Month: July 2008

CAMERA enthusiasts in Clare can get clicking thanks to the formation of the Ennis Camera and Photo- graphic Society.

Patrick Ryan, Tina Walker and Ni- all Considine established the society as a forum for professional and ama- teur photographers from Ennis, west Clare and north Clare.

All three share a keen interest in photography and were eager to cater for the needs of similar enthusiasts.

Club president Patrick Ryan became aware of the need for a photographic society through discussions with fel- low photographers and artists.

Patrick explained, “Much of pho- tography takes its roots from tradi-

tional art – thus many artists evolve into excellent photographers. They felt that if they had a forum to talk about the more technical aspects of photography – that they too could bring the artistic flair to the group which would benefit everyone”’.

This has certainly proven to be true – with over 20 regular members at- tending the fortnightly meetings. There is an excellent mix of pho- tographers at all levels – from pro- fessionals to members who are just thinking of buying a camera and tal- ented artists.

This has provided for some lively debate during the sessions around the various artistic and technical as- pects of photography.

Club secretary Tina Watkins, her-

self an artist and budding photog- rapher, said, “Having the discussion across all elements of photography from composition to finishing has helped in learning new skills which I can apply to photography and paint- ing alike.’The club is not strictly confined to digital based photogra- phy either. Several members shoot photographs using film and many of the members who have never used film are very keen to understand this traditional approach and apply it to the new digital era.

Members also meet regularly for field trips throughout Clare. The aim is to implement shared ideas and techniques in a real life. Recent outings included visits to Dromore Woods and the Aran Islands. An ex-

hibition of work is also planned for later in the year. It 1s also hoped that the club will play an active role in lo- cal community groups and organiza- tions or centres of learning that are interested in photography.

Many of the members’ work can be viewed at www.enniscameraclub. Lovee mem UOercmaalNemAlbus sme LUO NGlolF-RULE The club meets every two weeks on a Tuesday night in Clarecastle GAA Club House at 8pm, all new mem- bers, regardless of skill or technical ability, are welcome.

The next meeting takes place tonight (Tuesday July 29). Further details are available from Niall Considine at the Ennis Fuji Centre on O’Connell Square, email:niall@photocart.ie or or IR Ole merer-cle eee

The back gardens in the housing es- tate have flooded every year prevent- ing children from playing in them and adults enjoying them.

After years of complaining to the local authority and making political representations, chairperson of the local residents association Christine Murphy brought the issue directly to the Kilrush Town Councillors at the June meeting.

During a presentation Ms Murphy said, “This is not the first time we brought this problem to the council.”

She said that when she and her fam- ily became residents of Island View in February 2005 they did not realise the garden was going to be a problem until the following winter. She said the garden flooded and was not fit for human use.

Ms Murphy explained that the resi- dents were told on three separate oc- casions to collect the names and ad- dresses of the householder that had this problem. When they did nothing was done she said.

She said that some people became so frustrated at the delay in an ad- equate response to their plight from the council, that they fixed the gar- den themselves at a cost of more than €2,000.

Speaking this week Cllr O’Gorman said, “Part of these people’s homes are isolated from them and I don’t think that is good enough. I trust it will be done eventually but it must be Pele A ae

THE people of Miltown Malbay have always been proud of where they are from, and now the respect they have shown their local environment and their senior citizens is being recog- nised nationally.

The Senior Laichtin Naofa in the West Clare Family Resource Cen- tre is the only project in west Clare being considered in the All-Ireland competition Pride of Place.

Pride of Place started in 2003 and is an all-island competition directed towards recognising the improve- ments of local communities to create his Comm owe CoM OO MN elcsNUE-D Ror.

The competition encourages peo- ple to come together to enjoy all that

is good about their area as well as change or improve certain aspects of their community.

The competition is hosted by Co- operation Ireland under its Local Authority Programme in conjunction with the all-island Local Authority Steering Forum comprising officials from authorities in all of the island of Ireland.

This year three new single-issue categories have been added to the competition – including Services for the Elderly. It is in this category that Seanoiri Laichtin Naofa is being considered for the €2,000 prize and trophy.

This unique low-cost service pro- vides social care for senior citizens in the area through a voluntary agency.

It offers a wide range of services to approximately 60 senior citizens every week such as library services, IT learning opportunities, medical support, leisure and meals daily.

Local County Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind) said, “This service is open for social networking for a group of people otherwise isolated.

