Month: October 2008

PREPARATIONS are nearing com- pletion for this year’s Cooley-Collins Traditional Music Festival which take place in Gort later this month. This year is the 24th staging of the festival, which commemorates the lives of local musicians Joe Cooley and Ciaran Collins.

Festivities will be officially opened by Ciaran Hanrahan of RTE in Cooley’s Lodge in Peterswell on the evening of October 24.

Saturday will see improver music classes from Joe Burke, Nuala Hehir, Mary Bergin, Denis Liddy, Ciaran Hanrahan, Eamon Cotter and Jack

Talty at the Gort Community Centre, comhra Gaeilge and children’s work- shops at Coole Park.

The Cooley-Collins Festival is one of the final traditional music festivals of the year and attracts large num- bers to the area to soak up the last of WeComciUbO Sb OSTo) MEAUDOToCE

“There is a feat of music going on at this years festival. We will have music by Mary McNamara at the opening along with the Tulla Young Ceili group and a ceili with the Four Courts at the end of the night,” said organiser Mary Coen.

“The highlight of the festival is the gala concert which takes place on Saturday evening. This year we will

have Joe Burke and Ann Conroy- Burke, Nuala Hehir, Jodie Moran and the Shaskeen Band as well the local musicians. The Tulla Ceili band will also have a ceili that evening and we will have music in the square on Sunday. The last ceilis will come on Sunday and Monday with Matt Cun- ningham and Donie Nolan.”

As soon as this years festival is finished, thoughts will turn to next years 25th anniversary festival.

“Tt has changed a lot since the early days of the festival. I have been in- volved for more than 18 years now but it has changed a lot,’ continued Mary.

“It’s been growing year on year and

there are so many festivals out there now that you have to keep up the standards. We will be pulling out all the stops for next year.

“We will be inviting back al the people who formed the first festival and we are really hoping to get the people who took part in the first ever gala concert. It would be great if anyone who knew Cooley or Collins to get in touch. It should be a great year.”

The festival takes place from October 24 to 27. Anyone inter- ested in sponsoring the festival or pre-book a class should contact Mary on 086 3623765 or e-mail maryteresacoen @eircom.net.

LAHINCH woman Tessa O’Connor has returned from Belarus with a message of thanks for all the people of north Clare who have contributed to the work of the Burren Chernobyl Project.

Earlier this year she organised a charity sandcastle building compe- tition, with all the money raised go- ing towards works on the Cherven and ‘Tarasiki projects. Tessa has just spent four week in Belarus, working with the people there effected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

“Thanks to everyone who helped with the sandcastle building compe- tition – it wouldn’t be possible to help

the people out there if it wasn’t for people generosity,’ said Tessa.

“We went to the children’s orphan- age in Cherven for awhile and then on to Tirasiki, which is an adult in- stitution. It’s a miserable looking place, all blue and white, and with a very cold, institutionalized feel- ing. We really to give each person a different colour bedroom, and make them feel that they had somewhere of their own. The different colours are great for them, even that simple change helps to bring them out of themselves.”

Tessa has been involved in the Bur- ren Chernobyl Project for a number of years. Indeed, her latest trip was her fourth journey to Belarus.

‘My mum has been involved with the Burren group for a while and I think it was back in 1993 when we started getting children with us dur- ing the summer. We had a child called Sergi over with us from the Cherven orphanage and when they were no longer allowed to come over here, myself and a friend of mine decided to go over and visit them 1n- Stead,” she said.

“There is great satisfaction from being over there. They give you love so willingly. These people out there are in a really bad situation and even if you do something really small for them, the reaction is incredible. It’s gives you a real sense of perspective about your own life.”

For more information or to make

a donation check out Wwww.bur- renchernobyl.ie or contact the of- fice on 065 7071130 or e-mail office @burrenchernobyl.ie

COME to sing or come to listen – the Kilnaboy X-PO is pioneering a new venture that will brighten up Monday evenings for local music lovers this winter.

The singers club is the first in a host of new projects started at the former post office since it was taken over by the local community last month.

Young and old have been making their way to the revamped post office each Monday for an evening of mu- sic, tea and catching up with friends and neighbours.

