Over the Edge Reading in Galway City Library

The next Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, March 29th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Michael Gorman, and four members of the Dark Gate Writers Group, Sean Donegan, Margaret Cullagh, Bernadette Tierney & Donal Grehan.

Michael Gorman was born in Sligo and educated at Summerhill College and University College Galway. His poetry collections include Postcards from Galway, Waiting for the Sky to fall and Up She Flew. One of his poems, The People I Grew Up With Were Afraid, was chosen by Pauline McLynn for inclusion in the anthology, Voices and Poetry of Ireland. He teaches poetry on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Michael Gorman is a hugely charismatic reader of his work; his readings are everything a good poetry reading should be.

Sean Donegan has published poems in Poetry Ireland Review, Time Haiku and the anthology, The Backyards of Heaven. A selection of his haiku will appear in an anthology to be published by Pillar Press, Kilkenny next year. He is a member of The Dark Gate Writers Group.

Margaret Cullagh is originally from Tipperary, but currently lives in Galway. She is the facilitator of The Dark Gate Writers Group. She is a writer and creative writing tutor and has read her work at both the Westside Arts Festival and the Project 06 Festival.

Bernadette Tierney is a Galway native. She was a volunteer worker for many years with the Simon Community. Her poems have appeared in Riposte. She is a member of The Dark Gate Writers Group.

Donal Grehan is originally from Mountmellick in Co. Laois and has been living in Galway for 20years. He writes poetry and short stories. His poems have been published in Bealtaine. He is a member of The Dark Gate Writers Group.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details contact 087-6431748

More Galway events in Library Ireland Week

Here are further events taking place during Library Ireland Week in libraries throughout County Galway.

Galway City Library
Tuesday 6th March 10am – 12am. Exhibition of Ceramic Work by local VTOS Students.The students will demonstrate glass painting

Tuesday 6th March 11.30 – 12.30. John Quinn, well known author of The Summer of Lily and Esme and other titles will talk to students.

Wednesday 7th March & 8pm. International Women’s Day will be marked by Amnesty International, public discussion on "Trafficking Violates Women’s Rights". Diarmuid Hogan, NUI Galway will chair the discussion.

Thursday 8th March ‘6.30. Fred Johnson, Writer and Manager of the Western Writers Centre will talk on the Uses and Abuses of Literary Workshops.

Friday 9th March @ 7 pm. Dermot Healy, Author of A Goat’s Song and The Bend for Home will read from his work.


Loughrea Library
Tuesday 6th March @8pm. Jo McDonagh, past President of the GAA will talk on the history of the GAA.

Tuesday 13th March 8.30. Concert of Choirs

Sunday 4th March @ 8pm. Maynooth Guitar Ensemble


Ballinasloe Library
Monday, March 12th @8pm. A lecture on the Battle Of Aughrim by Dr. Harman Murtagh.This is the 7th in a series of 9 lectures organized by the Historical and Archaeological Society of Uí-Mháine during the winter months.

Márta 6-17. Taispeántas éalaine ó réamhscoileanna an cheanntair le haghaidh Seachtain na Gaeilge agus Lá'L Pádraig

Europe Direct Centre open days for adults and children...call in and see how the Europe Direct Centre works, access the Europa website, browse through our selection of brochures and leaflets.

Galway events in Library Ireland Week

Here are some more events taking place in Galway Public Libraries during Library Ireland Week.

Clifden Library
5th – 10th March. Exhibition of Art and Craft Work by Local Artists

Thursday 8th March at 8pm. Holistic Health : Enjoy a cup of herbal tea and a chat with Terry Conroy An Bhean Feasa Health Store.


Saturday 10th @ 12am. Pet Care: Maureen Finneran from Animal Rescue will give a talk on pet care.

Athenry Library
Wednesday 7th March @ 8pm. Explore the mystery and benefits of Acupuncture with Mitra Rahmani a licensed acupuncturist from China.
Sarah Toward-Choi a qualified and experienced Iyengar Yoga Teacher will talk about Yoga.

Roundstone Library
Saturday 10th March 2pm. Fancy Dress Parade; All children are invited to dress up as their favourite book character.

Eyrecourt Library
Thursday 8th March. A Handbook for Local Community Heritage Groups will be launched by Cllr Michael Mullins, Mayor of the County of Galway, @ 7pm

Oranmore Library
1st – 10th March. People and Nature Photographic Exhibition ( Images of Galway)

Thursday 8th March. Biodiversity in County Galway; Elaine O’Riordan, Project Manager, will talk on the subject @ 7pm

Library Ireland Week 2007 in Galway

Library Ireland Week 2007 takes place from 5th to 11th March.
The Week celebrates and highlights the role of libraries, librarians and information professionals.

During the week various events will be taking place in libraries throughout County Galway. Details of which will be posted here over the next few days.


Tuam Library
Tuesday 6th March. Mime and Mask Workshop with Midi Corcoran 10-11 & 11.15-12.15

Wednesday 7th march. Library Open Day : all are invited to the Library, to browse, learn, have a cup of tea and a chat. Toddler group also meeting in the Library in the morning.

Friday 9th March. Galway City and County Childcare Committee and Galway County Libraries Toy Resource Project will be launched at 5pm by Mr. Frank Fahey, T.D., Minister of State, Dept of Justice and Law Reform.

Friday 16th march. To celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge:
Irish Drama Workshops with Priscilla; 10.00-11.00 & 11.15 – 12.15


Headford Library
Wednesday 7th March. Elaine O’Riordan will talk on Biodiversity and
Dolores Keane will talk on Organic Gardening

Thursday 8th March. Gordan Darcy, Celebrated environmentalist and author will give two workshops looking at aspects of the local environment. 10.00 – 12.30pm


Westside Library
Tuesday 6th March @ 6.30pm. A night with Stan - the story behind the pictures of Stan Shield’s recently published book of photographs – Stan’s Galway.

Wednesday 7th March @ 6.30 pm. A night of Classical Music – a Quartet playing a mix of classical favourites.


Portumna Library
Thursday 8th March at 7pm. Launch of Exhibition of Paintings by Local Artists. 5th – 10th March.

