Connemara Art Exhibition in Galway City Library

Win an IPad in Ballinasloe Library's Europe Direct’s Soapbox Competition

The regional competition of Europe Direct’s Soapbox Competition, called ‘Charity Begins at Home’, will be held in ‪#‎Ballinasloe‬ Library on Friday, October 16, at 6 pm.
Entry is open to all and contestants can compete in one of two categories: 18 and under and 19 and over. Each contestant must present a three-minute speech for or against the topic at the regional event before a public audience and a panel of judges.
The winner from each category will receive an iPad and there are electronics vouchers for the runners-up. Both winners will qualify for the grand final in Farmleigh House, Dublin, in November, where the first prizes in each category will be presented by Environment Minister Alan Kelly.
The first-prize winners in each category will win €1,000 and a trip to Brussels. Last year’s local winner, Siobhan Fitzgerald, from Ahascragh went on to win the national title.
The regional competition is organised by Ballinasloe Europe Direct Information Centre and is hosted by Ballinasloe Library.

For further details and entry forms, see www.europedirect.ie. Alternatively, contact Ballinasloe Library by telephone on 090-9643464 or by email at ballinasloe@galwaylibrary.ie

Galway Summer Reading Buzz 2015

Volunteer Opportunities in Ballybane/Mervue and surrounding areas September 2015

'You are Here'...Tuam Library

Tuam’s Public Art project “You are here…” an art project for Tuam by Limerick based graphic artist David Lilburn in collaboration with architect Jan Frohburg is currently being exhibited in Tuam Library.
This project has taken the Tuam chair as its starting point and it recognises that this historic type of chair is rooted in the rural origins of the town of Tuam and ties into local craft tradition and Tuam is the only place where this particular type of chair is still made today.

Summer Reading Buzz in Westside Library

Westside Library had a full house on Saturday the 19th of September for the Summer Reading Buzz presentations to over 450 children who completed the Challenge.
The challenge was to read ten books during the summer holidays. More than 4,500 books were read in Westside in ten weeks!
Each child received a certificate and gift presented to them by Galway City Mayor, Councillor Frank Fahy.
They were also treated to a surprise visit from Jeffrey Lynskey, manager of the Galway Minor Hurling Team, All-Ireland Champions. A former student of Scoil Bhride, Jeffrey gave an inspiring speech about the importance of reading. (He also brought along a rather shiny cup).

Included are photos of Jeffrey Lynskey with one of Galway’s biggest hurling fans, Librarian Mary McGinty.

Learn to Invent using six simple steps in Glway City Library

The Persse Family of Roxborough - Loughrea Library

The Persses of Roxborough

The Persse Family of Roxborough will be the subject of an illustrated talk on                  Wednesday: 23 September, 2015 at 8pm in  Loughrea Library, former Church of Ireland, #Loughrea.

This beautifully restored library has a strong connection to the Persse family including memorial tablets belonging to the Persses of Roxborough, Moyode and others.

The Guest Speaker will be Gerry Daly – former teacher and local historian. Gerry has recently completed a thesis on local history from the period of 1700 to 1850 at the University of Limerick.

The Persses settled in Roxborough in the 17th century and from them are descended most of the Persses of County Galway including Moyode, Castleboy, the Distillery Persses of Galway City etc. Lady Gregory of Coole Park , Sir Hugh Lane and Capt. John Shaw-Taylor are numbered among the many interesting famous people connected to the Persses of Roxborough.
Light refreshments will be served.
For further information please contact 087/9069191

Culture Night 2015 in Ballybane Library

Culture Night 2015 Galway City Library

Culture Night 2015 Loughrea Library

Culture Night Friday 18th September in ‪Loughrea‬ Library

6.00-7.00pm - Whiden Toie: a Showcase of Traveller Culture and Heritage by Galway Traveller Movement, South East Galway

8.30pm - BAFFLE’s Cultural Mix: Ultan Macken will talk about the life and times of his late father Walter Macken.
 
Music by Sarah Cunningham & Co.
Readings by BAFFLE poetry group. Story telling.

