This article is from page 35 of the 2009-02-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
KILMALEY Voluntary Housing Association and Clare County Coun- cil’s Arts Office have commissioned traditional singer, John Tunney, to work with the clients and residents of Kilmaley Daycare Centre to com- pose new songs in a traditional style inspired by the people and place of Gtr
The songs will be performed for the first time in public by John and the Daycare Centre clients at a special recital in the Kilmaley Inn at 8pm on Friday, February 20 next.
John has worked closely with the staff and clients of the Daycare Cen- tre over the last six months to create the new songs. Spancilhill photog- rapher and accordion player Christy McNamara was also commissioned to work with the Daycare Centre cli- ents to capture this unique process in photographic images.
John Tunney has been living in En- nis for the last eight years and hails from County Donegal where his fam- ily were steeped in traditional song, music and storytelling. He has been working at the Daycare Centre since September last. During this time he and the clients have been singing and learning songs from each other’s repertoire.
Christy McNamara has _photo- graphed many musicians, including U2, The Pogues and a range of tradi- tional musicians and his protographs of the Kilmaley project will be show- cased at the singing recital.
The project is funded through the Per Cent for Art Scheme which Is spe- cifically aimed at the commissioning of new contemporary art projects in connection with the development of Capital Construction Projects, in this case the development of Kilmaley Daycare Centre in 2003.
“It is one of the first Per Cent for
Art projects in Ireland to use the traditional arts — traditional song in this case — as the primary artform. Per Cent for Art projects in the past have traditionally yielded Sculptures but the Kilmaley Voluntary Housing Association Committee were very creative and now we have a beautiful project which is a prototype for other projects and artists in Ireland” says Clare Arts Officer, Siobhan Mulc-
AN OMs
Carmel O’Brien, a Day Care Cen- tre Committee member who has been working intensively on the project and a talented singer herself is delighted with how the project has developed. “The housing scheme and Daycare Centre have become a central aspect of the parish life of Kilmaley. This project has built on the community spirit among the
residents and Daycare Centre clients which we now want to share with the wider community and the rest of the county at the song recital night’, says Carmel.