Monday 5th March @ 7.30. Talk and Demonstration on Holistic Health and Complementary Therapies with Trish and Rachel.

Wednesday 7th March @ 7.30pm. Library Reading Group Open Meeting

Over The Edge in Galway City Library

The next Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, March 1st, 6.30-8pm.

The Featured Readers are Enda Coyle-Green, Alan McMonagle & Aideen Henry.

Enda Coyle-Green lives in County Dublin. Widely published in magazines and anthologies, her work has also been broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and Lyric FM. Prizes for poetry include a Hennessy Award nomination in 2002. Her first collection, Snow Negatives, received the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2006.

Alan McMonagle lives in Galway. His work has appeared in Southword, The Cuirt Annual, west47online and Crannog. Last year he took second place in the Sean O'Faolain short story competition and was also short-listed for the Fish Story award. He is currently pursuing an MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

Aideen Henry lectures at NUI, Galway. She began writing poetry quite recently and has had poems published in West 47 and Crannog magazine. Aideen has taken part many times in the Over The Edge open-mic. She is currently attending a poetry workshop at Galway Arts Centre.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.

For further details contact 087-6431748.Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

Library Success Stories 2

The Library Association of Ireland's Youth Library Group in conjunction with the Libraries in Northern Ireland are hosting a Library Success Stories 2 on Tuesday 17th April 2007 in the Iontas Arts & Resource Centre, Castleblayney, County Monaghan.

A very successful and well attended Library Success Stories Day was held on Monday 14th November 2005 in Omagh Library, County Tyrone.

Aim of the Day: A forum for the exchange of ideas and good practice in libraries
Who is it Aimed at: Frontline and support staff involved in developing or delivering projects, programmes and activities in local libraries.
What the Day consists of: It will consist of paralled workshops highlighting a range of very successful projects and activities.
End Result of the Day: Staff from different library authorities and across the border, will talk to each other and exchange ideas and good practice. Get some positive reinforcement that there are alot of worthwhile things going on in our libraries. Produce firstly in hardcopy the projects, programme and activities discussed for each participating county and secondly online - via a website with passwords etc.

Please email me to get a template for you or your staff to fill in about any project, programme or activity. (Please fill in each project, programme, activity seperately) If the template could be filled in and emailed back to me before Friday 23rd February. If you would like for your library authority to participate in this day, please forward the names of the staff to me before Friday 2nd March. Each library authority can send up to 3 staff maximum.

On behalf of the Youth Library Group, I cannot stress enough how important a day such as this is for frontline staff as I myself participated in the first library success stories in Omagh and it was wonderful to hear such fabulous innovative ideas, and most of them done with little or no money.

Deirdriu McQuaid
Youth Library Group Secretary
Library Association of Ireland

Library Ireland Week 2007

Library Ireland Week 2007 takes place from 5th to 11th March.

The Week celebrates and highlights the role of libraries, librarians and information professionals. A working group consisting of members from sections and groups of the Library Association of Ireland is currently co-ordinating events around the country and among the various library sectors. Posters, bookmarkers, a logo and a website will all feature in this year’s publicity campaign.

The LAI would like library staff in all sectors to participate in Library Ireland Week by organising an event or events. Examples of events held in 2006 include exhibitions, tours, author visits, recitals, competitions and readings. Events coinciding with LIW or which would normally be held on a weekly/monthly basis can be included in the promotion. Libraries will soon be able to register their events on a Library Ireland Week website.

Do you have a 'story' to tell about your library that would be of interest to local/national media during LIW? Are you willing to 'champion' LIW in your area – to encourage participation, to collate information about activities, or to organise a photograph of library staff from different sectors. If so contact bboardman@libraryassociation.ie

Iraq Diary of Saad Eskander

When the Saddam regime was toppled in 2003, the Iraq National Library and Archive in Baghdad was set alight and looted. Much damage was done, in particular to the library’s archive collections.

In early December 2006, after consulting the heads of his departments, Dr Eskander, the Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive re-opened the Library and Archive even though the security situation remained as bad as before.

The British Library has posted the diary of Saad Eskander, noting that it "describes the perilous and tragic situation that the Iraq National Library and Archive is operating under and which led to the institution's temporary closure" at the end of November. Eskander's concerns are simply security and survival; what most other librarians consider first-order challenges are, in Iraq, much lower priorities.

Newbery and Caldecott Awards 2007

American Library Association announces literary award winners:



John Newbery Medal For the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature.

The Higher Power of Lucky written by Susan Patron, is the 2007 Newbery Medal winner. The book is illustrated by Matt Phelan and published by Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson
Three Newbery Honor Books were named: “Penny from Heaven,” written by Jennifer L. Holm and published by Random House; “Hattie Big Sky,” by Kirby Larson, published by Delacorte Press; and “Rules,” by Cynthia Lord, published by Scholastic.





Caldecott Medal winner Is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.



Flotsam, illustrated by David Wiesner, is the 2007 Caldecott Medal winner. The wordless book is published by Clarion.

Two Caldecott Honor Books were named: “Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet,” written and illustrated by David McLimans, and published by Walker, and “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and published by Hyperion/Jump at the Sun.

First Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2007

The first Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2007 takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, January 25th, 6.30-8pm.

The Featured Readers are Elaine Feeney, Mary Mullen & Todd Swift. The reading is a special occasion for co-organisers, Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins, as it is the fourth anniversary of the series, which began in January 2003.

Elaine Feeney was born in Galway in 1979. She teaches English at St. Patrick’s College, Tuam. She has performed and read her poetry at various readings and festivals, including the Cuirt Festival Poetry Slam. Elaine has poems forthcoming in both The Shop and Nthposition.com. According to 2005 Patrick Kavanagh Award Winner, Dave Lordan: “Her performances are notable for their fearless confrontation with the controversial truth of women’s lives in the new Ireland.”

