Clare Tourism Forum 'SHOOT THE MOOD' Photography Competition

Entries are invited for the first Clare Tourism Forum Calendar Photography Competition. The Clare Tourism Forum is currently designing a calendar for 2009 and 2010, which will be used to promote County Clare within the five circles: Things to do; Things to see; Heritage and Culture; Places to stay; Where to eat. Images will be selected which portray the different moods within County Clare and are as unique to County Clare as possible. Winning entries should inspire people to visit County Clare. Log onto www.clare.ie/photo-comp.htm for full details.

Cumbrian Stone Axe on display at Clare Museum

Clare Museum and the Irish Stone Axe Project (ISAP) at University College Dublin have uncovered evidence of a 6000-year-old trade link between Ireland and Great Britain. A stone axe uncovered in Doolin, County Clare in 2000 was recently confirmed as having likely originated in the Great Langdale and Scafell areas of Cumbria. The Neolithic or ‘New Stone Age’ (4000-2500BC) is generally regarded as the period in which Ireland became a predominantly agricultural-based society. As well as being the first Irish farmers, the people of this period were the creators of field systems and the builders of great tombs such as those found in the Burren in County Clare. Tools, usually in the form of stone axes, were used to clear great tracts of oak and elm woodland, which covered most of the country. Studies on the finely polished implement have found that it is different to the typical dark grey shale axes produced at a site close to the cobble beach at Doolin. More significantly, petrological analysis indicates that the pale green axe was of a type of stone known as tuff, which is typical of the tools produced in Cumbria. This discovery reinforces suggestions that trade links existed between the west of Ireland and western Britain during the Neolithic era. The stone axe has been on display since Tuesday, May 20 and will remain on display at Clare Museum in Ennis over the summer months. Also included for display will be a recently conserved bronze axehead acquired by the museum in 2004. This socketed and looped axehead was discovered at Knockloskeraun in Kilmurry-Ibrickane, County Clare. Although badly damaged by time and weathering the metal has been conserved and stabilised, thus ensuring its survival into the future.

Arts of the Book Exhibition at Chester Beatty Library

Arts of the Book, a new permanent exhibition of the Chester Beatty Library’s collections, opened on 17 May 2008. On display are books from the ancient world including the world famous Chester Beatty Love Poems (c.1160 BC), Egyptian Books of the Dead, beautifully illuminated medieval European manuscripts and fine European printed books, as well as Old Master prints. The exhibition also explores the richness of the Islamic manuscript tradition - illustrations and illuminations, calligraphy, and exquisite bindings from across the Middle East and India are exhibited. Highlights from East Asia include one of the finest collections of Chinese jade books in the world, Japanese picture-scrolls depicting fables and legends, and deluxe woodblock prints. Audio-visual programmes complement the exhibition, helping the visitor to learn more about the arts of the book throughout the world. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2 Phone + 353 1 4070750 www.cbl.ie

'Styles', paintings by Catriona O'Connor, Laura Vecchi, Catherine Corcoran & Cormac O'Neill

This new exhibition at the Russell Gallery is now online! Click here to see 'Styles', paintings by Catriona O'Connor, Laura Vecchi, Catherine Corcoran and Cormac O'Neill. 'Styles' is a new exhibition of paintings which is running at the Russell Gallery, New Quay, Burrin, County Clare during the month of June and showcases the work of 4 artists based in the West of Ireland that have shared a piece of their artistic life around the figure of Laura Vecchi, artist, mentor and art collector.

Castles, Tower Houses and Bawns of County Clare

Castles are fortified structures which usually contained a garrison. A small number of castles are thought to have been built in Ireland in the earlier part of the 12th century. However, it was the Anglo-Normans who introduced the technique of stone castle building after 1169 AD. Typically, these castles had strong round or rectangular towers inside a stout wall. Wooden houses were also constructed inside the walls. Castles in this Norman style continued to be built up to the 15th century, when fortified tower houses became the fashion. There are over 100 surviving castles in County Clare. Click for Castles of Clare.
Between the 15th and 17th centuries the custom of building castles gave way to the building of structures whose main function was as a residence, rather than a solely defensive site. These buildings were called tower houses. There are c.80 tower houses surviving in County Clare, many of them in a very good state of preservation. Click for Tower Houses of Clare.
Some of these tower houses were enclosed within fortified enclosures called bawns. There are 7 such tower houses with bawns surviving in County Clare. Click for Tower Houses with Bawns in Clare.

