Lá Fhéile Bríde - St. Bridget's Day - at Clare Museum

Children From Ennis National School enjoying the St Bridget's Day Festival at the Clare Museum.

Generations in Action – seeking participants – Scariff Library

The 'Generations in Action’ group, in collaboration with Scariff Public Library, is seeking participants, 6 older people and 6 children ( 7 to 11 years old ), to take part in an intergenerational project. The project, under the guidance of artist Isabelle Gaborit, will involve the creation of an elderly person’s memory book, whereby the children and older person will make collages or paintings based on some aspect of the older persons past, be it a favourite memory, poem, picture, movie, person, book etc. All the artwork will be bound by the artist into a memory book. The completed project will be publicly launched as part of the nationwide 'Bealtaine festival - celebrating creativity as we age'. The project will run for 6 weeks, on Saturday mornings from 11 to 12, starting on the Saturday 21st of April. All materials will be provided. Please contact Caroline Aherne at Scariff Public Library on (061) 922893 or Isabelle Gaborit at 087-2793819 before the closing date 24th March if you would like to take part. You can also visit the generations in action website at: www.generationsinaction.com

Bobby Casey & Tommy Keane play Scully Casey's & Bímis ag Ól

Bobby Casey & Tommy Keane play Scully Casey's & Bímis ag Ól, c1986. Posted on Youtube on the 4th of May 2009 by k4hx1.

Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser (1805) now online

The Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser was published between circa 1784 and 1831. The newspaper appeared twice weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays and was published by Foster Parsons in Jail Street opposite the Exchange (now O'Connell Street and O'Connell Square). Each issue contained four pages of four columns each, and measured 18 inches in length and twelve inches in width. Foster Parsons was one of a number of printers active in Ennis in the late eighteenth century, early nineteenth century along with John Busteed, George Trinder, Frances Knox and Thomas Knox. The paper reported on international, national and local issues. The 1805 issues cover topics such as the War between Britain and France, Unrest in India and The Catholic Question. Local news items include court reports, business advertisements and biographical notices.

Clare County Library has a run of the newspaper from 1788 to 1797, 1799 to 1812, 1814 to 1820 and 1825 to 1831 on microfilm. Bound original issues are held by the Library for the years 1805, 1810, 1811, 1812 and 1816. Clare County Library is delighted to now publish online PDFs of individual issues of the paper for the year 1805. These PDFs, ranging in size from 6.5MB to 7MB, require Adobe Reader to view and have been scanned with OCR and are therefore searchable. Click here for the online Ennis Chronicle and Clare Advertiser...

The Irish Rovers in Clare, 1970s

"The Irish Rovers perform seven songs in County Clare and Limerick in the west of Ireland, starting at the Cliffs of Moher ("Come to the Bower" & a reel), in the Burren ("Burren's Rocky Plain"), the peat bogs ("Mick McGuire" and "Dan O'Hara") and at Durty Nelly's Pub by Bunratty Castle near Shannon Airport ("Willie's Gone to Melville Castle" and "Juice of the Barley") for their Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's national half hour series 'The Irish Rovers in Ireland' in the 1970s. The Rovers were Will Millar, Jimmy Ferguson, George Millar, Joe Millar, Wilcil McDowell." Also included in the video is Dinny McMahon playing the tin whistle at the Cliffs of Moher. Posted on Youtube on the 30th of January 2012 by ST40TV.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Posted on Youtube on the 24th of January 2012 by senguntr.

Dromoland School of Falconry

Richard Bangs talks to Dave Atkinson of the Dromoland School of Falconry. Posted on Youtube on the 19th of January 2012 by Tourismireland2009.

Che Guevara in Kilkee, September 1961

"The piece of music that soundtracks this film was written in early 2008 in GarageBand on Apple Mac. 'Cha Che' mixes traditional Cuban sounds with layers of Irish bodhran and Irish voices - a strange mixture but one that proved to work very well. The reason for attempting the mix whilst working was the obvious link between Cuba and Che Guevara as the face on the iconic poster we all know but with the added knowledge that he was actually a South American revolutionary with Irish ancestors! During his travels as a young man across South America he had become outraged at the poverty and harsh treatment of people that he saw in many corrupt countries. Once finished, though, this piece of music had to sit and wait for some lyrics or for a context to appear to finish its story. In late 2011 that context arrived! Browsing the web I came across video clips and news reports of Guevara's several unscheduled stop-overs in Ireland whilst in transit. RTE News provided me with the story that the music had been waiting for. Fog bound, Che Guevara and his party found themselves at Shannon airport and made a detour to visit to the seaside town of Kilkee, Co. Clare. Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick was working in a bar and immediately recognised the man. Jim later went on to produce the world famous poster of Che Guevara which was the very reason for the mix of Cuban and Irish sounds in 'Cha Che'. What's more, Kilkee had also held a festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Che's visit!" Posted on Youtube on the 19th of December 2011 by theyellowfactory.

Lá Fhéile Bríde - St. Bridget's Day, the first day of Spring

Today is Lá Fhéile Bríde - St. Bridget's Day, the first day of Spring. It is customary for Irish people to make a St. Bridget's Cross of straw or rushes to hang over their doors to protect their homes, families and animals from want and evil. St Bridget is remembered on this day in Clare at St Bridget's Well, near Liscannor, where people gather to pray. Click here for photos of St Bridget's Well and click here to see how to make you own St Bridget's Cross.

Sixmilebridge Library - CBI's Library of the Month Winner

Children’s Books Ireland has been running a library of the month competition on their Facebook page since early January. Throughout January they asked followers of their page to nominate their favourite local library. Two branches of Clare County Library, De Valera Public Library, Ennis, and Kilfinaghty Public Library, Sixmilebridge, were among the final five libraries nominated at the end of the month and Sixmilebridge has emerged as winner. There were several complimentary comments left about both branches throughout the competition. The competition will run again in February so there is ample time for everyone to get nominating their favourite branch. Scariff Public Library already has a nomination waiting in the wings. The most nominated libraries are chosen towards the end of each month and then voting begins. This is a Facebook-only competition and can only be accessed by people who have an active facebook account. You can access the Children’s Books Ireland Facebook page or through Clare County Library's facebook page which can be found at the bottom of our homepage www.clarelibrary.ie or at www.facebook.com/clarecountylibrary.

The post from the Children’s Books Ireland facebook page when announcing the winner read: "Congratulations to Kilfinaghty Library, Sixmilebridge, County Clare for winning this month's library of the month! The library will win a great children's title, courtesy of CBI. Nominations open tomorrow [1st February] right here on facebook for February's library of the month, so to nominate your local library upload a picture and tell us why you like it!"