Mary Mullen is an Alaskan-born writer who has lived in County Galway for the last decade. Her work has been published in We Alaskans, Sunday Miscellany 2003-2004, The Stinging Fly, the Cork Literary Review, Galway Now, West47online, the Anchorage Daily News, and a chapbook ‘The Whole Building Could Be On Fire’. She is working on a collection of personal history essays and short stories. Mary is a graduate of NUIG’s MA in Writing.

Todd Swift is the Canadian-born author of three poetry collections, Budavox, Café Alibi and Rue du Regard. He currently lives in London. Todd is an editor of many poetry anthologies, including 100 Poets Against The War. He also compiled the recent audio CD Life Lines: Poets for Oxfam. His latest publication is Natural Curve, a pamphlet of poems from Rubicon Press, Alberta. He has co-edited a major collection of essays on Anglo-Quebec Poetry, Language Acts, to be launched spring 2007 in Montreal. His New and Selected Poems, 1987-2007, edited with an Introduction by Kevin Higgins, is forthcoming from Salmon Publishing in 2008.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details contact 087-6431748.Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

On Friday, January 26th, starting at 8.pm., Aosdana poet and founder of the literary magazine, Cyphers, Macdara Woods will read from his work at The Imperial Hotel, Eyre Square, Galway. Admission is €8 and €5.

Born in Dublin City in 1942, he has been publishing his work since the early 1960s. His poetry collections include Decimal D. Sec Drinks in a Bar in Marrakesh (1970); Early Morning Matins (1973); Stopping the Lights in Ranelagh (1987); Miz Moon (1988); The Hanged Man Was Not Surrendering (1990); Notes From the Countries of Blood-Red Flowers (1994); Selected Poems (1996); Knowledge in the Blood: New & Selected Poems (2001) and The Nightingale Water (2001).

His work has been translated into more than one dozen languages. Two books of his poems have been published in Italian, Biglietto di Sola Andata (1998) and Con Pesaro City ai Miei Piedi (1999), which included an audio CD with readings by the author and music by the Italian group Militia.

In 1975, he co-founded the literary journal Cyphers with Eilean Ni Chuillean in, and Leland Bardwell and Pearse Hutchinson, and he continues to serve as its editor.

Galway County Council Arts Grant/Bursary 2007

Galway County Council promotes, develops and supports the vibrant Arts sector in Galway County and offers several grants and schemes annually, which groups and organisations can avail of.

PUBLICATION ASSISTANCE GRANT : This grant is to assist writers to publish their own original work. This grant is for new work and innovation in creative writing. Application forms are available from the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway Tel: 091 746875 or email: bcunningham@galwaycoco.ie Fully completed application forms for all of the above schemes/ grants must be returned not later than 4p.m. on Wednesday 31st of January 2007 to the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway.

TYRONE GUTHRIE AWARD This is a special bursary award for two artists, selected by open competition, to spend two weeks in residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, the artists’ workplace in County Monaghan. Each bursary covers all board and lodging expenses for a two-week period, plus the use of a studio if necessary. This Award is open to all art forms. Application forms are available from the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway Tel: 091 746875 or email: bcunningham@galwaycoco.ie

Fully completed application forms for all of the above schemes/ grants must be returned not later than 4p.m. on Wednesday 31st of January 2007 to the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway.

Science Friction...

A machine that electronically stores 2.5 million books that can then be printed and bound in less than seven minutes is to be launched early next year. It prints in any language and has an upper limit of 550 pages. The 'Espresso' will be launched first in several US libraries. The company behind the project predicts that, within five years, it will be able to reproduce every book ever published.

The new machine as a technological innovation promises to revolutionize how we buy books. It allows printing and binding a single copy of a book at the point of demand without human interactions. Buying a book will eventually be very similar to getting cash from an ATM. You choose a title, insert a credit card to pay for the book -- and walk away with the finished book a few minutes later. On a global scale this would eliminate shipping and warehousing costs for books (thereby also eliminating returns and pulping of unsold books) and allow simultaneous global availability of new books.

This technology and process will produce one each of ten different books at the same speed and cost as it can produce ten copies of the same book. There are two machines currently deployed at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, and at the World Bank InfoShop in Washington DC.

Final Over The Edge of 2006 in Galway City Library

Poets Medbh McGuckian, Hugh Doyle and Cate Huguelet read to a packed house at Galway City Library

New collection of Fr Browne photos published

Father Browne's Galway is the title of the latest set of Fr Browne's photographs to be edited by Fr E.E. O'Donnell, curator of the 42,000 photographs in the collection.
This is the nineteenth book of Fr Browne's photographs to be published, and the third to be published by Currach Press.

Father Francis Browne's photographs enjoy international acclaim. In this latest collection, he showcases the magnificent sights of Galway city and county, as well as her people and customs.There are some 42,000 photographs in the Father Browne archive. This is the third volume to be published by Currach Press, with Father Browne's Trains and Railways and Father Browne's Limerick, being the earlier productions

Frank Browne was born in Cork in 1880. In 1897 he toured Europe with his camera and on returning to Ireland joined the Jesuit Order. After his two years of noviceship, he attended the Royal University in Dublin where he was a classmate of James Joyce. He is mentioned several times in Finnegans Wake. He served as chaplain to the Irish Guards in World War I, after which he suffered poor health. Two years in Australia cured him. On his return to Ireland, his priestly work took him to practically every parish in Ireland. He won numerous photographic awards and died in 1960.

Medbh McGuckian to read at December Over The Edge

The final Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2006 takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, December 14th, 6.30-8pm.

The Featured Readers are Cate Huguelet, Hugh Doyle & Medbh McGuckian.

Cate Huguelet was raised on Chicago’s South Side and moved to Ireland in 2005. Her writing has appeared in various publications in Ireland and the US. Her collaboration with visual artist Emma Petterson featured in the 2006 Cúirt Document exhibition. After completing an MA in Writing at NUI, Galway, Cate has relocated to Cork, where she is working on a first collection of poems.

Hugh Doyle lives in Spiddal. He was a finalist in this year’s Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam and was also selected for Mark Doty's poetry master-class during the Cúirt Festival. He has read his work at the launch of the Oxfam Life Lines poetry CD during the Project 06 festival in Galway, at the Clare Island Festival and at the Newcastle Irish festival in the UK.

