Practice.ie for Artists in Glór

Practice.ie: Professional Development Meeting for Artists who work with Children and Young People. "Practice.ie" is an ongoing collaborative research project in development by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. Kids’ Own have been promoting and supporting artists’ practice working with children and young people for over twelve years. This research has grown from an understanding of the need for exchange and shared learning for professional development. The aim of the research is to validate, support and enhance artists’ practice working with children and young people. "Practice.ie" takes the main form of a website: http://www.practice.ie/. It is growing as a vibrant resource and database of contemporary practice in this area. It also provides the first all-Ireland professional network for artists working with children and young people. "Practice.ie" holds regular meetings for artists in various locations around Ireland. The next meeting is kindly supported by Clare Arts Office and Glór Theatre and Arts Centre and takes place in Glór, Ennis on Monday, May 25th from 10.30am to 4.30pm. This day is for all artists, from any discipline and at any stage of their career, whose practice involves working with children and young people. Visit the website for more information: http://www.practice.ie/ or contact: Yvonne Cullivan, Practice.ie Research Coordinator; E: yvonne@kidsown.ie; T: +353 071 9124945

Life magazine - Empire State Building NY

On May 1, 1931, work on a new 102-story Art Deco tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York, — the Empire State Building — was completed, a masterpiece of architecture that would rank as the tallest building in the world for 40 years. It took 3,400 men to build, most of them European immigrants who risked their very lives to finish the skyscraper in an astounding 410 days. Try not to get vertigo while you flip through the Life magazine gallery of the Empire State Building in progress, with photos of unharnessed workers hundreds of feet in the air, putting it together piece by piece. Click here for the photos.

New EU website on economic crisis

The global economy is facing a financial crisis involving banking systems, stock markets and the flow of credit. Seeking common strategies to solve the difficulties, European institutions are coordinating national responses and making recommendations to improve the financial system. A new website has been created on the EU's response to the financial and economic crisis: http://ec.europa.eu/financial-crisis/

eYouGuide: Know Your Rights Shopping Online

Did you know that under EU law online shoppers enjoy the same rights as on the high street and in some cases an even greater degree of protection? A new online tool, the eYouGuide, offering practical advice on the rights of the digital consumer, was launched by the European Commission this week. The internet can take a lot of hassle from shopping and often provides consumers with greater choice and value, yet 39% of Europeans have major doubts about the safety of internet transactions. See here for further information.

Niall McCormack at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon‏

Niall McCormack's exhibition of paintings and installation, “inside out – outside in”, runs from May 7th – May 30th at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon. Niall McCormack’s recent work deals with the burgeoning property market and the proliferation of housing ‘units’ that has become an ubiquitous subtext to the contemporary Irish landscape. "The faceless uniformity of McCormack’s houses creates a sense of disquiet and foreboding, of soullessness. It speaks of isolation and the contradictions of living together but being apart – a house not as a clichéd home but rather as an instrument of separation.The paintings have a painstaking attention to detail, yet these uniformly windowed housing units lack doors and chimneys. The long, hard shadows cast hint at the melancholic urban landscapes of de Chirico or Sironi."

Muintir na Mara – Around the Clare Coast

Muintir na Mara continues its journey around the coast of Clare on Friday 8th May. The popular TV programme returned to TG4 last week with a six-part series during which Pádraig Ó Duinnín continues his personal and spiritual voyage along the coast of Ireland taking his journey through Limerick and up the Clare coastline traveling by curragh, bicycle and van. Along the way he stops off at little harbours, quays, ports, towns and villages and meets with the local people of the sea, Muintir na Mara. This is the third series in his monumental journey and during the last two series Pádraig travelled up the Cork and Kerry coastlines. Last week’s programme featured Clare County Library’s own Dolores Meaney as she introduced Pádraig to Canon Island and Coney Island in the Shannon estuary. Pádraig encounters many remarkable characters over the six programmes, such as Brendan Garvey a retired lighthouse keeper who revisits his old base at Loophead, Aideen O’ Mahony from Doonbeg who recounts the night her grandfather saved a WW2 fighter pilot from death, Patrick Mullins who tells Pádraig about the struggle as life as a fisherman in today’s Ireland and Kitty Shannon in Doolin, a lovely old lady who recounts stories of when the fishermen from Inis Oirr used to come over from the island to sell potatoes and slept in her house when the weather was too rough to go back. All of these stories are part of a coastal tradition, some of which is being lost forever as fishing communities are decimated by changes to their livelihoods.

Pieces of History: Shop fronts of Ennistymon

"Pieces of History: Shop fronts of Ennistymon" is a short documentary created as a tribute to the traditional 19th Century shop fronts of Ennistymon that give the town its unique character. It was produced by 5th Year Art students of Scoil Mhuire and Christian Brother Secondary schools in Ennistymon. According to the students “a number of brief interviews were conducted by students with local residents, whose genuine appreciation of the many facets of these unique structures have ultimately shaped this work. This collaboration between students and local residents highlights the ability of the arts to foster a sense of community while at the same time engaging us creatively”. "Pieces of History: Shop fronts of Ennistymon" will be officially launched on Friday 8th May at 6pm in the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon.

Tom Lenihan singing at the Kilrush Fleadh, 1967

Renowned singer Tom Lenihan of Knockbrack, Miltown Malbay, singing "Stick to the cratur (poteen)" at the Kilrush Fleadh Cheoil, 1967. A collection of his songs was edited by Tom Munnelly and produced as The Mount Callan Garland: Songs from the Repertoire of Tom Lenihan and Songs of the Irish Travellers 1967–1985. For more information on Tom Lenihan click here...

West Cork Literary Festival

In what promises to be a week to remember, the West Cork Literary Festival which opens on Sunday, July 5th, has announced a fantastic line-up of more than fifty writers. Pulitzer prize winning writer Annie Proulx, well-loved Irish author Jennifer Johnston, Liverpudlian favourite Roger McGough, bestselling crime writer Martina Cole and journalist Nell McCafferty will be featuring in the main evening readings in the Maritime Hotel throughout the week of the Festival. Closing the week on a high note, novelist and musician Louis de Bernieres, who wrote Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, will perform in St Brendan’s Church on Saturday night. At the heart of the festival is a series of eleven workshops which will take place each afternoon throughout the week. Festival visitors can attend Tariq Ali’s session on History as Fiction, learn why novelist Denyse Woods writes about the Arab world, find out how to harness their creativity with writer Julie Parsons, write for the stage with Billy Roche and can even get tips on how to get published in a special panel discussion with agent Faith O’Grady and journalist Sue Leonard. Young book lovers also have the chance to meet their heroes with afternoon readings by the creator of the famous Horrid Henry books, Francesca Simon, the popular children’s writer Darren Shan, Cathy Hopkins and a special afternoon with Don Conroy, who needs no introduction to children of all ages. At the centre of the children’s festival are three children’s workshops, led by Sarah Webb, Judi Curtin, Niamh Sharkey and Marie Louise Fitzpatrick. For further details see: http://www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie

Calling All Poets and Writers

The Galway "Over the Edge" organisation is now open for submissions to its New Writer of the Year creative writing competition 2009. Open to poets and fiction writers, the total prize money is €1,000 with €300 each for the best fiction entry and the best poetry entry. One of these will then be chosen as the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2009 and receive an additional €400. The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a featured reader at a reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in winter 2009/10. The closing date for entires is Monday, August 3rd 2009, with the winner announced on Sept 24th. For further details see http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com