Are We There Yet?
AS reported previously in Arts page, Scoil Merriman is good to go this year from Sunday August 16 to Saturday 22. Glór in Ennis is the central locus but hotels such as The Old Ground and Templegate get a piece of the caca milis for activity and alternate Club Merriman.
It’s a vast programme, this meeting of academia with social commentators and scribes. This year’s theme is the headscratcher of Are We There Yet?, followed by the robust comment that we are Facing the Future Anew.
According to PRO Doireann Ni Bhriain, “every generation has decisions to take about its future, its priorities and its place in the world”.
There is a veiled invitation to all to abandon cynicism and passivity, directing energy towards informed analysis, often the catalyst for progress.
Refer to the website www.merriman.ie and see what the panel of Paul Bew, Bob Collins, Tom Collins, John F Deane, Claire Duignan, Deirdre Nic Mahthuna, Poilin Ni Chiarain and another 25 will do to march us onwards and forwards.
Getting Behind Our School
WHAT’S Behind Our School, current in Dooradoyle Library, is an exhibition of work created under Limerick County Council’s Artist in Schools Programme. Our county arts office contracts 10 artists annually to work in 10 primary schools, artists are drawn from the varied disciplines of the visual arts, dance, music, drama, singing and craft.
What’s Behind Our School showcases the creative work specific to the children of third and sixth class pupils in Milford National School. The artist in residence in Milford was Kathyrn Collins who worked with 3rd class and teacher Diarmuid Moore and the 6th class with teacher Sandra Larkin.
The children and the team “explored the Natural Environment in a walk about way, sensing, feeling and talking about their experience. This then was translated into drawings, photographs and paintings”.
Check it out Monday to Saturday on Dooradoyle Road, late Thursdays and Fridays until 8.30pm, until August 22.
Brushing up for charity
ARTISTS in the mid west are setting out their stall, literally, on Roches Street this Saturday August 8. Their public activity with paint and canvas is to interpret an aspect of the street individually and to donate the completed art to the Roches Street Traders Art Festival, September 7 to 19.
Well known names committed to the weekend easel-on-the-street venture are Tom Greany, Nancy Lawless, Paul Weerasekera, Tim O’Connor, Geraldine Sadlier, Helen Stritch and Jim O’Farrell. From noon onwards, any footfall and indeed passing traffic on this busy central artery can witness their work in progress.
“We are looking for more artists to take part . They are welcome to donate the piece for the September exhibition or exhibit the piece for sale and give 25 per cent of the sale to Milford Hospice,” enthuses florist Dan Lawless. “It promises to be an interesting and colourful event, and we hope people will come to the street and watch the artists at work”.
You can contact Ryan’s Jewellers or Betty McDonagh Grocer for more details.
SOS talent for talent show
LIMERICK’S Got Talent is the latest fundraiser organised by the local Special Olympics office. Huge interest has been expressed in this August talent show, booked for Patrick Punch’s Hotel on Friday 14, and there’s a terrific panel of lady judges booked for the night: Leanne Moore, Celia Holman Lee and Limerick Post’s Catriona Tierney.
Patrick Punch’s Hotel invites aspiring bands, solo artists, and dancers to audition for the show in advance. It’s only a tenner to enter and you can download details on www.patrickpunchshotel.com
First prize is a specially recorded video of the winners, worth 1,500euro and shot by film company BMB Films.
For further information on the Special Olympics Limerick’s Got Talent, contact Gaye Moore at the Special Olympics, Limerick office email limerick@specialolympics.ie or try Jessica Joyce at the hotel.