Medbh McGuckian was born in 1950 in Belfast. She is one of Ireland’s most critically acclaimed poets. She has been Writer-in-Residence at Queen's University, Belfast, the University of Ulster, Coleraine, and Trinity College, Dublin. Among the prizes she has won are England's National Poetry Competition, The Rooney Prize, and The Forward Prize for Best Poem. She is the author of twelve poetry collections; the most recent The Currach Requires No Harbours was published by Gallery Press earlier this year.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.

For further details contact 087-6431748.Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland and The Arts Council

Post-Primary Essay Competition

An Chomhairle Leabharlanna in association with the Europe Direct Information Centres and The European Commission Representation in Dublin, is delighted to announce an essay competition for secondary school students for the prize of a trip to Brussels in April 2007.

Each of the eight centres will choose two winners from the essays submitted to them. There are two categories the first/second/third year category and the fourth/fifth/sixth year category.

Please submit all entries to your local Europe Information Centre –in Co. Galway they are Ballinasloe or Carraroe Libraries.

The deadline for submission of entries is by Friday 19th January 2007. The Essay can be written in English or Irish. Information on the competition and the essay theme has been circulated to all secondary schools by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna. Judging will be completed by each centre by 23rd February 2007 and winners will be announced by Friday 2nd March 2007.

Competition details and application forms are here

Libraries in the sand Manuscripts Are The Subject of Intensive Study

Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

The texts were concealed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists. Written in ornate calligraphy, some were used to teach astrology or mathematics, while others tell tales of social and business life in Timbuktu during its "Golden Age," when it was a seat of learning in the 16th century. "These manuscripts are about all the fields of human knowledge: law, the sciences, medicine," said Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a library housing 25,000 of the texts. "Here is a political tract," he said, pointing to a script in a glass cabinet, somewhat dog-eared and chewed by termites. "A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians."

Bookshelves on the wall behind him contain a volume on mathematics and a guide to Andalusian music as well as love stories and correspondence between traders plying the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Timbuktu's leading families have only recently started to give up what they see as ancestral heirlooms. They are being persuaded by local officials that the manuscripts should be part of the community's shared culture. "It is through these writings that we can really know our place in history," said Abdramane Ben Essayouti, Imam of Timbuktu's oldest mosque, Djingarei-ber, built from mud bricks and wood in 1325.

Experts believe the 150,000 texts collected so far are just a fraction of what lies hidden under centuries of dust behind the ornate wooden doors of Timbuktu's mud-brick homes.

Over the Edge - Galway City Library

The Over The Edge Open Reading Series, an evening of featured poets plus an open mic session, takes place once a month on a Thursday in Galway City Library (Hynes Buildings, Augustine Street) from 6.30-8.oopm. The next next reading will take place on 23 November.

The featured readers are Adrian White, Joan McBreen & Fiona Claire. As usual there will be an open mic when the featured readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.

Adrian White moved from Manchester to Galway in 1990. He has worked as abookseller, a barman, a painter and decorator, a removal man and a car park attendant. His first novel, An Accident Waiting to Happen, was published in 2004and his second, Where the Rain Gets In, came out in March 2006. Both are published by Penguin Books. Man Dog Bitch is the title of his third book.

Joan McBreen is from Sligo and now lives in Tuam. She edited The White Page - Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets (Salmon Publishing). Joan has published three collections of poetry; the most recent Winter in The Eye - New and Selected Poems, was published by Salmon in 2003. In 2004 she launched a CD, The Long Light on the Land - Selected Poems by Joan McBreen with Traditional Airs and Classical Music.

Fiona Claire is an actress and writer who lived for many years in Los Angeles, but recently moved to County Galway. She has worked in numerous television shows, including Third Rock From The Sun, Star Trek Voyager, and King of Queens, and in films such as L.A. Confidential, and Contact. She has written a collection of fables for adults, one novel and is working on a second.

Over The Edge is now also offering a manuscript appraisal service to new writers. Fiction and non-Fiction will be assessed by Susan Miller DuMars, while poetry will be critiqued by Kevin Higgins. For information about readings and script appraisal, tel. 087 6431748 or e-mail kphiggins@hotmail.com.

T S Eliot Poetry Prize 2006

The Poetry Book Society has announced the Shortlist for the T S Eliot Prize 2006, to be awarded to the writer of the best new collection of poetry published in 2006. Now in its fourteenth year, the T S Eliot Prize is 'poetry's most coveted award'

• Simon Armitage, Tyrannosaurus Rex versus the Corduroy Kid, Faber
• Paul Farley, Tramp in Flames, Picador
• Seamus Heaney, District and Circle , Faber
• W N Herbert, Bad Shaman Blues, Bloodaxe
• Jane Hirshfield, After, Bloodaxe
• Tim Liardet, The Blood Choir, Seren
• Paul Muldoon, Horse Latitudes, Faber
• Robin Robertson, Swithering, Picador
• Penelope Shuttle, Redgrove's Wife, Bloodaxe
• Hugo Williams, Dear Room, Faber

Judges Sean O'Brien (Chair), Sophie Hannah and Gwenyth Lewis chose the following ten collections: The judges will make their final decision on Monday 15 January 2007, when the prize of £10,000 will be presented by Mrs Valerie Eliot.

The T S Eliot Prize is sponsored by the broadcaster and supported by the T S Eliot Foundation.

2007 IMPAC Literary Award - Longlist

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is open to works of fiction written in, or translated into English and published within a specified period of time.

The nomination process for the Award is unique as nominations are made by selected libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world. Participating libraries can nominate up to three books each year for the Award: the books must meet the criteria for eligibility which are distributed to libraries each year.

The longlist includes 138 novels which have been nominated for the 2007 award, with 28 of them works in translation.

There were nominations from 169 libraries around the world.

