Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering with Over the Edge in Gort Library

The Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library are famed for their large, supportive audiences. 

During the past decade many now established writers have taken their first early steps at these legendary readings. The venue for these readings since their inception in 2003 has always been Galway City Library.

This year’s Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering will include a special Over The Edge: Open Reading which will take place at Gort Public Library on Thursday, October 3rd, 7pm.

The Featured Readers are Bernie Crawford, Anthony O’Brien & Marie Cadden. There will as is usual at Over The Edge events be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. Everyone who has a poem or page or two of a story they’d like to try out on an audience is most welcome to come along and participate.

Clifden Library

Some of the children who received Certificates for taking part in Summer Reading Challenge in Clifden Library. Certificates were presented by local author Pat Mullan.

Clifden Library was the venue for the first event of the Clifden Arts Festival. The Contempo Quartet performed to a large enthusiastic audience. Pictured with library staff Paul Keogh and Bernie Jeffries.

Ballinasloe Library/ Europe Direct - Single Market Month

Single Market Month......A Month of online debates in 24 languages.

Between 23rd September and 23rd October 2013,The European Union is organising a month of online debates on the EU Single Market.Discussion will focus on 4 key areas which affect people's daily life:

JOBS {23-25/9]:How to find work,set up a business,or get your qualification recognised in Europe?

SOCIAL RIGHTS {30/9-2/10}:What social protection rights in the Single Market,in terms of pensions,healthcare,public services...?

BANKS {7-9/10}:What more could be done to protect consumer rights,prevent another financial crisis,and make sure that banks invest in the real economy to foster growth?

E-commerce{14-16/10}:How easy is it to sell products online,or buy them and get them delivered across borders as a customer?

The debates will give participants the chance to network with other citizens,businesses and interest organizations in Europe.In addition,they will be able to connect with EU leaders and policy makers.The month will be capped by a closing televised debate on Euronews on the 23/10.

This information was provided by the Europe Direct Centre at Ballinasloe Library. Europe Direct Centres were set up by the European Commission in partnership with the LGMA in order to make information on the Eu accessible to citizens.There are 8 centres in Ireland with 2 satellite centres .europedirect.ie

Clifden Library - 36th Arts Festival Events

Reading with poets John O’Donnell and Maurice Harmon
23/09/2013 @ 4:30 pm
Clifden Library

John O’Donnell has been published in Ireland, England, America and Australia and has broadcast on RTE and BBC. He won the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Award for Poetry and has also won The Ireland Funds Prizes for Poetry in Listowel Writers Week. His first collection, Some Other Country, was published in 2002; in the same year he won the Irish National Poetry Prize. His second collection, Icarus Sees His Father Fly was published by Dedalus Press in 2004. A Senior Counsel living…

Reading by poet Ailbhe Ni Ghearbhuigh
24/09/2013 @ 4:30 pm
Clifden Library

Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh was born in Tralee, Co. Kerry in 1984. She graduated from NUI Galway in 2005 with a BA in Irish and French. After her degree, she worked in Bordeaux as a language teacher at the university there. She returned to NUI Galway to do a Masters in Irish where she also taught classes in Irish language and literature. In August 2007, she went to New York to teach Irish with the Fulbright pro

Loughrea Library 'Hurling USA: America discovers an ancient Irish sport.

‘Hurling USA’ TALK in Loughrea Library, Friday Sept 20, 8.30pm

The growth of hurling amongst Americans will be the topic of conversation on Friday Sept 20, 2013 at 8.30pm in Loughrea Library when freelance journalist, pod caster, and former U.S. migrant, Denis O'Brien, talks about hurling’s rise stateside in discussing his book, 'Hurling USA: America discovers an ancient Irish sport.

First published as an eBook in June, 2012 and print that December, ‘Hurling USA’ tells how hurling is spreading to American towns and cities that until recently never knew the sport existed. In his talk the author will examine why the sport is hooking Americans young and old. He will also explore why some clubs are trailblazers yet others are in decline

Oíche Chultiúr i Leabharlann na Ceathrún Rua

Galway Libraries Culture Night Events 20th of September

Galway City Library
Create the Art you wear
Silk Painting Workshop, with Music and Dance
by Renate Hochmanova
6pm - 8pm
Journeys Creative Writing Group
A Culture Night celebration of Active Ageing. 6pm to-7pm
Childrens stories,songs,and shadow puppets for 5 to 8 year olds 6pm to-7pm

Athenry Library
The Pleasure of Poetry 6:30pm. Join Michael Loftus, Tom Ward & Máire Greaney Daly in Athenry Library as they share with you the pleasure they get from poetry. This literary lot will revisit old favourites and discover new poetic treats.