Fifty Years: Poems 1957-2007 by Knute Skinner

This book collects fifty years of published work by the American poet Knute Skinner who has had a home in Killaspuglonane, County Clare since 1964. Most of the poems were taken from 13 books that were published at two-to-three-year intervals from 1965-2005 and are divided into categories entitled “Early”, “Later”, “Fictions” and “Recent”. Reading through this collection, one is struck by his strong sense of place – particularly a sense of the North Clare landscape and community. One meets Knute's neighbours and family, learns things such as how long it takes to draw a pint of ale, and contemplates with the poet what it is like to suddenly catch oneself getting older. Highly recommended! Knute was a founding member of the North Clare Writers Workshop and edited many of its publications. He also edited a selection of writings from the workshop which we have published on the library website (including some of his own writings).

BISTO Book of the Year Awards

An eagerly anticipated event on the Irish literary calendar, the CBI Bisto Book of the Year Awards are presented annually in recognition of excellence in writing and/or illustration of books for young people. The awards are administered by CBI, the national organisation for children’s books and sponsored by Bisto (Premier Foods Ireland). The Bisto Book of the Year 07/08 is The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. The Eilís Dillon Award went to Tom Kelly, for The Thing with Finn. Three Bisto Honour Awards were also presented to: FE Higgins, for The Black Book of Secrets, to Oliver Jeffers, author and illustrator of The Way Back Home, and to Roddy Doyle for Wilderness. Also shortlisted for this year’s awards were Michael Scott for The Alchemyst, Jessica O’Donnell for Discover Art, Caitríona Nic Sheáin and Andrew Whitson for Gaiscíoch na Beilte Uaine, Kate Thompson for The Last of the High Kings, and Colin Batemen for Titanic 2020.

Kate Thompson was a founding member of the North Clare Writers Workshop, and some of her writings are featured in a selection from the workshop on the library website.

Irish Authors top British Bestseller Chart

Following her recent death, Nuala O’Faolain’s Are You Somebody is back in the Irish bestseller charts and is being reprinted by its publisher New Island. Books by Irish authors also dominate the British bestseller charts with Marian Keyes’s This Charming Man at number three, Cecelia Ahern’s Thanks for the Memories at four and John Connolly’s The Reapers at five in the Original Fiction charts.

Harry Potter: a top cultural moment

A Sky Arts poll asked more than 2,000 people to choose the top 10 of the best cultural moments of the past 21 years from a list of 21 cultural events. The publications of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997 and Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in 1988 are the two literary events that made the top 10 list. The most popular choice was the “Three Tenors” singing together on the eve of the 1990 World Cup final. The launch of the iPod came in fourth, and the Riverdance performance at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in fifth.

Schools’ Folklore Scheme 1937-38

Clare County Library's Local Studies Centre is a reference library and research centre dedicated to the collection of material on any aspect of County Clare. Located at the Manse, beside the de Valera Library in Ennis, it is open to the public free of charge. One of the many interesting collections held here is the Schools’ Folklore Collection of County Clare. Widely used by researchers and students, it contains essays written by school children during the 1930s. The work was submitted by 188 National Schools in County Clare. It stands as one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken in the field of folklore collecting. The Schools’ Collection Scheme was voluntary but such was the response from schools around the country that it amassed about half a million manuscript pages of folklore. During the school year 1937-38, fifth and sixth class pupils in the twenty six counties were invited, as part of their school-work, to participate in the collection of folklore in their own communities. An explanatory booklet entitled ‘Irish Folklore and Tradition’ containing fifty-five subject headings, along with suggestions and guidelines, was given to the principal of each Primary School. Some of the subject headings included were The Community; Folk Medicine; Historical Tradition; Religious Tradition; Sports and Pastimes; Nature; Settlement and Dwelling; Mythological Tradition and Popular Oral Tradition. The Foreword to the booklet states that ‘the collection of the oral tradition of the Irish people is a work of national importance.’ The senior pupils – who were between the ages of eleven and fourteen years– were exempted from their usual weekly essay so as to allow time for written work on their folklore projects. The collecting from family and neighbours was done after school hours and the children wrote down the lore as told to them by the people around them. This collecting was undertaken ‘at a time when television was away in the future and the seanachie was still part of the furniture of the Co. Clare fireside.’ Each school was allocated a large standard notebook entitled ‘Bealoideas’ (Folklore), and either the teacher or pupils with good handwriting copied the best of the material from the school copybooks into the official notebook. The original manuscripts of the Schools Collection are housed in the Department of Irish Folklore at U.C.D., Dublin. The Local Studies Centre in Ennis has microfilm copies of the original manuscripts amounting to approximately 16,000 pages.