The Irish nominations, including Galway Public Libraries, are here

The short list will be announced on April 4th 2007 and the winner on June 14th 2007

The Ireland Life-Writing Archive

Many Irish people - and people connected with Ireland - have written (or are writing) about their lives. This is Irish 'Life-Writing'.
UCD is launching the Ireland Life-Writing Archive which will collect as much of this material as possible. It doesn't matter when or why you wrote about your life - we would like to include your writing in this archive. Material may be of any length, and in any written form - in English, Irish, or any other language.

The archive will include:

Life Stories/ Autobiographies
Personal memoirs
Diaries
Travel writing
Biographical Fictions

Anything written about life in Ireland will be of interest in the future. The Ireland Life-Writing Archive invites anyone who has written (or who has access to) reminiscences or life-accounts to join us in our project of preserving and archiving this valuable material. The texts you send us will be catalogued and preserved in UCD for the use of scholars and researchers; some material (only with your permission) may be published on the UCD website.

For further details, contact Dr Eibhlín Evans, The Ireland Life-Writing Project, School of English and Drama, USD Belfield, Dublin 4; tel. 01 7168530, e-mail eibhlin.evns@ucd.ie, or go to the website www.ucd.ie and follow the links.

Artist in the Community Scheme 2006

Twice yearly, the Arts Council offers grants to enable artists and community groups to work together on projects. The scheme covers all art forms. The Artist in the Community Scheme is managed by CREATE.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage intense collaboration between community groups and artists. The focus of the collaboration must be a project in which the members of the community group and the artists work together in order to realise an artistic project or an event. It is essential that consultation take place between the artist and the community group, so that both parties are involved in deciding on the nature of the project. Group ownership of the art should be maintained at every stage.

Phase One , the research and development award of up to €1,000, gives artists an opportunity to explore and develop a project in a community context. This work should constitute the preliminary stage of a project with the intention of eventually leading to a full length project. Any professional artist may approach a community group with a view to making an application for research and development. Equally, a group may approach an artist. However the research and development strand is an artist led initiative and as such artists make the application.

Phase Two is open to community organisations or groups who are planning a project of between 6 weeks and 5 months with a maximum award of €5000, and those who are planning a project of between 6 months and 9 months with a maximum award of €10,000. The artist and the community group must demonstrate that they have influenced each other significantly in the drafting of the project. It is the community organisation or group that makes the application to the scheme.

Further information Katherine Atkinson, CREATE Phone: + 353 1 4736600
Web: http://www.create-ireland.ie
Email: support@artsincontext.com

Eclectic trio of poets for October ‘Over The Edge’

Once a month Galway City Library hosts the 'Over the Edge' poetry reading evening. The October 2006 session takes place on Thursday the 26th between 6.30 and 8.00pm.
The Featured Readers are Yvonne Green, Brendan Murphy & Niamh Ní Lochlainn.
Everyone is welcome.

Yvonne Green lives in London, where she practised at the English Bar for 20 years before stopping to concentrate on her poetry. Her poems have appeared in leading UK poetry magazines such as Poetry Review, Magma, Modern Poetry In Translation, The London Magazine, European Judaism, The Jewish Quarterly and Arete. She has read her work at the The National Portrait Gallery, the Institute for Contemporary Arts and on BBC Radio 4.

Brendan Murphy was born in Liverpool to English parents and Irish grandparents. He is a graduate of Sheffield University, where he studied the History of Art, Film and Design. His first performance was a Saturday night slot with a friend at his local pub, with whom he developed an improvised repartee on the week’s news. Brendan has lived in Galway for the last eight years. He won the 2006 Cúirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam, and recently performed at the famous Green Mill in Chicago.

Niamh Ní Lochlainn grew up in Dublin with Irish as her first language, spending her summers in the West Kerry Gaeltacht. She has been living and teaching in Connemara for the last four years. She was a prize-winner in the 2005 Strokestown Poetry Competition and her first collection Guth ón dTobar, (A Voice from the Well) was short-listed for the Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish Poet at the 2006 Poetry Now Festival in Dun Laoghaire.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are especially welcome.

The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

For further details contact Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or e-mail kphiggins@hotmail.com .

Children's Book Festival in Oranmore

Lots of New Children’s Books!
New Education Toys for use in the library!

Tues. 24th Oct. 11.00am
Inter Schools Table

Wed. 25th Oct. 4.30pm
Fancy Dress Competition

Fri. 27th Oct. 12.00pm
Special Preschool Storytime

Fri. 27th Oct. 4.30pm
Balloon Mania

Kindly sponsored by Supermac’s Oranmore

Youngest ever woman wins Man Booker Prize

At age of 35, Kiran Desai was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Inheritance of Loss, published by Hamish Hamilton. The Indian-born writer has a strong family tie with the prize as her mother Anita Desai has been shortlisted three times since 1980 but has never won. This year, however, her daughter, Kiran, has won the acclaimed literary prize. Author of the 1998 universally praised Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard.

Desai is the first woman to win the Man Booker since 2000 when Margaret Atwood scooped the prize with The Blind Assassin. Her winning book, The Inheritance of Loss, is a radiant, funny and moving family saga and has been described by reviewers as ‘the best, sweetest, most delightful novel’. This is the first time that Hamish Hamilton has published a Man Booker Prize winner although they had two shortlisted authors in 2005.

Computers and Communications Course in Inishboffin Library

Coiste Gairmoideachais Chontae na Gaillimhe
(County Galway Vocational Education Committee)

Basic Computers and Communications

• Basic Computers including internet and email
  
• Improving writing, spelling and grammarWriting letters, forms, C.V.’s etc.
  
• Reading - for personal and work purposes
  
• Listening Skills
  

Venue: Inishboffin Library/Community Centre
Dates: Thursday 12th. October 2006
Time: Registration 7.30p.m. to 9.00p.m.

For more information contact: Teresa Gilligan at 091 555877

Murakami wins O'Connor Prize

Haruki Murakami has won the second Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, his third collection of short stories to be published in English.

The €35,000 (£23,000) prize, which is awarded to new collections published in English during the last 12 months, is the world's richest short story prize. The prize will be shared between Murakami and his translators, Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin.

Rubin paid tribute to the famous short story writer as he accepted the prize.