Galway City Library Autumn Poetry Reading

Loughrea Library hosting book launch

Loughrea Library is to to host the book launch of ‘East Galway agrarian agitation and the burning of Ballydugan House, 1922’
on Thursday, 17th September at 8pm. All welcome.
This book, by Ann O’Riordan, is based on the burning of Ballydugan house in 1922, a middle-sized country house on a 1,500-acre estate near ‪#‎Loughrea‬ in east county Galway. The background to the burning of Michael Henry Burke’s house is charted alongside the rise of land agitation and unrest in east Galway. With branches all over each Galway, the Land League and the United Irish League voiced the disquiet of land-hungry tenants and sought relief for its landless members.
Ann O’Riordan is a native of east Galway who works in education. She holds an MA in Historic House Studies from Maynooth University

Ballybane Library has a bright idea

Congratulations to Ballybane Library on being awarded €5,000 by KBC bank in a National Bright Ideas community support initiative for their Ballybane Welcome Project, Galway City.

This project will support the creation of reading groups for adults with literacy and mental health issues in the local community, providing much needed support and additional resources to the many community members who use the library.

The KBC Bright Ideas fund is open to anyone with a bright idea that can help improve his or her community within 12 months. While the ideas will be judged by our hubs panel in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Leinster or Limerick, everyone in every county of Ireland can take part.

Loughrea Library Speak Out

The Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture Team are coming to Loughrea on Thursday 3rd September.
This is an opportunity for people in ‪#‎Loughrea‬ and the surrounding areas to share their visions for their local communities and for Galway 2020.
Or just come along and find out what Galway 2020 is all about and how you can get involved. All Welcome!

Westside Library prepares for the All Ireland Final

Loughrea Medieval Festival... Library events on Saturday 29th of August

Galway Bay FM broadcast from ‪Westside‬ Library

Galway Bay FM broadcast from ‪#‎Westside‬ Library recently
Have a listen to what happened...
http://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-summer-roadshow-westsi…/

Galway Bay FM Summer Roadshow - Westside - Galway Bay FM

Children’s Arts and Craft Session in ‪#Loughrea‬ Library

Children’s Craft Session in ‪‎Loughrea‬ Library

Children’s Craft Session that is happening in ‪#‎Loughrea‬ Library this Saturday afternoon at 3pm.

Contact the Library...091 847220... loughrea@galwaylibrary.ie

Chatham Saxophone Quartet in Galway City Library

Preschooler craft sessions in Loughrea Library

Preschooler craft sessions in Loughrea Library on 8^th August (Sat) @ 11.30/12.00–

Age guide 5’s and under (must have a parent)- booking advised. Contact the Library on 091 847220

'Liam O’Flaherty’s works and O’Flaherty the Man' by his publisher, Seam...

Westside Library's Summer Opening Times

Art Exhibition in Clifden Library

Speaking Volumes Exhibition in Galway City Library

New Visitor in Clifden Library

Jill, a very friendly fairy has decided to set up her house in Clifden Library and she hopes children from all over Galway can pop in for a visit.

This is an initiative of the Clifden Tidy Towns Group; they hope to expand the idea and have a Fairy Trail around Clifden. The plan is to launch the trail in the Library during Clifden Arts Festival.

'Creative Genius' Exhibition in Galway City Library

Summer Activities for Children in Loughrea Library

Summer Activities for Children in Loughrea Library

9^th July (Thurs) @11.30  Preschooler storytime & rhymes.

11^th July (Sat) @ all day “Loom day”

-come in and weave some strips of your favourite colours through our large frame loom.

Summer Storytime in Tuam Library

Exhibition in Galway City Library

Galway Libraries Summer Reading Challenge

BEE sure to read this summer!!!!
School holidays are almost here and once again Galway County Libraries have organised a free summer reading scheme for children.
The title of the Summer Reading Challenge for 2015 is “The Summer Reading Buzz”. Children are encouraged to read up to ten books over the months of July and August. Children may read any ten books suitable for their age group in order to complete the challenge. There will also be a “Book Crawl” for younger children and their parents.
Children will receive stickers, bookmarks and pencils as they complete the challenge and successful participants will be presented with a certificate at a prize-giving ceremony in the autumn.
The challenge runs from July 1st to August 29th at a library near you!

