Cinema Review - Funny People

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

The life of a comedian is not all fun and games, in fact it can be down-right depressing, especially if you’re George Simmons, who is forced, through a terminal illness, to reassess his life, and connect with lost loves and human beings in general.

Meet The Yellow Bittern director at The Eye

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

IRISH FOLKSINGER Liam Clancy, the man Bob Dylan called “just the best ballad singer I’d ever heard in my whole life”, is now the subject of a major documentary feature.

The Yellow Bittern – The Life and Times of Liam Clancy, an intimate, confessional and highly cinematic film, charts the remarkable rise to fame of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. It traces their small-town beginnings in Co Tipperary to the folk hey-day of Greenwich Village in the sixties where they absorbed black musical influences, played for JFK and out-sold The Beatles.

Proust Questionnaire

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A good dinner, a good laugh, a good haircut, a good tan, a good performance, probably in that order too.

A good dinner, a good laugh, a good haircut, a good tan, a good performance, probably in that order too.

New exhibitions at Galway Arts Centre

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

THE GALWAY Arts Centre is inviting people to the opening of two new exciting exhibitions at 6pm this evening.

Ceramics exhibition in An Spidéal

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

SLIDING ROCK Contemporary Ceramics based in An Spidéal craft centre will host an exhibition of work by Nanette Ledwith and Kathleen Standen.

North Beach Poetry Nights

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

CORK POET and novelist Martina Evans will be the guest reader at the next North Beach Poetry Nights in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, on Monday September 7 at 9pm.

September reading at Sheridan’s Wine Bar

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

THE POET Liz Gallagher and fiction writer Paul Lenehan will read for Over The Edge at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, Church Yard Street, Galway on Friday September 11 at 8pm.

A spinning world

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

THE TAPESTRY of Colum McCann’s novel Let The Great World Spin is so rich and deep, so varied and rewarding, that the book needs to be read several times before it can be fully appreciated.

The unusual health of the Galway poetry scene

Thu, Sep 03, 2009

EVELYN WAUGH said you should always give positive reviews to your friends, as it is terribly rude to give a bad review to a book you have not actually read.

David Geraghty, finding a place for his music

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

KILDARE MAN David Geraghty began his musical journey in the mid-1990s when he joined Damien Rice, Paul Noonan, Dominic Phillips and Brian Crosby in the band Juniper for the recording of their second EP Manna. When Rice left the band in 1998 the remaining members continued to play together and formed the band Bell X1. To date Bell X1 have released four critically-acclaimed albums and have been gaining success in the United States in recent years, with Paste Magazine describing them as “one of Ireland’s greatest bands”. Geraghty released his debut solo album Kill Your Darlings in 2007 and earned himself a nomination for the Choice Music Prize alongside Roisin Murphy, Kila, and Delorentos. Next week sees the release of his second solo album The Victory Dance and as part of a nationwide promotional tour he plays Roisin Dubh on Friday September 11.

Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

IN THE 1930s at the height of The Great Depression in the United States a songwriter and bandleader by the name of Bob Wills toured with a 21-piece orchestra bringing joy and cheer from coast to coast. Wills was a huge influence on performers such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, and John Prine and is widely credited with raising the spirits of a nation through his Western Swing ensembles.

Galway Americana Festival

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

THE GALWAY Americana Festival 2009 programme was launched last Friday at The Crane Bar to a large captive crowd with music provided by the excellent Jeff and Vida Band. The festival runs from September 10 to 13.

Highlights this year include Los Angeles blues men Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan at The Crane, and the rockabilly sounds of Spellbound at Kelly's on Thursday September 10; Nashville bluegrass legends Bill Evans and Megan B Lynch at The Crane, and Maryland-native Mark Brown of Uncle Buckle at Johnston's Hall in Kinvara on Saturday September 12.

Return of Enda Walsh’s Walworth Farce

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

DRUID HAVE only recently completed their acclaimed run of Tom Murphy’s The Gigli Concert but the company are not resting on their laurels.