"If you have read Frank O'Connor's Guests of the Nation you'll be familiar with his theme that people need to recognise each other's common humanity," he said. "Haruki's stories are similarly powerful. As a translator, I am overwhelmed and honoured and I am sure Haruki will be too."

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman topped a shortlist which spanned three continents. First collections from Irish writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh and American author Rachel Sherman were nominated alongside entries from English writer Rose Tremain, Nepal-born Samrat Upadhyay and Peter Stamm, a Swiss author who writes in German.

The award, created in memory of the Frank O'Connor, is the highlight of the annual Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival, which ran from Wednesday to Sunday last.

Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The six authors shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006, are Kiran Desai, Kate Grenville, M.J. Hyland, Hisham Matar, Edward St Aubyn, and Sarah Waters.

The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 19 and are:
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss - Hamish Hamilton
Grenville, Kate The Secret River - Canongate
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down - Canongate
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men - Viking
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk - Picador
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch - Virago

The winner will be announced on Tuesday 10th October

The Harding Books Prize for Perfect Parody!!!!!

Due to overwhelming public demand and in advance of this year’s Public Libraries Conference (November 8th-10th at the Cavan Crystal Hotel, Co. Cavan), George Harding of Harding Books will once again kindly sponsor The Harding Books Prize for Perfect Parody!!!!!

To Enter:
Write the opening paragraph of a crime novel –entitled Murder at the Library in the style of your favourite (or least favourite) crime writer

The rules are as follows:
· The competition is open to library staff only
· All entries must include the following words –
Book-seller
Exhibition
Survey
Love Letters
Promotion
Inscrutable

The judges will include Val McDermid (award-winning author of Wire in the Blood and many other critically-lauded crime novels), Simon Brett (writer, actor, producer & broadcaster) and Mike Ripley (twice winner of the CWA Last Laugh Award, journalist & critic).

Now, most importantly, the money!
First Prize - €300 and a specially commissioned wood-carving by Sligo artist, Michael Quirke.
Second Prize - €200 and a specially commissioned wood-carving by Sligo artist, Michael Quirke.


Stop Press:
Details of a second competition for those of a gentler persuasion:
Write a paragraph entitled What I Did on my Summer Holidays in the style of any Irish writer, living or dead. Once again, the competition is open to library staff but as a special dispensation to non-crime lovers, you do not have to use the magic words as mentioned above. This competition will be adjudicated by academic and writer, Ruth Dudley-Edwards.
Prize - €100 and a copy of the Times Atlas of the WorldPlease send you entries to

Brenda Frawley, c/o Dooradoyle Library, Dooradoyle Road, Limerick or by e-mail to bfrawley@limerickcoco.ie before
Friday, 29th September, 2006.

All winners will be announced and winning entries read aloud at this year’s Public Libraries Conference at the Cavan Crystal Hotel, Co. Cavan after the Banquet dinner on
Thursday, November 9th, 2006.

The Harding Books Perfect Parody Prize is kindly sponsored by George Harding of Harding Books, supplier of high quality, low cost paperback collections to libraries throughout the U.K. & Ireland

Teenage Reading in Galway City Library

The Teenage Book Club has been meeting every second Tuesday during the Summer in the City Library and after much debate they have come up with the following titles as their favourites of 2006:

Boy Soldier, Payback, Avenger ……………………Andy McNab

Small Steps …………………………………………………….Louis Sacher

Elsewhere ……………………………………………………….Gabrielle Zevin

Faerie Wars, The Purple Emperor……………..Herbie Brennan

The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness,
Blue Noon (Midnighters Trilogy) ………………Scott Westerfeld

Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday,
Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday…………Garth Nix

The Road of Bones ………………………………………Anne Fine

And the perennial favourites

How I Live Now …………………………………………..Meg Rosoff

Alex Rider (series) …………………………………..Anthony Horowitz

Stargirl ………………………………………………………Jerry Spinelli

The Amulet of Samarkand, Golem’s Eye,
Ptolemy’s Gate (Bartimaeus Trilogy)……Jonathan Stroud

Noughts and Crosses, Knife Edge,
Checkmate…………………………………………………Malorie Blackman

Eragon, Eldest …………………………………………Christopher Paolini

Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 Longlist

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction announced the longlist of books for this year.
The longlist of 19 books was chosen from 112 entries; 95 were submitted for the prize and 17 were called in by the panel of judges.

Chair of judges, Hermione Lee, comments: "Judging the Man Booker Prize puts you through almost as many emotions as there are in the novels. We’ve tried to be careful and critical judges as well as being passionately involved. We have many regrets about some of the novels we’ve left off, and we could easily have had a longlist of about 30 books, but we’re delighted with the variety, the originality, the drama and craft, the human interest and the strong voices in this longlist. It’s a list in which famous established novelists rub shoulders with little known newcomers. We hope that people will leap at it for their late summer reading and make up their own shortlist.”

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 is as follows;

Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Edric, Robert Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
Grenville, Kate The Secret River (Canongate)
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
Lasdun, James Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men (Viking)
Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch (Virago)

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: Hermione Lee (Chair); Simon Armitage, poet and novelist; Candia McWilliam, award winning novelist; critic Anthony Quinn and actor Fiona Shaw. The 2006 shortlist will be announced on Thursday 14th September

Oscailt Gairdín Cuimhneacháin in ómós don scríbhneoir cáiliúil Liam Ó Flaithearta

As part of Heritage week which runs from 26th August – 3rd September 2006, The Minister, Éamon Ó Cuiv will officially open a Garden of Remembrance in honour of one of the Aran Island's most famous and prolific writers Liam Ó Flaherty. The event takes place in Kilronan at 2.00pm on the 28th of August.

Beidh an tAire Éamon Ó Cuiv ag oscailt an Gairdín Cuimhneacháin in ómós don scríbhneoir Liam Ó Flaithearta ag 2.00 i.n. Dé Luain 28ú Lúnasa 2006 i nGort na gCapall. Is é Pádraic Reaney a dhear an gairdín agus a rinne an obair ar an dealbh agus ar an leac eolais. Beidh leabhrán le fáil ar an lá agus beidh chuile eolas ann.

