step forward Samhlaiocht's 'Rock for Experience' which will bring a host of unsigned amateur and semi-professional Rock artists from through out Kerry together for one night over Easter, for a rock experience as pure as driven snow.

"Rock For Experience is one of our most popular events," said Jason O' Mahony, "and has proven to be fantastically popular with everyone involved from the young bands that appear on stage, some of them first-time performers, to the audience on the night. It's an amazing feeling to be involved with an event that gives up and coming rock bands an opportunity to shine."

The event provides an opportunity for budding artists to perform in front of an audience using a professional PA system provided by Samhlaiocht. Each group will have a twenty minute slot with the only requirements being that at least one song performed by each group must be an original song written by a member or members of the group. Bands who are interested in taking part must send a recording of their work to Samhlaiocht Rock for Experience Co-Ordinator, Noreen Thompson.

"The level of enthusiasm from the bands is just huge and the level of support they receive from friends and family is equally massive. We were absolutely inundated with applications in 2007 and we're expecting even more this year, so bands should get cracking and get their CD's into me now!" said Noreen with a laugh.

Rock for Experience will take place in Tralee on Sunday, 23rd March, venue and time to be confirmed at a later date. Ten bands are expected to play including local metal favourites 'Trench' and 'Chaos Theory' as well as popular rockers 'Stupid Betty'.

If you would like to take part in Rock for Experience please contact Noreen Thompson or Michele Sheehan for an application form on 066 712 9934 or email noreent@samhlaiocht.com

"It's fantastic that Samhlaiocht organises this event, there's a great buzz, the atmosphere rocks and the venue is always very cool," said Joe O' Brien, father of 'Trench' band member, Shane, speaking at the '07 event which took place at Club Head Bang Bang.

"We've played Rock for Experience every year for the last few years at the various venues. We really like this venue, it’s made for this event & created a great atmosphere," said the band Jesus & the Breadknives about the 2007 event which took place at Club Head Bang Bang.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/ For more information on Club Head Bang Bang please log onto http://www.clubheadbangbang.com/

The Boy in the Ring

2007-08-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

"At home a young woman is suddenly old. She stretches on the settee weeping. A man on the telly keeps standing up and falling over, standing up and falling over."
(Today John Lennon will Die by Dave Lordan)

Dave Lordan is a brave and vociferous exponent of protest poetry for all people, but perhaps especially young people and those on the margins of society.

He was inspired to start writing poetry in his early teens by admiration for punk and alternative bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Cure.

"I loved the way that they expressed their rage, sadness and joy in words that everyone could understand and sing along to," explained Dave. "They showed me that writing and performing could be a way of unleashing the turbulent emotions which were constantly on the boil inside and seeking some kind of outlet."

Writing must have been a merciful release for the young Dave.

"I found I could rhyme well and kept a kind of poetic Diary which my mother Mary Byrne (now Lordan), who grew up in Mitchel's Avenue in Tralee, has held on to for me," added Dave. "I was writing about the events in my life and the people and towns I knew well like Clonakilty and Tralee. So from the beginning the idea of telling stories was connected to writing poetry with me."

Dave was awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Award for his hard-hitting new collection of poetry "The Boy in the Ring" and considers himself a "narrative poet" meaning someone who tells stories in poetry.

"I particularly like to tell the stories of what some might consider unimportant people, but whom I consider sacred - rural people, old people, people like immigrants and workers, ordinary people responding to the pressure of extraordinary events," explains Dave.

Writing poetry was not always an easy job for Dave but he was encouraged to keep writing by his family and friends.

"When I was very young my Tralee grandmother Maureen Byrne used to tell me stories about her life and the lives of people on her street and in her family. My father Joe Lordan, of Bog Road in Clonakilty, is also a great storyteller, as are many of his friends, and I picked up a gift for storytelling from them. There's no shortage of great material in West Cork and in Kerry so I've plenty to keep me busy with yet. My father has challenged me to write about the sport of road bowling and I intend to take up that challenge!"

Having met Dave Lordan at the Samhlaiocht Easter Festivals in 2006 and 2007 I can appreciate how strongly he feels about the importance of the two places he grew up in.

Though he's from Clonakilty in West Cork he has very strong connections to Tralee through his mother's family, the Byrnes of Mitchel's Avenue. He also had a lot of his formative experiences as a teenager in Tralee - his first girlfriend and his first flagon of cider!

"So I consider myself as having a dual heritage. The people I grew up with in these two towns have been the biggest influence on my writing. I'd like to especially mention my cousin Janet Griffin of Mitchel's, who was a hugely positive influence in my life."

Following a successful launch in The Winding Stair bookshop Dave Lordan's debut collection of poetry The Boy in the Ring is now available online at http://www.salmonpoetry.com/