Arts & Culture

Following a three-year break due to Covid, the Rice College Christmas Concert returns to glór next Monday, writes River McGann. The concert will feature music students from the school’s Transition Year and upwards, with traditional music, Irish dancing, and solos from the sixth years. Joan Hanrahan, concert organiser and Rice College music teacher said, “The last time we held this Christmas Concert was three years ago, during Christmas 2019. Little did we think that we wouldn’t be back in glór for three full years! “It has been a huge loss to the school and the students, including the students of music, because the school concert is a wonderful opportunity for our students to perform. “Not everybody is comfortable with standing up in front of an audience, but it’s a skill we can improve. “We feel it’s a very important part of the life of Rice College, performing for others and creating bonds with people in doing so. “Not performing for …

DRAMA is being used to promote integration between the communities of North Clare and those taking refuge from the war on Ukraine.  An innovative project called ‘New Hope’ has been spearheaded by Mariupol woman Nadia Shvachova, in partnership with Bellharbour native Maria Kerin Walsh. The programme has two stages, the first of which is to gather people to participate in the techniques of Playback Theatre to tell stories about their lives through improvisation. The second stage will see Irish and Ukrainian participants perform with a general audience and develop a “pop-up players”  theatre company Maria, an independent artist, curator and choreographer, has extensive experience of working overseas. She said the New Hope scheme is a way of keeping community bonds strong as the response to the war on Ukraine becomes a longer-term effort. “Originally, we were in crisis mode in North Clare and we’re now looking to move beyond that,” she said. Having lived for a time in Estonia, Maria …

NESTLED within a gentle valley, between silver hills of karst limestone that rise and fall towards an Atlantic horizon, Richard Hearns grapples with a canvas, stretched to mirror the reach of his body. The artist is shipping his painting, Kārwān, to Dublin’s Royal Hibernian Academy, where he will present the work before an audience, before it moves to Sotheby’s in London for their Modern British & Irish Art Auction. The auction is serendipitously timed alongside Hearns’ solo-show at the Cadogan Gallery in Kensington, where his most recent body of work, Nomad, went on display on November 16. Hearns was born in Beirut during the civil war, and adopted as an infant by an Irish UN Peacekeeper and his wife. He was raised in Dublin, where he studied Fine Art & Digital Media, before setting-off around the world like many young adults before him. Unlike many others, he continued to wander. With an easel in tow. Hearns has always used his …

LEADER of Cumann na mBan in Clare, Nan Hogan was fearless and dedicated to the cause of Irish freedom during the War of Independence. The Cratloe woman’s contribution to Ireland’s revolutionary history was in danger of being obscured and, until relatively recent times, her burial place was unmarked. Efforts to revive Nan’s memory have begun in earnest and acclaimed author, Colm Liddy, has just published a lavishly-illustrated biography that tells her story and honours her revolutionary achievements. “Like most women of the revolutionary era, Nan was forgotten for a long time,” Colm told The Champion. “She didn’t even have a gravestone until the last decade.” The Newmarket man is among those working to raise Nan’s profile and his book describes her life and especially her activities during the War of Independence. Vehemently opposed to the Treaty, Nan was imprisoned for her role in the Civil War. In Kilmainham Gaol, her cellmate was Grace Gifford Plunkett. Much of the book describes …

A CELEBRATION of the War of Independence in Clare will take place in song, dance and story at Glór in Ennis this Saturday night.  The creation of Dr Tim Collins, Breith features a cast of some of the county’s most renowned performers, alongside the Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) and the Kilfenora Céilí Band. The work has been in development for over a year and brings to life a creative vision that Dr Collins has long cherished. “I have always held the view that, in this time of commemorations, we should celebrate the ordinary men and women involved in the struggle for Independence,” he said. “It was ordinary men and women who got us our freedom and they weren’t doing it for themselves, but for the coming generations. In Clare, the memory of the revolutionary period from 1916 to 1921 is very much alive. I have plenty of stories from my own father and grandfather. One of the songs in Breith …

AN internationally renowned Ukrainian artist who fled the war in his country this year and found refuge in Clare is holding an exhibition in Ennistymon from this Friday. The exhibition of Yevhen Svitlychnyi’s work entitled ‘The Burren – Ukrainian Chronicles Part II’ will be opened by the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland Gerasko Larysa. Earlier work on this theme was displayed at the Burren College of Art in July this year. Mr Svitlychnyi said, “As a result of the war, like so many of my compatriots I was forced to flee Ukraine, and by the fortunate intervention of my friends I arrived in Ireland, into the warm and welcoming embrace of Ireland and its people. “I travelled to Ballyvaughan, in this magical place that is The Burren, and was introduced to the wonderful people at the Burren College of Art who have been so welcoming, generous and supportive of my work.” The first part of the exhibition The Burren – Ukrainian …

Viktoria Kroejeva, 15, from Clare has been announced as a winner in the Zurich Young Portrait Prize 2022. Victoria’s piece entitled ‘Day Out, 2022’, a painting in oil and acrylic on canvas, won the category for ages 12-15. Viktoria said, “This is a portrait of my father. It was a day when we went out to a café in Limerick and I asked him to pose for a photo. It was a very enjoyable day and we explored the city.” From hundreds of entries, the shortlists of this year’s Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize are on display in the Portrait Gallery. Twenty-six artists, working across a variety of media, made it through to the final stage of the Zurich Portrait Prize, while 20 young artists aged between four and eighteen years old were shortlisted for the Zurich Young Portrait Prize. Viktoria is one of four young artists from Clare who made the shortlist, along with Katie Cashin, …

STUDENTS at Saint Patrick’s Comprehensive will entertain over 1,000 people when they perform the Addams Family Musical over four nights, December 7-10. School principal Mary Costello said, “We are absolutely delighted that the Comp Musical is back and so grateful for the commitment from all involved – the production team, the students on stage; the staff and students backstage and front of house and the Parents Association. “It is a true collaboration and celebration of the wonderful school community here in St Patrick’s Comprehensive School.  “If Covid has taught us nothing else it has taught us that we hunger for culture and the arts – it is fantastic that we can showcase the talents of our current students, past pupils, parents and staff – this is education that cannot be measured on a points scale but which nurtures the artistic and community soul.” The show’s Production Manager Gavin Ryan said, “We are beyond thrilled to have such a great link …