This article is from page 20 of the 2011-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
THOUSANDS of children across the county embraced the 2011 Children’s Book Festival of Clare, making it the most successful running of the event to date, the Clare County Library has revealed this week.
The event concluded last Friday after a month-long celebration of books and reading saw thousands of children from primary schools throughout the county attend a bumper programme of events. The 2011 programme included live history workshops, poetry workshops, children’s puppet theatre, art and craft sessions, music and author visits by some of the best writers for children in Ireland today.
“Children were introduced to the great artistic creators including Shakespeare, Hemingway and Robert Burns and to the art of Claude Monet through the multi-disciplinary sessions delivered by Tony Maude from London and Dr Fred Freeman from Edinburgh. Both artists’ shows included an excellent mix of poetry, art, literature and music to the delight of their young audiences,” a spokesperson for the County Library revealed. “Music making of a more modern genre was enjoyed by fifthand sixth-class children who took part in the workshops of John Lillis. Six sessions of non-stop entertainment featured beat-boxing, scratching and a very informative hands-on lesson on the techniques employed by a successful DJ.
“Authors Bob Burke, Nicola Pierce, Oisin McGann, Judi Curtin, Dolores Keaveney and Bridget Bhreathnach travelled the county, with all library branches hosting at least one author event for their local schools.
“Judging by the attention paid to the stories of these writers and the questions that went on well after their presentations ended, the future of writing in Clare looks extremely promising,” the spokesperson added.
One of the highlights of this year’s festival was ‘The Irish History Live Show’ presented by Michael Moylan. Children in Ennis, Ennistymon, Miltown Malbay and Tulla were transported back to the Easter Rising of 1916 or to the Second World War.
Moylan successfully takes the printed pages of the history books and brings them alive with his travelling museum of clothes, replica weapons and artifacts of the period which children are encouraged to try out as an integral part of his spell binding presentations. “The number of times that this event features in the Library’s Children’s Book Festival programme is testament to the appeal of Michael’s show year after year,” a library spokesperson said.