Burrenbeo Trust Weekend

On Saturday the 31st October 2009 the Burrenbeo Trust presents "A Burren Miscellany" at Johnson’s Hall, Kinvara. Doors open at 8.30pm to start at 9pm. The Trust is hosting a celebration of the rich cultural history of the Burren through traditional song, story-telling and music. This special evening will feature uileann pipes player Eugene Lambe, poems from Josie Sullivan, songs from Tony Trundle and Paul Mulligan, and stories from Caoilte Breatnach and a very special guest. This entertainment is open to everyone, both members and non-members of the Trust. Entry is €10 per person. On the following day (1st November) at 2pm you can join the Burrenbeo Trust Monthly Walk, exploring turloughs with Dr James Moran. The Burrenbeo Trust is delighted to have Dr James Moran imparting his expertise on turloughs. James has recently started lecturing at Sligo IT but prior to that was working on the BurrenLIFE project advising farmers on various aspects of the science behind their land in the Burren. The walk will meet at Gortlecka Cross near to Mullaghmore where the NPWS signs are. It is advisable to wear wellington boots in case it is wet underfoot. Everyone is welcome. It is free for members of the Trust and a €5 charge for non-members. For more information please contact trust@burrenbeo.com or ring 087 9689486.

Animal Magic Show at Scariff and Killaloe Libraries

Each year Science Week promotes the relevance of science, engineering and technology in our everyday lives. This year it runs from 8th – 15th November and the theme is “Science – Inspiring creativity and innovation.” As part of the promotion, the “Animal Magic” show takes place in Scariff Public Library on Monday 9th November at 9.45am and again at 11.15am. Later that day at 1.30pm the same show is performed at Killaloe Public Library. “Animal Magic” by Rosie Campbell unlocks the magic of Nature. It involves interaction with wildlife, allowing the children taking part to learn and experience nature in an inspirational, educational and fun way.

Nobel Prize in Literature 2009

Herta Müller has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel judges praised Müller as a writer "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed". Born in Romania in 1953, Müller refused to cooperate with Ceausescu's Securitate, lost her job as a teacher and was the subject of repeated threats until she emigrated in 1987. She returns constantly to the themes of oppression, exile and dictatorship in her novels and poems. She won the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her novel The Land of Green Plums, of which she said, "I wrote this book in memory of my Romanian friends who were killed under the Ceausescu regime. I felt it was my duty". Worth 10m Swedish kronor (over 1 million euro), the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to "the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction", as described in Alfred Nobel's will of 1895. Müller is the 12th woman in 108 years to win the award.

USA National Book Awards 2009

Irish writer Colum McCann’s latest novel, Let the Great World Spin, has been shortlisted for the fiction prize in this year’s National Book Awards in the US. The Dubliner’s novel is one of five in the fiction category in the shortlist announced yesterday. The other shortlisted works of fiction are: American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin, Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips and Far North by Marcel Theroux. The Winner will receive $10,000 and a bronze statue. To be eligible for the 2009 National Book Award, a book must have been published in the United States between December 1, 2008 and November 30, 2009 and must have been written by a United States citizen. This year the Foundation will also celebrate its six-decade history of honoring great books by highlighting the 77 Fiction books that received the National Book Award from 1950 to 2008. The Best of the National Book Awards Fiction included a daily blog page on each one of the 77 Winning books in Fiction (www.nbafictionblog.org) and the opportunity for the public to vote online for their favorite National Book Award Winning Fiction book from a short-list that includes:
John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever (National Book Award, 1981)
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1953)
William Faulkner Collected Stories (1951)
Flannery O'Connor The Complete Stories (1972)
Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow (1974)
Eudora Welty The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1983)

For more information about the Finalists as well as National Book Awards Week events, visit www.nationalbook.org