Galway Theatre Festival call for scripts

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

FOLLOWING LAST year’s resounding success, the Galway Theatre Festival returns from October 20 to 24. The festival is now accepting submissions of unproduced scripts, not exceeding 90 minutes in length, for a series of rehearsed readings. Applicants are requested to include a brief account of their writing and theatre experience with their submissions.

This year the festival showcases performances from emerging local and national theatre companies. Highlights include: Christian O’Reilly’s Here We Are Again Still presented by Decadent Theatre; Moonfish’s adaptation of Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, featuring an international cast; Mephisto Theatre’s debut of Pat Hynes’ Wrecked; The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau under the direction of Theatrecorp's Max Hafler; and the triumphant return of Zelig Theatre with Geraldine Aron’s The Donahue Sisters.

Text in Action, artists working with words

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

“THERE’S A cool web of language winds us in,” wrote poet Robert Graves and for those in the arts who deploy text as a key element of their work the recurrent challenge is to break free of that web and find fresh, stimulating, ways to express themselves and communicate with their audiences.

Glas Vegas auditions

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

THE VARIETY show Glas Vegas is back for a fourth series, and it’s even bigger, louder, and a little bit weirder than before.

Loughrea music showcase

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

AN EVENING of Loughrea's best songwriting talent will take place in the Loughrea Hotel and Spa on Sunday at 7pm. The event is run by the Emerging Network of Independent Galway Musicians and Artists (ENIGMA). The aim of the evening is to showcase local talent with the objective of getting each performer into the Irish charts. The free event will feature Ultan Conlon, Neev Kennedy, Wokajo, Una MacLochlainn, and James Finnegan. They will each be releasing a single on the evening. Audience members will be asked to download a song on their phones from each performer so have some credit in your phones, all proceeds will be donated to charity.

That’s Gas charity night at Kellys

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

TOMORROW NIGHT at Kellys from 8pm there will be a night of words, film, and music for Afri’s work in support of the Rossport communities. Johnny Moynihan, Sean Tyrrell, Donal O'Kelly, Rita Ann Higgins, Margaretta D'Arcy, and John Arden are just some of the names that are involved.

Known as ‘The Bard of Dalymount’, as a young man Johnny Moynihan played in the band. Sweeney's Men and was a sometime member of Planxty and De Danann. Easily as renowned for his roguish wit as for his bouzouki playing, he can most recently be found playing old time American tunes with Moonshine, alongside Lena Ullman and Frank Hall. A singer and storyteller with conviction, passion, and unadulterated skills, Sean Tyrrell accompanies himself on tenor Dobro and tenor guitar. His latest album Cry of the Dreamer tells the amazing story of a lesser-known Irish hero John Boyle O'Reilly through song. Donal O’Kelly is a writer and actor. His much-travelled solo plays include the award-winning Catalpa, Bat The Father, Rabbit The Son, and Jimmy Joyced. As an actor, his film roles include a leading role in Roddy Doyle’s The Van and more recently in the acclaimed bilingual film, Kings. He is also an associate director of the peace and justice organisation Afri. Since the appearance of her first collection of poems, Goddess on a Mervue Bus, Rita Ann Higgins has consistently produced provocative and heart-warming poems of high-jinx, jittery grief, and telling social comment; a gutsy, anarchic, chronicler of the Irish dispossessed.

Autumn choral programme

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

AN EXCITING programme of sacred and secular choral works has been planned for the autumn/ winter season for Galway Choral Association’s Adult Choir

Renowned pastel artist to give workshop

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

WELL KNOWN British pastel artist Ann Wilkinson is to give a five day workshop in the Galway Arts Centre from September 3 to 7. This is a unique opportunity for aspiring and working artists to learn from an artist and teacher of such a high calibre. Wilkinson is primarily a pastel artist who works on an acrylic base, her favourite subjects being figure composition and still life. More recently, she has worked on seascapes in oils, which she has shown at the Royal Society of Marine Artists Exhibition in Britain.

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