The Three Rivers Storytelling Festival in East Galway Libraries

The Three Rivers Storytelling festival, now in its second year, starts next week with a visit from Clare Murphy to Portumna and Ballinasloe Libraries.The festival is midlands based and takes in the East Galway libraries of ED Ballinasloe/Ballinasloe library, Portumna, Loughrea, Eyrecourt, Killimor and Woodford as well as Athlone Library, Moate Library and Croi an Oige Seminar in A.I.T, Athlone.

The latter is facilitated by Liz Warren, Phoenix, Arizona,who had been coming over to Ballinasloe Library to tell stories for 4 years before this festival was set up.This year, as a special project, Liz is taking a class from Scoil an Chroi Naofa in Ballinasloe and monitoring them as they develop the skills of storytelling over the next few years. A similar project is already well established in Phoenix and Liz hopes that eventually there will be an exchange between the 2 communities...an exchange of stories and an exchange between the children through visits. Children involved in this project will use the computer facilities at Ballinasloe Library to make contact with their counterparts in Arizona.
In addition to the normal storytelling, this year sees the introduction of 2 Afternoon Tea Storytelling sessions for the Active Retirement group in Ballinasloe, 2 sessions in all other libraries and sessions for the Youth Group at D’Cube,Tope, Brothers of Charity and local playgroups will be visited during the last week in June.

Storytelling Festival Programme for Ballinasloe area:
Wednesday,3rd June..... Clare Muireann Murphy
11am-11.45...Portumna Library
1.30-2.15 pm....Ballinasloe Library
Tuesday,9th June.......Pat Ryan
11-11.45...Portumna Library
1.15-2pm...Eyrecourt Library
3pm...Ballinasloe Library...Active Retirement Afternoon Tea Storytelling Session with.....Fionnuala McKinley
Wednesday,10th June
Loughrea Library.......11-11.45am
Ballinasloe Library.....2-2.45pm
Friday,12th June...Simone Schummelfedder
Woodford Library......11-11.45
Killimor Library....1.30-2.15pm

Bealtaine Festival in Ballinasloe Library

Bealtaine, the Irish national festival celebrating creativity in older age, is co-ordinated by Age & Opportunity and includes events organised by hundreds of partner organisations. We are suggesting the line ‘Go and open the door’ from the poem ‘The door’ by Miroslav Holub as the theme for Bealtaine 09. ‘Go and open the door’ is an invitation to try something new, to explore something creative this Bealtaine in recognition of the life enhancing joys of constant learning and our capacity for creativity at all stages of our lives.

The Active Retirement Association in Ballinasloe are exhibiting a selection of photographs at ED Ballinasloe/Ballinasloe Library in celebration of Bealtaine.The photographs are the actual entries in 'Go and open the door’ and is divided into two sections...Category 1..Yesteryear and Category 2....Present Day.The photographs on view show the distinct contrast between the 2 categories.The exhibition will be at the library until June 8th.

'Galway in Song’ in Tuam Library

Musician and songwriter John Faulkner hosted ‘Galway in Song’ in Tuam library on Wednesday 6th May. The Galway City and County Musician in Residence explored and sang local songs, many with a particularly local focus, with songs from and about Galway.

Members of the audience joined in and sang songs they remembered from their youth. Tuam Community Warden Rosina Joyce played the fiddle, while local musician Mike Stewart played the guitar. It was an extremely enjoyable lunchtime concert.

As part of the Musician in Residence programme John was giving a series of illustrated talks/performances, in various libraries around County Galway. This programme has been devised as a first step towards reviving interest in local song, and in retrieving a repertoire of local songs that are fast passing from living memory. Galway in Song is organised in conjunction with Galway City & County Library Service.

Final Over the Edge for Summer in Galway City Library

Over The Edge in association with Poetry Ireland presents the final Over The Edge: Open Reading before the summer break in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 21st, 6.30-8.00pm.

The Featured Readers are Cristina Galvin, Eamonn Bonner & Enda Wyley.

Enda Wyley has published four collections of poetry with Dedalus Press - Eating Baby Jesus (1994), Socrates in the Garden (1998), Poems for Breakfast (2004) and To Wake to This (May 2009). Her books for children include Boo and Bear (O’Brien Press 2003 ), The Silver Notebook, ( O’Brien Press, 2007 ) and I Won’t Go to China! (O’Brien Press, 2009). She was the recipient of The Vincent Buckley Memorial Prize and visited Melbourne University as Writer in Residence. Her work has been awarded several Arts Council Bursaries for Literature, most recently in 2008. Her poetry has been widely anthologized and broadcast on radio and television. Enda lives in Dublin where she works as a writer and a teacher.

Cristina Galvin is currently completing the MA in Writing at NUIG and teaches yoga in Galway and surrounding areas. She loves books written from a child’s point of view and playing with this perspective in her own fiction and non-fiction. She was long-listed in the 2008 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition. Cristina also writes poetry and her work features in the anthology Ink For Air.

Eamonn Bonner is from the fishing village of Burtonport in West Donegal. He works in retail in Galway City centre. He started writing stories and poems for his own children but as they grew older Eamonn drifted away from writing until he attended the poetry workshops facilitated by Kevin Higgins at Galway Arts Centre. He now writes poetry and fiction for both adults and children. Eamonn recently won a prize for his poetry at the McGill literary Festival.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland & The Arts Council.

Fleadh Cheoil na Gaillimhe event in Ballinasloe Library

Fleadh Cheoil na Gaillimhe takes place in Ballinasloe this week from 14th - 18th May.
As part of the Fleadh programme of events, Ballinasloe Library hosted a lecture on Wed,14th entitled"The Music of East Galway".