Leabharlann an Cheathrú Rua
Oíche Liteartha 7.00i.n. – 8.30i.n.
Sleachta as Leabhair Ghaeilge de chuid Údar ón gCeantar. Díriú áird ar an mbailiúchán Leabhair Ghaeilge atá sa Leabharlann. Bunú Club-Leabhar Ghaeilge.

Leabharlann an Spidéal
Galway Stories ag teacht chun an Spidéil! 7.00 i.n.,
Tá Doire Press le léitheoireacht as Galway Stories a chur i láthair – cnuasach scéalta atá bunaithe i gceantair éagsúla ar fud chontae agus chathair na Gaillimhe a scríobh triúr scríbhneoirí atá bunaithe i
nGaillimh -Geraldine Mills, Moya Roddy agus Lisa Frank.

Biodiversity Training in Clifden Library

Help shape the future public Service

Oranmore Library Poetry Reading Group

Oranmore Library Poetry Reading Group will present a poetry reading on Thursday 12^th of September at 7.30pm.

The readers who are from the Galway area will read from the second edition of possibly the most interesting poetry magazine being currently published in Ireland- Skylight 47. The local produced publication takes a newspaper format and includes reviews, comments and new poems from local, national and international writers.

Among those reading in Oranmore Library on the night are the Skylight 47 editors  Susan Lindsay whose collection Whispering the Secrets was published by Doire Press in 2011 she has another collection Fear Knot due out next month and Kevin O’Shea The Art of Non Fishing winner of the 2012 Cuirt New Writing Prize.

Also taking part will be locally based American poet, prose writer and workshop facilitator Susan Millar Du Mars, Lorna Shaughnessy  whose collections Torching the Brown River and Witness Trees are published by Salmon, Connie Masterson who has been shortlisted for the Over The Edge Showcase and others who have been published in Skylight 47.

Music @ Lunchtime in Galway City Library

'Pyrography' Exhibition in Galway City Library

Old Tuam Society launch in Tuam Library

Aran Islands

FORGOTTEN: RADICALS FROM ARAN
THE 1ST LIAM & TOM O’FLAHERTY SUMMERSCHOOL

In the wake of Nuascéalta’s re- publication of the House of Gold , the first book banned by the Irish Free State, and its highly successful launch by the Liam and Tom O’Flaherty Society, this Society, with the close involvement of the relatives of the O’Flaherty brothers, will hold its first ever summer school on the 24th & 25th August on Inis Mór. The school is jam-packed with walks, talks, book launches and a film screening and at theheart of it will be the forgotten lives of two great writers, two political activists indeed two Communists, who were born and reared on the remote and most western tip of Europe, the Aran Island of Inis Mór

Heritage Week in Gort Library

Leabharlann Chill Rónáin

Pat McMahon, Galway County Librarian retires

Creepy House Storytelling at Gort Library

Simon and James Pereira with storyteller, Matthew Noone at The Creepy House Storytelling at Gort branch library on July 18^th

Retirement party in Westside Library

There are plenty more images from Maureen Moran's recent retirement occasion in Westside Library here

Athenry Library

 Here's a link to a glowing piece about Athenry Library. Fantastic appreciation.
What a resource!!  Seriously, I have often felt a librarian is rather like an arts officer, they cover so much ground.  Since I’ve been in Athenry....

News from Galway City Library

Westside Arts Festival Opens tomorrow in Westside Library

Creepy House Storytime in Oranmore Library

July Exhibition in Galway City Library

Family Lunchtime @ The Library with The Contempo Quartet in Galway City Library

In the first of the two Family Lunchtime @the Library concerts with the ConTempo Quartet it was time to put the “full house” sign up.  Old and young turned  for a most enjoyable concert. The next family concert takes place on Tuesday August 6th

Ballinasloe Library Summer Programme

Children's Summer Reading Challenge at Loughrea Library starts in July. Registration this Saturday, 29th June

Lunchtime @ The Library - Galway City Library

The Lunchtime Concert Series with The Contempo Quartet is one of our most popular programmes and it takes place the first Tuesday of each month.
The next performance is Tuesday, 2nd July.
This event caters for all tastes and interest levels in classical music from the novice to the professional. Each performance is preceded by a short discussion of the music and the event is 50 minutes

'Creepy House' Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge in all Galway Libraries encourages children aged 4 to 11 to read six books during the long summer holiday. Check with your local Galway Library for details.