“We started off by saying it was a singers and players club but we soon found out that there was a lot of peo- ple who wanted to come and listen. So we have changed it into a singers, players and listeners club,” said Phil Gaston of the X-PO.

“We have a real wide range of age groups. We have some older people who have been involved in choirs down the years but we also have a few younger people and a young singer-songwriter from Ennistymon who is playing a lot of newer music.

“Everyone plays or sings what they like. It not about the quality of what

is sang but more so about the partici- pation.

“We have people who have come who say that they can’t sing but after an hour they have decided that they have no problem singing and have joined in with the rest.”

Along with the singers club, the X- PO 1s also hosting a range of commu- nity events including set dancing, an Irish conversation evening, mapping and history group, the local Macra, music teaching, a coffee morning and drawing classes.

The idea of the project is to protect the community interaction and fel-

lowship that existed in the building when it was a post office.

“We had a few of the old school songs there last week and all of the sudden there were all of these memo- ries about school days years ago and great banter back and forth,’ contin- ued Phil.

“Music is a great medium for trig- gering memories. If someone asks you about a song they almost always have a story to go with it. It’s a great way of getting chat going with a group.”

For more information on the X-PO e-mail xpo.kilnaboy@ gmail.com.

THE awards just keep on rolling in for Lisdoonvarna’s Burren Smoke- house, which last week claimed its third major national prize in as many weeks. The smokehouse brought back two category awards, as well as the overall Grand Prix award from the SHOP 2008 Final in Dublin last week. The undoubted star of the event was the smokehouse’s newest product, smoked salmon with honey, whiskey and fennel glaze.

This new recipe was conceived as a means of bringing an uniquely Irish flavour to the smoked salmon.

“We couldn’t believe it; to get one award was something else but then the second and third awards was just unbelievable. To get the award for best product in show was really spe- cial,” said Birgitta.

‘There was such huge competition out there and we feel very fortunate. It’s great recognition, not just myself but for the whole team in the Burren Smokehouse. It’s the whole package that was being judged – the original product, all that we do to in terms of flavouring as well as the final pres- entation.

‘We wanted to come up with some- thing which was uniquely Irish. Pre-

serving salmon with honey is an old Irish tradition – both in terms of pre- serving and improving the flavour. We wanted to create a really Irish product, and something that really had its own character and flavour. It worked really well, the judges really loved the salmon.”

The smokehouse has won a number of high profile awards in recent time, most notably two Gold Medals at this years Great Taste Awards.

“It is satisfying, we have been working on product range a lot this year, coming up with new ideas and widening the range more and more. This makes it more attractive for the

customers who come to our shop and for the shops that we stock,” contin- ued Birgitta.

‘They can now choose more differ- ent flavours than ever before. When you marinate the salmon it makes it even more palatable for people. It’s about giving people something dif- ferent. People are getting into new flavours and they like to widen their experiences more and more.”

The smokehouse won the award for the best Irish product and the over- all award for the best item on shop at SHOP 2008. The SHOP awards are organised by a collective of some of Ireland largest food retailers.

CALLS have been made for extra gardai for east Clare after a spate of crimes left cars wrecked and homes vandalised in recent days.

The various incidents – which ap- pear not to be connected – came to a head in the early hours of Friday morning when shots were fired at a house in Clonuchtere.

Last week residents in the Meelick area were shocked at a spate of as- saults and attacks which left three

cars damaged and the windows of two houses shattered.

Local councillor Cathal Crowe(FF) said there is an element of intimida- tion and people who had property damaged had not reported the matter to gardai.

“There have been assaults and threats around Clonlara and a number of very aggessive crimes. The shoot- ing incident doesn’t appear to have any connection but it takes things to a whole new level,’ he said.

Meanwhile, local Labour council-

lor, Pascal Fitzgerald said that people in the area are “shocked” by recent developments which have left prop- erty and vehicles badly damaged.

“This is a lovely area and people here don’t deserve to be in fear of this kind of behaviour,” he said.

Both councillors are calling for ex- tra policing after the attacks.

“We are in close proximity to a big city but this is a country area and we can’t allow a spread of the kind of crimes that are plaguing urban ar- eas,” Cllr Fitzgerald said.