The speaker was Mr Joe Connor from Cois na h-Abhna Comhaltas Centre in Ennis, Co. Clare. The lecture was beautifully complemented by snippets of actual recordings by well known musicians like Aggie White, Paddy Fahy, the Ballinakill Ceili Band and The Aughrim Slopes Ceili Band and many more.
The library also exhibited entries from 20 schools in the locality who entered an art competition run in conjunction with the Fleadh and hosted the presentation of prizes for this on Thursday, 15th May.

Ballybane Library Bookmark Competition

Winners, from the Ballybane Library, of the recent Bookmark Competition to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day pose for a photograph. (left to right)Rebecca O’Leary, Jane O’ Leary, Oisín Anderson.

Ballinasloe Library: Photographic Exhibition Prague-Dublin-Paris

Last March, the Embassies of France and of the Czech Republic joined forces to present a photographic cooperation initiative in the Public Space of the European Union House in Dublin.
The project involved an exchange between young photographers, studying in famous schools of photography, in the Czech Republic (the FAMU in Prague : Filmová A Televizní Fakulta Akademie Múzických Umění), in Ireland (the Dun Laoghaire IADT : Institute of Art, Design and Technology) and in France (the ENSP in Arles : Ecole nationale supérieure de photographie).

A selection of photographs from this project is now exhibited at the Europe Direct Information Centre in Ballinasloe Library, Co. Galway, until the end of May.

Europe Direct Information Centre
Ballinasloe Library, Fairgreen, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway
Tel: 090 9643464
http://www.galwaylibrary.ie/
http://www.europedirect.ie/

Local Authority Archivists’ Group: Local Elections Exhibition

2009 marks the 110th anniversary of the first representative local elections which were held in April 1899. The Local Authority Archivists’ Group, with the support of the Heritage Council, has created an exhibition to mark the election anniversary which is travelling to all the counties and cities in Ireland in the run-up to the Local Elections next month. It is hoped that this exhibition will help to heighten awareness of the purpose and goals of local elections and the impact that local government has in our communities.
The passing into law of the Local Government Act, 1898 established the County Councils and reformed the City Councils and gave many people in Ireland the right to vote for the first time. This right gave people a say in local government which meant that they were able to influence the development of their communities and their country. It could be argued that the road to national independence in 1922 was greatly supplemented through the gains made in local elections by nationalist parties.
The exhibition gives an outline of some of the major historical themes and events surrounding local elections since the first elections in 1899 including the Local Government Act 1898 and the franchise, the first Local Government elections 1899, the result of the first election and its consequences; famous elections, election campaigns, and legislative changes over the years.

The exhibition is on display at Galway County Council offices, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, until the 23rd May. For those unable to visit the exhibition the panels are available in pdf format at here

Seán Lysaght reads in Inishbofin Library

Seán Lysaght will read in Inishbofin Library on Saturday on 9th May at 5:00pm. This is one of the events in the eleventh annual Inishbofin Community Arts Festival.
He lectures at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and lives in Westport.
In 1985 he was an award winner at the annual Patrick Kavanagh poetry festival. His first collection of poetry, Noah's Irish Ark was published in 1989, followed by The Clare Island Survey (Gallery, 1991; nominated for The Irish Times/Aer Lingus poetry award). Between 1990 and 1994 he lectured in English at St Patrick's College, Maynooth and received a PhD for his work on the life and writings of Robert Lloyd Praeger, subsequently published as Robert Lloyd Praeger: The Life of a Naturalist (Four Courts, 1998). His subsequent collections, Scarecrow (1998) and Erris (2002) and The Mouth of a River (2007) were published by The Gallery Press. He recently received the 2007 O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry. Venetian Epigrams (Translations after Goethe) was published in June 2008.

Launch of Mervue Portraits at Ballybane Library

Mervue Portraits, a Public Art Commission begun in 2006, with funding generated from the Per Cent Art Scheme, through works undertaken by Galway City Council’s Housing Department in Quinn Place, Loughnane Terrace and St. James Road, Mervue resulted in ‘Mervue Portraits’ by artist Christopher Banahan and writer Michael O’Loughlin.
It was simple idea of offering to paint any one who would like their portrait painted, and for the finished portrait to be subsequently given to the resident to maintain in their own home. Michael O’Loughlin, then began to re-trace Christopher’s footsteps and revisited the participants that had had their portrait painted. Through a series of interviews and conversations with the participants, Michael created his own form of written portraiture of these people.
The publication designed by Tony O’Hanlon of Propellor Designs is a simple bringing together of these two projects by Christopher and Michael and works to test the boundaries and potentials of both writing and painting, in attempting to capture the characters of these residents and is both a wonderful document and homage to the people. The publication is available from Galway City Council Arts Office.

Top photo: Christopher Banahan, Artist; Michael O’Loughlin, Poet; James Harrold, Arts Officer; Mayor Pádraig Conneely, Siobhán Arkins librarian at Ballybane Library and Megs Morley, Public Arts Officer.Bottom photo: James Harrold with Michael and Christopher looking on.

Galway in Song with John Faulkner at Tuam Public Library

After a very successful night recently in Gort Public Library, Galway City and County Musician in Residence John Faulkner heads north to Tuam Library where he will explore Galway’s local song tradition at a lunchtime presentation on Wednesday 6th May at 1.00pm.
As part of the Musician in Residence programme John is giving a series of illustrated talks/performances, in various libraries around County Galway. As usual these events are free and open to all.
The performances around the county will involve a particularly local focus, with songs from and about Galway. This programme has been devised as a first step towards reviving interest in local song, and in retrieving a repertoire of local songs that are fast passing from living memory. Galway in Song is organised in conjunction with Galway City & County Library Service.