“Tt is sustainable and as it operates as a low cost facility, this makes it at- tractive to further development.”

He paid tribute to the Local Ac- tive Retirement Association and ICA guild; bean an ti Cait Ni Loingsigh, the six volunteers, the three FAS workers and Clarecare.

‘This is amodel project on a low op- erating cost and minimum overheads fulfilling a significant social need in

a disadvantage rural area,” said Cllr Curtin. The concept behind the Pride of Place competition is very simple – to recognise and celebrate the vital contributions that community groups make to society.

This basic element of community recognition makes the competition unique. Past entrants in Pride of Place have included groups involved in a wide variety of activities across the social spectrum. The common thread is the impact and difference these activities have made in peo- ples’ lives- just as Seanoiri Laichtin Naofa has.

WHEN PJ Murrihy goes to bed at night he dreams of the land, his life touring Ireland and the world and

Such dreams and visions are now making up a large part of the west Clare man’s ninth album as he wrote or co-wrote eight of the tracks.

As well as playing throughout Ire-

people he meets along the way.

The man from Mullagh then uses these dreams to write songs that have proven firm favourites among Irish country fans around the world.

land PJ also plays with a tour com- pany in Spain and Portugal and on Caribbean cruises.

While on one of those cruises with his friend Johnny Carroll he wrote “Johnny Carroll, The Man from Cas- tlerea”’.

“One night we were on the cruise and he told us “I am going to bed ear- ly because when you are doing this for 50 years like me you will have to go to bed too.” I was thinking about it that night and I had a song for him in the morning,” PJ told

IT IS festival peak season in west Clare this weekend, as three local festivals and a prestigious agricul- tural show will entertain visitors and locals enjoying the bank holiday.

Cooraclare, Kildysart and Kilmihil are making last minute preparations for their annual week and weekends of festive fun.

The Kildysart Cultural Festival will be the first to begin the merrymak- ing, as it starts tomorrow evening with a car treasure hunt.

Flower power will be the order of the day until the end of the festival on Monday, August 4, as the theme of the festival this year is “The Sixties”. The festival has been a major fund-

raiser during the last five years for the provision of a public playground, which is now complete.

A total of €190,000 has been spent on the project to date, but the fund- raising 1S on-going as it is hoped that phase two of the project will begin shortly.

The second part of this ambitious project will include an all weather pitch, dressing rooms, and toilet fa- cilities.

This year the famous Kildysart Agricultural Show will take place on the Saturday of the festival on the Cahercon Road, with the exhibition hall in the village.

In its 66th year the show will in- clude as always the All-Ireland two- year filly championship.

Labasheeda native John O’Sullivan from the Quickpark company this year announced his commitment to sponsoring the Champion Young Horse for another five years.

The Kilmihil Festival of Fun begins on this Friday, August |, with the un- der 12 football followed by “Crazy Ball Game” and barrel racing.

This festival, best known for its “Bonham Racing” began in its present format in 2000.

It has developed from a one-day event to the present day four-day fes- tival, finishing up on Bank Holiday Monday.

Each year new events are added to improve and expand the range of ac- tivities of this family and community eee COLORED

Preparations are also underway for one of west Clare’s longest running festivals. In its 29th year the ever- popular Rose of Clare Festival will begin on Saturday, August 2, with a song contest in Danganelly Tavern, Cooraclare.

The week long festival will run un- til Friday, bringing craic, ceoil and lots of lovely ladies to the villages of Cree and Cooraclare.

This year, as always, a dozen new roses will be introduced to the crowd after the Sunday afternoon Fancy Dress parade in Cree, by Clare man of the year and local man Martin Done

The people of west Clare will be spoilt for choice of holidaying at home this long weekend.

FORMER hostage and East Belfast born author, Brian Keenan will be the official guest of honour at the opening of the Scariff Harbour Fes- tival on Friday evening, August | at 6.30pm at Scariff Marina.

His presence affirms the festival’s now well-established links with Northern Ireland and its essential focus to forge new cross border re- lationships at cultural, political and community levels.

Mike Rodgers, chairman of Scariff Harbour Festival Committee, said that Brian Keenan’s visit to Scariff 1s “indicative of the festival’s commit- ment to fostering on-going relation- ships with all aspects of Northern

Ireland life.”

He added, “For the past five years our guests of honour have come from the north as have the many acts in- cluded in its line-up of events.”

On Saturday, August 2 at 3pm at Scariff Library, Brian will read from his soon to be published memoir with the working title of ‘Il tell me Ma’.