Heritage Week is part of European Heritage Days, a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Union. In Ireland Heritage Week is co-ordinated by the Heritage Council with support from the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Ask About Ireland?

Ask About Ireland is a website designed to find answers about Ireland, our countryside, our heritage, the way we work and play. It offers access to new information, rare images and documents from Irish public libraries, museums and archives.

Ask AboutIreland and the Cultural Heritage Project is an initiative of public libraries together with local museums and archives in the digitisation and online publication of the original, the unusual and the unique material from their local studies' collections to create a national Internet resource for Irish culture.

The participating organisations have selected material of particular public interest from their holdings within a variety of common topics ranging from sport, transport and architecture to flora and fauna and Irish writers and set in a narrative context. In particular, Galway Public Libraries have contributed material on the Lawerence Family Album & Lisreaghan House and The Samuel L. Maguire collection (He was the County Librarian at the time.) of Irish language books published during the nineteen twenties and thirties and now housed in Carraroe Library.

AskAboutIreland is a constantly growing resource with content being added to the website on an ongoing basis.

Ask About Ireland is an initiative of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government through the Information Society Fund and The Heritage Council.

2006 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award

The second Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award will be made in September 2006 at the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival in Cork, Ireland. The prize is for 35,000 euros and as such it is currently the world's richest prize for the short story form.It is organised by the Munster Literature Centre

Eligible books are those by living authors, published for the first time, in English anywhere in the world, between October 2005 and September 15th 2006 .


The 2006 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Shortlist:

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murukami, Harvill, London (translated by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin)
Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse - Philip O Ceallaigh, Penguin, Dublin
The First Hurt - Rachel Sherman Open City Books , New York
In Strange Gardens & other Stories - Peter Stamm Other Press , New York (translated by Michael Hoffman)
The Darkness of Wallis Simpson - Rose Tremain Chatto , London
The Royal Ghosts - Samrat Upadhyay Houghton Mifflin ,New York

The winner of the inaugural award in 2005 was Yiyun Li of China and the United States for her debut collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers published by Random House US.

The Summer Reading Mission continues at your library

Galway County Libraries are inviting all children to embark on a Reading Mission this summer. The mission for children of all ages is to read and enjoy at least six books during the summer.

The Summer Reading Mission is being held in all our Branch Libraries and Mobile Library during July and August.

It is free, and all children have to do is go along to their local library and pick up the details and the Reading Mission card.

Find the opening times of your nearest library here

The moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we've changed their lives forever, and for the better. Barack Obama

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

Kamishibai Man, by Allen Say, Houghton Mifflin

The Kamishibai man used to ride his bicycle into town where he would tell stories to the children, but gradually fewer children came. They were all watching television. Aging, cultural change, the way humans seem to lose warmth with technological advances-the story gestures toward all of these. This beautifully evocative tale will attract even the most jaded kid away from the TV to enjoy a good, good book.





The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper , Grosset & Dunlap

The classic tale of the determined little engine that, despite its size, triumphantly pulls a train full of toys to the waiting children on the other side of a mountain. Loren Long has brilliantly re-illustrated this classic story, bringing it exuberantly to life for today’s child. Both faithful fans and newcomers will enjoy this triumphant ride and eagerly climb aboard for repeat excursions. Ages 3-up.




Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem About China, by Ed Young, Chronicle Books

Ed Young's spare prose describes in measured detail the beautiful and mystical land that
the author so clearly loves. The unique format and gorgeous paper-collage illustrations, highlighted with Chinese characters, combine to convey the many facets of China to form a poetic picture of the land’s grace, depth, and majesty. The textured illustrations are breathtaking, as Young invites readers to glimpse a world of stunning beauty.

Agustin Maruri at Oranmore Library

Agustin Maruri and some of the audience that enjoyed his concert in Oranmore Library recently

Mary Carpenter, Agustin Maruri and Rosemary Finlay



Mary McConn,
Anne McDermott
and Mary McBride

GráinneO’Callaghan and Josette Farrell

Seán Magee and Mary McHale

Spiddal Public Library –a day in the life

A visitor to the library in Spiddal on Tuesday 2nd May would have had the opportunity of enjoying an exhibition by two artists, would have been absorbed by a series of mosaics in contemporary style by Siobhan Ní Fhloinn in which nature in its different forms and colours and pattern is finely captured, and would have reflected on a number of works by Geraldine Ní Churraoin in which the bog and waters and mountains of Connemara are revealed in vivid colours.

This exhibition of work by the two artists hangs in the Reading Room area of the library, where in addition to enjoying the art on the walls, it is also possible to just sit quietly and read from a newspaper or magazine, or browse a book from the library’s collection.

From the window of the reading room on that Tuesday, one was also able to enjoy a wonderful view of the Atlantic tide breaking over the rocks near the old Spiddal pier, with the sun glinting on the sea as one looks as far as the Aran Islands.

In the main library a number of library users were intently searching the Internet on the library’s free internet access PCs, while a young girl was busily photocopying from a number of reference books as part of a school assignment.


A father arrives with two young children and spends some time choosing books in the children’s area of the library.

And another man arrives with a young child in a buggy and sits in the reading room with his child examining a picture book. It turns out that this man is from Argentina, and is the son of the famous Argentine writer and poet Luis Ricardo Casnati. Casnati is a man who has written that:

"I cannot happen to be indifferent before the beauty which exposes the world to me. I have loved an infinity of things that have convinced to me of the glory to be alive. "

Casnati is a poet whose work uplifts love. He has said that his ambition is to rescue the rescueable with words that don't deserve to fade away. With the thundering Atlantic waves outside, here in Spiddal is a library space in which an expectation that the privilege of ideas, and the silence in which to consider them, will be cared for and exercised, and that its exercise will make us strong.

Among the books which the Spiddal Librarian, Máire Breathnach, has on this display on this Tuesday is a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This novel contains the lines:

"In the silence we listen to ourselves.
Then we ask questions of ourselves.
We describe ourselves to ourselves."

