Christmas Day 2009 in Clare

Posted on Youtube by Moontv2007 who says "Since it's Christmas Day and the place is looking more like a postcard scene from the North Pole than County Clare, I decided to lift up the camera and press record. I just popped outside into the back garden and kept rolling, it's a random video but hopefully one you'll enjoy. It's not often we get freezing cold weather like this. -10 degrees C in some parts."

Liscannor Church Christmas Cribs 2009

Posted on Youtube on the 20th December 2009 by tseandun who says "This is the amazing display of cribs from all over the world our local Parish Priest, Fr. Denis Crosby, puts on display every year [in St Brigid's Church, Liscannor]. People from all over County Clare coming to see them, now the whole world can too..." Music 'Silent Night' by Sinéad O'Connor.

Top Selling Authors of the Decade

The Bookseller magazine has released the list of the UK top selling authors of the period 2000-09. Seven Irish authors are featured in the top 100 list. Maeve Binchy is the highest selling of the Irish authors having sold over 4.6 million copies of her books over the past ten years at a value of almost £32 million. Marian Keyes is just behind her in 27th place having sold 4.5 million books at a value of over £28 million during the period. Cecelia Ahern is in 42nd place having sold 3.2m books at a value of £18.6m. The other Irish authors on the list are Darren Shan, Cathy Kelly, Sheila O’Flanagan and Eoin Colfer. Darren Shan and Eoin Colfer are primarily known as children’s authors but both have recently begun writing for adults – Eoin Colfer with And Another Thing, the sequel to Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The 100 top bestselling author list was dominated by JK Rowling, selling 27.5 million books at a value of almost £216 million. Some distance behind her was Dan Brown selling only one third that number of books and Roger Hargreaves (Mr Men books) one tenth of that number.

New Book Club for Channel 4

A follow-up to the Richard and Judy TV book club has been announced by Cactus TV. The new show which begins on January 17th, will be presented in 10 thirty-minute episodes on More 4 on Sunday evenings, with a daytime repeat on Channel 4 on the following Monday. Amanda Ross described the new format as "like a dinner party", with the five hosts - who include comedian Jo Brand and stylist Gok Wan - chatting to a celebrity author each week. The guest will then stay to discuss the book club book for that week. Each book will be promoted with a film of the author. Each week the show will also revisit success stories from the R&J book club, such as authors Victoria Hislop, Audrey Niffenegger and Jodi Picoult. New non-fiction releases will also be discussed each week with accompanying videos. The summer series will comprise eight episodes, championing the best in holiday reads. Meanwhile, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan are planning to launch their own book club, following the news that former producer Amanda Ross is setting up the new show without them.

WOW Reading Challenge 2009/2010

Clare County Library and 28 National Schools in the county have joined forces with Clare Garda Division for the fourth consecutive year for the promotion of reading among children. All children on roll in each participating school are busily reading in an effort to be named the top readers in the world through the WOW Transatlantic Reading Challenge. Established by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia, Canada, with a view to decreasing crime by increasing literacy, the Reading Challenge Project has been greatly assisted by Gardai in Clare under the leadership of Sergeant John Staunton, Ennis Garda Headquarters. The ultimate aim of the Challenge is to shine a spotlight on reading and its benefits, in a fun and exciting way that has schools all over the county registering the numbers of books they read over six months on a specially designated website. Children who read well and read regularly have higher self esteem. This allows them to make better decisions which could reduce criminal acts, such as bullying, and create positive thinking adults in the future. The WOW Reading Challenge engages the entire community in its efforts to encourage kids to read. The Challenge is a partnership between the police, public libraries, schools and the community as a whole.

Clare County Library staff along with members of the Gardai will visit schools over the duration of the Challenge to meet with school children and their teachers and encourage them to read as much as possible using books from their school and public libraries and from their collections of books in the home. Topics discussed during these informal visits include the types of books available at the library suited to age and interests, work as a librarian and as a member of the Gardai, and class novels are read and discussed in some schools by visiting Gardai and librarians. Clare County Library wishes to thank the teachers who schedule such visits to their schools. The school that has read the most by April 2010 will be awarded a substantial book prize with prizes also for schools who come second and third. This year’s WOW Reading Challenge National Schools in County Clare are Ballycar, Ballyea, Ballyvaughan, Bansha, Burrane, Cahermurphy, Clohanes, Clouna, Connolly, Cooraclare, Coore, Corofin, Cratloe, Doonaha, Doora, Dromindoora, Furglan, Holy Family Jnr., Inagh, Kilfenora, Kilmihil, Kilmurry, Kilnamona, Moveen, Moyasta, Quin, St. Conaires, Shannon, and Tubber.