There is a different theme each year. This year it is 'Creepy House' Children can read whatever they like - fact books, joke books, picture books, audio books - just as long as they are borrowed from the library.

Every time your child finishes a book they get stickers and rewards and there's a certificate for everyone that finishes.

The Summer Reading Challenge is open to all children and is designed for all reading abilities. Schools work with local libraries and give out information to encourage children to take part.

Luigi Pirandello

The books and libraries of our lives

During the Madrid Book Fair, which is currently underway, El Pais the Spanish newspaper is inviting readers to pay tribute to "the books and to the libraries of our lives."

For the next week they are publishing, in a section entitled “The library of my life," some of the reports and pictures which their readers are sending in.

Here is the choice of one of their readers:

1- Elisa María Sosa, from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

2- Profession - Doctor in Latin American Literature. Teacher.

3- Why does she like reading?
“Since I was young, reading has been a passion for me. Through it, not only do I access knowledge, but I can also discover the complicities and conversations that transcend time and space. There is an enrichment that doesn’t have borders, it is my daily drinking trough.

4- What kind of literature do you prefer? 

  Essays and novels.

5- What is the place of your library and how is it organized?

My library is quite big and it takes up a full room. It is an area created to enjoy literature (good armchairs, white light and music). The books are classified according to the subject/theme, country and author so we can find Spanish, Latin American and Universal Literatures as well as reference works.

June Art Exhibtion in Clifden Library/Art Space

Galway City Library Young Adult titles Summer 2013

Seisiún Léitheoireachta amarach sa Leabharlann na gCeathrú Rua

EBook

You cannot own an ebook. It has no aesthetic properties: no ornamentation, no weight, no smell; in short, no character. It offers no choice between

nice-to-handle and that experience's opposite. It does not furnish a room.

 (From page 32 of the TLS, Oct. 5th 2012).

Harpist Kathleen Loughnane Lunchtime Concert in City Library

Poetry Reading with Patrick Deeley in Loughrea Library

Junot Diaz

Independent Foreign Fiction prize 2013

IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner Gerbrand Bakker wins the £10,000 Independent Foreign Fiction prize 2013, with latest novel The Detour.

Dutch tale The Detour has been announced as the winner of the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, at an awards ceremony sponsored by Tattinger in London on 20th May 2013. Themes of infidelity, exile and isolation won over the judges of this year’s Prize to give the author his second major prize win. His previous novel The Twin won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Translator David Colmer will share the prize money with Bakker, in this unique award that recognises writer and translator equally.

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is awarded annually to the best work of contemporary fiction in translation. The Prize celebrates an exceptional work of fiction by a living author which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom in 2012. Uniquely, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize acknowledges both the writer and the translator equally, recognising the importance of the translator in their ability to bridge the gap between languages and cultures.

Contempo Quartet to perform in Tuam Library

The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó

Joana Torres Tamarit has just arrived in Galway County Libraries on an EU Leonardo internship from Valencia in Spain.

We sometimes ask our interns the question: "What are the five books you think everyone should read?”

Joana has answered this question and one of the 5 books she recommends is The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó.

Quim Monzó is the foremost Catalan writer of his generation (Joana, our intern, is a Catalan speaker) The Enormity of the Tragedy is regarded by many as his greatest work.

‘With an incomparable narrative rhythm, page after page multiplies and augments and surprises the imaginative capacity of the reader . . . Quim Monzó has managed to create a novel in which life and death are drawn with a untameable peculiarity. He has also achieved something more important: that the reader doesn’t despair and comes to trust blindly in the morality of high literature’ – El País 

The library currently does not have copies of this book. Please contact us if you are interesting in reading the work of Quim Monzó.

Afternoon Concert in Westside Library 22nd May