From bungie bulls to bouncy cas- tles, from lazer zone to hotshot foot- ball, from circus shows to puppet acts, Scariff GAA Park will see the biggest ever Family Fun Day on Sat- urday as part of the festival.

According to Karena O’Brien, one of the organisers of the fun day and member of the Harbour Festival Committee, “The GAA field will literally come alive with a line-up

of activities and entertainment on a scale never seen before in Scariff, suitable for children of all ages and set to exceed the amazing success of last year’s event.”

Mayo-based fun company, Toons & Balloons returns to Scariff this year to deliver the festival’s dream children’s event with fun, frolics and safety a high priority for everybody involved.

In addition to the bouncing castles and inflatable games, an exciting fun-packed interactive laser game arena will be set up in an 1,000 sq.ft self-contained covered space.

Another new dimension is a fast- moving competitive pony race called the Pony Hop.

The amazing Franzini Brothers,

who describe themselves as devil- ishly handsome west Kerry Italians, will perform their spectacular antics with a 40 minute interactive circus skills show “Deathwish’. which com- bines magic, mayhem, and high wire tomfoolery.

These heroes of the Irish circus scene will carry out death-defying stunts and spectactular magic giving a hugely comic edge to their whole joLeruCe)want-ni(eon

There will be an air of magic on children’s day not just with the Franzini Brothers but also with the Dog and String Theatre Company, who will bring along hand puppets, shadow puppets and life size figures to delight youngsters and young at heart.

TO coincide with the celebration of the ancient festival of Lughnasadh, the Mountshannon-based Mogh Roith Historical Re-enactment Soci- ety are taking visitors to Craggauno- wen several steps back in time.

The ancient Festival of Lughnasadh honoured the Celtic God Lugh and celebrates the arrival of the harvest season.

On August 3 and 4 there will be displays demonstrating various apsects of Ireland’s history and herit- age from different time periods, with

showcase events such as a Brehon Law Trial and a hand-to-hand com- bat demonstration.

There will be a Bronze Age dem- onstration at the fulacht fia featuring re-enactors in Bronze Age costume, demonstrating and discussing as- pects of Bronze Age technology and lifestyle.

The Iron Age display will be at the Crannog, and will cover the La Tene period of Irish archaeology, when Celtic art, religion and language first entered the country.

As well as a range of weapons and tools, there will be costumed re-en-

actors demonstrating period musical instruments, stone-carving, cooking, weaving and dyeing.

Described as Ireland’s Golden Age, the Early Christian period display will demonstrate a range of aspects of life from 8th century Ireland, in- cluding ancient hurling and board- games, textile production, bread making, weapons and manuscript illustration

The medieval display at the castle will showcase Ireland’s medieval pe- riod, and feature demonstrations of tapestry, spinning and embroidery, and will offer the braver visitors a

chance to explore the weapons and armour of the Anglo-Norman and native Gaelic warriors and soldiers who once inhabited Craggaunowen or TS Aer

The time-travel goes on each day from llam to 5pm.

TULLA and Feakle are both host- ing traditional festivals this year and both promise to be musical treats.

The second Tulla Trad Festival kicks off on September 12. World- famous fiddle player, Liz Carroll will be peforming. Other household names in the world of traditional mu- sic include Micheal O’Raghallaigh, Matt Moloy, Catherine McEvoy, Kathleen Loughnane, Mary Bergin, John Carty and Arty McGlynn

All set dancers can start getting the shoes ready for the ceilis where they can dance to the Four Courts on the Friday night at Minogues, Tulla Ceili

Band will be playing for the Ceili- Mor on Saturday 13th at the Second- ary School and Andrew MacNamara on Sunday night. Nora Butler and Maire Ni Cheallachair will be sing- ing at the Powerhouse on Saturday night while Robbie McMahon will be Teach OI on Sunday afternoon.

The Feakle Festival will be offi- cially opened Wednesday, August 6 and the opening will be a platform to honour local flute player Paddy O’Donogue.

A well-respected musician and composer Paddy recently released a CD of his music with his son Cyril.

Eurovision winner Emear Quinn will perform with a string quartet in

Kilclaren Church on Thursday. This is the first time the beautiful church has been used as a festival venue.

Friday night’s concert in St. Mary’s Church in Feakle features Frankie Gavin and Roisin Elsafty for the first time.

TG4 Musician of the Year and local legend Martin Hayes together with Dennis Cahill will top the evening.