Clare County Library and Clare Youth Service launch a joint Reading Group

Clare County Library and Clare Youth Service have come together in an exciting new initiative to promote library usage and reading as a leisure activity to an enthusiastic group of young people. A reading group has been established by Clare County Library staff in collaboration with Teresa Larkin and Fionnuala Tuohy of Clare Youth Services with a view to exploring books through regular monthly meetings. Because literacy is embedded in all education and training programmes at Ennis Youth Centre, library usage and reading is an automatic extension of the Centre’s aim which is the social and personal development of each learner and the ongoing development of their goals, abilities and careers. Events to date include a group visit to deValera Library, Ennis where staff were on hand to provide a guided introduction of the services on offer through the library service with particular emphasis on the excellent range of film DVDs, music CDs and books, including graphic novels for older teenagers. The group will meet monthly in the library in 2010 to discuss books chosen by the students. Kate Thompson’s Creature of the Night was the first book chosen to be read collectively by the group and plans are under way to have the award-winning author, (with strong links to County Clare) meet with the group in the New Year.

The Doegen Records Web Project - hear Clare voices of the 1930s

A project of the Royal Irish Academy Library, this digital archive of Irish dialect recordings made during 1928-31 comprises an important collection of early Irish language recordings of folktales, songs and other material. It includes recordings from many regions of Ireland where traditional Irish dialects have disappeared since the time the recordings were made. This digital archive is a project of the Royal Irish Academy Library in collaboration with the Digital Humanities Observatory and is funded by the Higher Education Authority. The archive consists of digitized versions of recordings made originally on shellac records in the period 1928-31, and will eventually be accompanied by transcriptions and translations of the recordings, information on the people recorded, and other related content.

Included in this project at the moment are seven recordings from County Clare, made in 1930, and featuring the voices of James Shannon, Máirtín Mag Fhloinn, Seán Carún, Liam Ó Dileáin and Stiofán Ó hEilíre. There are three recordings of Stiofán Ó hEilíre (1862-1944), whose tales were transcribed by Séamus Ó Duilearga and published as Leabhar Stiofáin Uí Ealaoire.

Click here for the complete County Clare recordings.

More info - An Irishman's Diary, The Irish Times, Thursday, December 2009

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, Feakle 2008

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill in concert at the Feakle Festival, in Feakle, County Clare, 8 August 2008. Posted on Youtube by TG4gaeilge

Best Crime Books of 2009

The CWA Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 2009 has been won by William Brodrick for his novel A Whispered Name. The judges described A Whispered Name as ‘A moving novel that stretches the parameters of the crime genre, intertwining past and present and throwing light on a neglected aspect of World War One’. John Hart was the winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller for his novel The Last Child. Swedish author Johan Theorin won the John Creasey New Blood Award for a new author of note for Echoes from the Dead. Philip Kerr was the winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award for his thriller If the Dead Rise Not. Harlan Coben’s Hold Tight won the Specsavers ITV3 Crime Thriller Bestseller Dagger 2009, which was voted for by ITV3 viewers. The Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Awards have been awarded since 1955 for excellence in crime fiction. Sponsored by Specsavers, the awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement.

World Premiere of North Clare made film 'Seaside Stories...' on December 12th‏

Opening sequence:



Following a successful preview at the Cork Film Festival the North Clare made film 'Seaside Stories...' will have it's world premiere at the Courthouse Studios & Gallery in downtown Ennistymon on December 12th.There will be two screenings, one at 5pm (€ 5) and another at 7pm (€ 7.50). The money raised will go to the Friends of Ennistymon Hospital who play an important role in support of the daycare services for the elderly in North Clare. The writer/director Fergus Tighe will be at both screenings as will most of the actors including Fionn de Búrca (11 years) of Kilcornan who plays Locky, the boy around whom the story swings. The film was made over the past three years from Gallivanting Media's base at the Courthouse Gallery & Studios. Locky is a boy who's been flourishing since his mother, Anna, gave up the drink three years ago. When Anna's old boyfriend Mick gets out of prison she falls back into her old ways of daytime drinking while Locky runs wild in the streets with his friend Callo, played by Caolann O'Dwyer, 13. Meanwhile, Sally arrives home determined to tell Locky that she is really his mother. This does not go exactly as planned and sets the scene for a series of events that changes the lives of all involved.