Winner of the 2009 Democracy and Dialogue viral video competition

Alan Early's "Noise To Get Heard" is the winner of the 2009 Democracy and Dialogue viral movie competition, which was organised by The European Commission Representation in Ireland and the Darklight Film Festival. "Noise To Get Heard" looks at the issue of gay rights and won on creative merit, treatment of the theme (democracy and dialogue) and also on the number of views. Click here for more info... See also Democracy and Dialogue Short Online Film Competition

1Mb Broadband Access Becomes Legal Right in Finland

From next July every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, according to the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications. The Finnish government had already decided to make a 100 Mb broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. Yesterday, the Ministry announced the new goal as an intermediary step.
For more info see www.yle.fi and Cnet News.

The Kitchen Sessions from Pakie Malley's Kitchen in Glendree, Tulla, Co. Clare. (Part 3)

The Kitchen Sessions is a series of Clare FM radio programmes broadcast live from homes in County Clare - as well as from the homes of Clare people abroad. The Kitchen Sessions is a Rag and Bone Production for Clare FM, supported by the BCI Sound & Vision Scheme and the Arts Office of Clare County Council.

Part 1; Part 2; Part 4; Part 5.

See also The Kitchen Session with Frank Custy from Toonagh Hall

Booker Prize Winner

Hilary Mantel has been named the winner of the £50,000 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her historical novel Wolf Hall. Wolf Hall has been the bookmakers' favourite since the longlist was announced in July 2009. A.S. Byatt, J.M. Coetzee, Adam Foulds, Simon Mawer and Sarah Waters were all shortlisted for this year's prize. Wolf Hall is set in the 1520s and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to prominence in the Tudor court. Hilary Mantel has been praised by critics for writing “a rich, absorbingly readable historical novel; she has made a significant shift in the way any of her readers interested in English history will henceforward think about Thomas Cromwell.” Hilary Mantel spent five years writing Wolf Hall and she is currently working on a sequel. Over and above her prize of £50,000, she may expect a huge increase in sales and recognition worldwide. See www.themanbookerprize.com/

Great Irish Book Week

Great Irish Book Week was launched on October 1st at the National Library. The Great Irish Book Week will take place from Saturday the 24th to Saturday the 31st October 2009 with the aim of "rekindling the nation's passion for books". The campaign will focus primarily on promoting Irish published books. Irish book publishers will collaborate with booksellers across the island of Ireland, to help attract more people to bookshops and encourage readers to support local authors and publishers. An independent panel of booksellers has selected 30 new fiction, poetry, Irish language and non-fiction books to showcase the best new Irish books. The list includes books by Joseph O’ Connor, Alice Taylor, Eddie Hobbs and many others. Anyone buying a book displaying the special Great Irish Book Week sticker will receive a free 210-page paperback book, which contains extracts from the 30 recommended reads. Authors will also be participating in events in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast. “Literature is Ireland’s greatest export and as a nation we have always been fascinated by books. However, in recent years there has been a decline in the number of book published in Ireland” said Alan Hayes, President of Publishing Ireland, the national association of book publishers. Mr Hayes added that local publishers play a vital role in fostering emerging talent. “Before many of our finest writers, such as Joseph O’ Connor and Eoin Colfer, went on to international fame they were given their first break by Irish publishers. Without a vital national book sector emerging authors may never see their work published, and we will be the poorer for it as a nation,” he said. The RTE Guide will be running a competition on October 13th where readers will get a chance to win the 30 Great Irish Books. For a list of the books, see http://www.greatirishbookweek.com/.

Cushing Academy - the library without books

Cushing Academy, a 144-year-old school in the US state of Massachusetts, has decided it no longer needs a traditional library. Having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, the academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. Administrators said the books took up too much space and that there was nowhere else on campus to stock them. So they decided to give their collection - aside from a few hundred children’s books and valuable antiquarian works - to local schools and libraries. As part of its eLibrary initative the school's new "learning center" will have no books. The future, they believe, is digital. Source: Boston Globe…