The gala concert on Saturday night in the Community Hall will be a lively mix with new and up coming traditional artists with Mayo band Céide, Tulla favourite Andrew Mc- Namara and Rob Stein and many more.

A special festival three concert

ticket price of €60 is available for these concerts. Bookings can be made to info@feaklefestival.ie or by calling 087 9678020.

The workshops continue to be very popular and attendance has increased yearly.

Besides the regular classes this year’s Festival sees the introduction of four new workshops, for whis- tle, beginner’s concertina, sean nds dancing and a one-day workshop in traditional song writing.

Full details of the festival pro- gramme, which also features ceilis, music and singing sessions, are on the festival web site, www.feak lefes- Ae oe

DESPITE all the doom and gloom about recessions and downturns, one north Clare business is beating all the trends.

Last weekend the Lahinch Surf School opened up new premises on Lahinch’s Main Street, bringing to four the company’s representa- tions around the county. The school, which was founded by senior Irish surf champion John McCarthy seven years ago, now operates surf schools in Kilkee, Spanish Point and Lahi- eee

The new premises will serve as a

booking office and surf shop, as well as showcasing some of the areas best SUM ROE- Iho m-vae

“The school has being going since 2002 and we have been based down in the beach-hut on the Prom since Wee

“We will be holding on to the beach-hut, that’s still where it’s all happening, but the shop is going to be somewhere that will be open all year- round and where people can drop in when the weather isn’t great,’ said surf school manager Sinead Finn.

“We will be selling our own brand materials there like t-shirts and tide tables, anything to do with the surf

shop. As well as that we have gotten on to a few local artists and photog- raphers, people like Ann Vaughan from Liscannor who has sent us in a few pieces.

We also have a number of surf pho- tographers from people like Paudie Scanlan and George Karbus, Al McKennon and Mikey Smith.

‘So as well as a shop it 1s an exhi- bition space and people can come in and buy the artwork and photographs TUE A OCA Vane 00

Over the past number of years La- hinch has been transformed into the surf capital of Ireland. Besides the hundreds who flock to the village

throughout the summer months the local surfers also won a place in the Guinness Book of Records in 2007 for the most surfers to surf the same wave at the one time.

School founder, John McCarthy, was also one of the group who first surfed Aileens Wave, the monster wave under the Cliffs of Moher.

The Lahinch Surf School is open seven days a week from 1lam to 6pm and is fully approved by the Irish Surfing Association.

People can book surf lessons at the new surf shop on Main Street, at the Surf-Hut on the Prom or by ringing 087 9609667.

THE stars of Hollywood will de- scend on Ennistymon this Wednes- day in the shape of new film by Clare based author and filmmaker Alan Cooke.

Home, which features appearances from Liam Neeson, Mike Myers, Su- san Sarandon, Rosie Perez, Alfred Molina, Frank McCourt and Malachy McCourt will receive it’s local debut at the Courthouse Gallery in En- nistymon tomorrow evening at 8pm.

Home in an autobiographic tale of Cooke’s own journey in New York and the general experience of mak- ing the Big Apple your home.

“I spent six years in New York be- fore moving back to Dublin. I spent a few months there and decided that I just didn’t want to be around there anymore. I’m writing a book about my time in New York so I wanted to find somewhere quiet to put my thoughts together while and that’s what brought me to Inagh,” said writer and author Alan Cooke.

“It was just after 9/11 so it was a fairly strange time to be moving to New York. I started writing a lot of pieces about the city which eventu- ally led on to the film. So now I have started going back to these original writings, expanding on them and putting the book together.

“It’s a documentary but its a mix- ture of different styles. A documen- tary is usually just a lot of talking heads but this is more like a poem or love letter to the city.

‘There are a lot of interesting visu- als about what I felt about New York and what the meaning of home is in New York.

‘Because so much happens in every moment in New York we were try- ing to capture that feeling visually, through the words and in the inter- views with regular New Yorkers and the starts who ended up being in the nubeee

Home received it’s Irish premier at the Eye Cinema in Galway last week

and this will be it’s first Clare show- ing. Following the show Alan will host a questions and answers session with interested audience members.

“It’s a study of how New York is in the 21 century but it’s also about how a person changes when they leave somewhere like Ireland and go to a big city like New York,’ he contin- ued.

To book tickets phone 065 7071630, email ennistymon@mail.com. Tick- ets cost ©7 and a trailer is viewable on www.homethemovie.com.