WB Yeats - Anniversary Celebration in Loughrea Library

Bealtaine Tea Party in Gort Library

Exhibition in Galway City Library

Galway City Library Young Adult Summer Reading List 2015

Galway City Library

The National Library of Ireland announces New Online Genealogy Resource

Almost 400,000 images of Catholic parish register microfilms to be available online for free from 8th July 2015 –
The entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) will be made available online – for free – from 8th July 2015 onwards. On that date, a dedicated website will go live, with over 390,000 digital images of the microfilm reels on which the parish registers are recorded.
The parish register records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census. Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,091 parishes throughout the island of Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records.
Typically, the parish registers include information such as the dates of baptisms and marriages, and the names of the key people involved, including godparents or witnesses. The digital images of the registers will be searchable by parish location only, and will not be transcribed or indexed by the NLI.
The NLI is planning an official launch event for the new online resource on 8th July. Further details will be available in the coming weeks

Illustrated talk on 'Liam O’Flaherty’s works and O’Flaherty the Man' - Galway City Library

Galway City Library, Thursday April 30 at 6pm.

Illustrated talk on 'Liam O’Flaherty’s works and O’Flaherty the Man' by his publisher, Seamus Cashman.

The talk is hosted by The Liam & Tom O’Flaherty Society. Admission is free to this illustrative talk and all are welcome.
A major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, O'Flaherty's hallmark is his depiction of nature and country life in the west of Ireland and his native Aran Islands before modern influences brought irreversible change.
The novels of Liam O’Flaherty, like nearly all great Irish writers of the 20th century, were banned by the Irish state’s censorship board. Indeed, back in 1929 O’Flaherty had the dubious honour of being the first novelist to endure the wrath of the censors, when his “Galway novel”, The House of Gold, was proscribed.
While Liam O'Flaherty's works were first published by Jonathan Cape, Victor Gollancz and others, it was not until the founding of Wolfhound Press by Seamus Cashman in 1974 that many of the works of Liam O’Flaherty found an Irish publishing house. Cashman’s publishing house re-printed many of Liam’s novels and collections of short stories throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including works such as Skerrett, The Puritan and The Pedlar's Revenge and Other Stories.
Seamus Cashman, who is an author in his own right, has an intimate knowledge of the works of Liam O’Flaherty and the world of publishing having founded Wolfhound Press and developed it into a leading literary and cultural publishing house.
Seamus Cashman also developed a great rapport with Liam O’Flaherty. In 1983 he returned with O’Flaherty and Liam’s lifelong partner Kitty Tailer for the last time back to the novelist’s family home at Gort na gCappal on Inis Mór.

‪‎Cúirt‬ Kitchen Readings in Westside Library

 

‪#‎Cúirt‬ Kitchen Readings
‪
‪#‎Westside‬ Library 25-04-2015 2:30 pm

For the past four years, Cúirt in association with the Galway Library Service have hosted Kitchen Readings. These are informal gatherings of poets and musicians in homes across Galway, offering an intimate and fun experience to neighbours and friends. Participating in the kitchen readings this year will be: Sarah Clancy, Elaine Feeney and Little John Nee.
 
Contact the Library
(091) 520 616 westside@galwaylibrary.ie

Loughrea Library Music Recital

This Music Recital will take place in ‪#‎Loughrea‬ Library on Sunday April 19th, proceeds of which will go to Loughrea Family & Community Resource Centre.
Loughrea FRC would be very grateful for the support of the local community for this event as the proceeds will be used for their continuing work in the community.

Clifden Library Exhibition

Ahead of his new exhibition in Clifden library, artist John Brennan explains the importance of the Caribbean La Ceiba tree in his work.
The ‘La Ceiba’ tree is a prolific but not common tree in the Caribbean area – the specimen I enjoy using as my motif is a 275-plus year old, massive tree covered with prickly spear growth on its trunk and root system. The canopy spread is about 100 feet across, while the root system extends about 35 to 40 feet or more.
It is the roof and lower structure that fascinates me – I have gone back to Vieques, Puerto Rico, for about 10 years for a painting-drawing holiday. I work from many other objects while there, but it’s the tree keeps pulling me back.
The tree itself is becoming metaphor for me in that its forms are becoming more symbolic of human form – I find I now am searching for a way of seeing it out of context, using my mind’s eye to simply imagine it and see what happens.
It remains to be seen where this might lead – or if I have the courage to pursue where it may go!
John Brennan’s exhibition runs at Clifden Library from March 24-April 25

Copyright © 2015 — Connemara Journal.

Easter Opening

Easter Crafts sessions in Loughrea Library