This is what happens in a library. We go to a library to find ourselves. We go to a library in the hope of sometimes finding the beauty which exposes the world to us.
___________________________________

The concept of the library providing the silence in which to consider the privilege of ideas is taken from the article "Silence, Please", by Sallie Tisdale. It was published in Harper's Magazine in March, 1997.

You may contact the artist Siobhan Ní Fhloinn by calling 087-9503340. Rince is the title of her mosica which illustrates the opening paragraph above.

You may contact Geraldine Ní Churraoin at 087-7747087.

Máire Breathnach is Librarian in Spiddal Library. You may contact Máire at 091-504028 or by e-mail at spiddallibrary@eircom.net.

a public library anywhere...

I can come in here.... no questions asked...no security on the door. I can sit down on a comfortable chair and read or write or study. Even if I live in the direst circumstances, and have just a small income, I can come in here and have a chair and a clean, unencumbered table all to myself. I have done it today.

I can check the catalogue of the entire library - should I say the catalogue of the universe - there must be thousands of books here - I can check the catalogue of the entire library on any one of six computer terminals... I see long lists of books by my favourite writers...Octavio Paz and Liam O’Flaherty and Joseph Roth.

On other terminals I can access the Internet without charge. The atmosphere here is so conducive to study... the range of books that people are looking at... the intensity of their searching. What a wonderful place of adult education this is. What an idea a library is...not driven by commerce or the market place...no pressure to buy... no need to buy another cup of coffee to retain my seat. And the light is good here. There is a faint sound of music coming from the music section of the Library..... the melancholic strains of Amalia Rodriguez, the Portuguese singer.. Why are libraries rarely mentioned when it comes to lifelong learning...? it is all around me here.... people taking notes..... or quietly talking to each other about their studies.

Taken from an EU Socrates report on Libraries and Adult Education.

“Everyone should have a library to love…………..”

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink, by David Margolick, Vintage
Fought with thunderclouds of war on the horizon, this book recounts a charged moment in boxing history: the 1938 heavyweight rematch between Detroit's Joe Louis and Germany's Max Schmeling. The African-American Louis's success and demeanour were an unsubtle rebuke to the Aryan theories of race; the affable Schmeling, for his part, would be shoehorned into the role of "Nazi Max," despite the uneasiness of the fit. One of the best sports books of recent years,



Tor! The Story of German Football by Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, WSC Books
Germany did not have a national league until the 1960s, yet it became one of the most successful football nations in the world. Tor! (Goal!) traces the extraordinary story of Gertman football, challenging the myth that German football is ‘predictable’ or ‘efficient’ and brings to life the fascinating array of characters who shaped it: the betrayed pioneer Walther Bensemann; the all-conquering Franz Beckenbauer; the modern misfit Lothar Matthäus.




Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi
If the only image of the wooden boy that children have is the Disney puppet, then perhaps it is time to introduce them to the original. Not sanitized by Disney, this Pinocchio is revealed as sometimes arrogant, often naughty, very disobedient, but with an underlying desire to do what is right. From the rich buff pages to the exquisite paintings of 19th century Italy, this is a work of art. Here is a classic that belongs on every bookshelf.

We invite you to visit your library in Athenry, Ballinasloe, Ballygar, Carraroe, Clifden, Dunmore, Eyrecourt, Glenamaddy, Gort, Headford, Inishbofin, Inisheer, Inismeain, Killimor, Kilronan, Leenane, Letterfrack, Loughrea, Moylough, Oranmore, Oughterard, Portumna, Roundstone, Spiddal, Tiernea, Tuam, Westside, Woodford, and the Mobile Library.

80th Anniversary of Galway County Libraries

Town Councils were allowed by an Act of 1855 to levy a rate not exceeding one penny for library purposes and the produce of this rate could also be used to meet the expenses of a museum or school or art and science. The council could delegate the business of managing the library to a committee. However, as Town councils were slow to adopt the Act by the latter part of the 19th century only a few municipal libraries had been established, otherwise there was no public library provision at that time over the greater part of the country.

Andrew Carnegie, an American entrepreneur, encouraged the library movement by presenting buildings and shelving if a free site was made available and a full rate levied but the absence of trained librarians and the limited rate levied made satisfactory development difficult. When the rural district councils were dissolved in 1925 the county councils were given power to adopt the Libraries Acts for the rural areas, and enabled urban district councils to hand over their powers to county councils. The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, created in 1913 by Carnegie, abandoned the policy of presenting library buildings but instead gave financial assistance to the county councils to establish libraries.

In 1923 the Carnegie Trust established the Irish Central Library for Students in order to supply books other than fiction that may not have been available locally. In 1948, under the Public Libraries Act, 1947 an Chomhairle Leabharlanna was established. This body resumed responsibilities for the Trust’s functions. The functions of An Chomhairle include the improvement of the library services, mobiles libraries and book stocks, and to make recommendations regarding library matters to the Minister.

Prior to the adoption of legislation empowering County Councils to establish countywide library services a Library Schemes Committee for county Galway was formed under the aegis of the Carnegie Trust. It was the fifth such scheme established in Ireland. Lennox Robinson, secretary to the Irish Advisory Committee of the Carnegie Trust, took the Chair at the inaugural meeting held on 2nd August 1924 at the Courthouse in Galway. When this Committee ceased to act in May 1926 the library scheme was transferred to Galway County Council. It in turn delegated its power as Library Authority for the county under the Public Libraries Acts (Ireland) 1855 - 1902 and the Local Government Act, 1925 to a County Library Committee. The Committee was made up of elected representatives (County Councillors) and co-opted members, such as local clergy and members of the teaching profession.

Samuel Maguire coordinator of the Galway Carnegie scheme continued to act in that capacity, with the title later amended to County Librarian.
The first meeting of the Galway County Libraries Committee was held in the County Book Repository, Bishops Court, St. Augustine Street, Galway on 22 May 1926. Subsequent Committee meetings were generally held in the County Council Chamber and occasionally in a branch library. Galway County Council took over official control of the Carnegie Libraries on 1 July 1926. Change in the structure of local authorities at the end of the 20th century resulted in the dissolution of the Library Committee in 1998.