Summer ‘11 FREE – PLEASE TAKE ONE Vol7 Iss 3
SPACE INSIDE LIVE NIGHT - Tues 5 April ’11 @ 8pm
Wicklow Sailing Club – Free Admission
Robert Teeling is a newcomer to Wicklow Town, arriving in Ireland just 6 months ago. He is
mainly a self-taught artist and, when living in South Africa, specialised in Wildlife and African art.
Robert paints in acrylics and oils, and his versatility enables him to paint most subjects – seascapes,
landscapes, portraits and murals. He is currently working on artworks featuring local people and
places in Ireland. A member of Kilmantin Art Gallery, Wicklow Town, his paintings of local scenes are
proving very popular. Check him out at www.robteelingart.com
Frank Gallagher Zoryanna
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Colm Nolan
2
Editorial
Hi all,
After decades of watching TV and internet, it looks
like we now have a burning need to get back to the
real thing. Two new poetry/music sessions have
sprung up in County Wicklow: one in Bray and the
other in Greystones. Great to see people are still
interested in ‘live’ performances. See Twitters for a
list of these and other similar venues.
If, like me, you have always been a bit vague on what
exactly Aosdana is all about, our Feature article this
month gives some insight into its workings – a club
which arouses mixed reactions from artists.
The Wicklow Arts Festival team is working hard on
this year’s event. A brief taster of what’s on is shown
opposite, but full details of the exciting programme
are on their stunning new website.
Once again, we have been awarded a grant from
Wicklow Arts Office. However, we continue to need
your support to ensure this journal is kept in print.
We have a new page on our blog Donate Now, where
you can make a donation for as little as €3. All you
need is a credit card. We find it is better to make a
donation after the pubs close – less traffic on the net!
It seems, after seven years, there are still people in
Wicklow who don’t know we exist. Your mission,
should you accept it, is to enlighten one such person
every month, and keep the Space Inside Live.
See you at our Live Night on Tuesday 5th April for
another great evening of poetry, dance and music.
Carol Boland
This May, Wicklow Town will come alive with music, art
exhibitions, dance, crafts and family entertainment, with
over 40 events over four days. The Space Inside checks
out what’s on offer.
icklow Arts Festival takes place annually in May in the
beautiful harbour setting of Wicklow Town. Now in its
eighth year, the Festival has grown with the town to become an
important cultural fixture in the calendar, with audience figures
rising steadily each year. This year, the theme is a celebration of
International Year of Forests, which will highlight the
environmental resources that abound in the Garden of Ireland.
Batchelor’s Walk
The Festival has a wide-ranging arts
programme which contains a strong
element for kids, with a teen poetry
challenge, a colouring competition, a
storytime and various children’s
workshops.
During the weekend, the Artisan Food and
Craft market on Bachelor’s Walk by the
river, offers the stroller unusual crafts and
demonstrations of heritage skills. This is also the site for the
Festival Tent, the centre of activities over the weekend. You will
find Niall de Burca and his unique style of storytelling there,
Deadly Moons, an interactive art/science workshop, and Badger’s
Birthday Puppet Show. Close by, the popular Chalk Attack is
back, and everyone is invited to create temporary art on the
footbridge. Don’t forget to bring your camera to capture the
works of art.
WAF Stage
A new addition to this year’s festivities is
the WAF Stage. On Sunday, the stage will
be at the heart of the action on Bachelors
Walk with a great line up of acts promised.
Music to spoken word, the acts include
performances from Wicklow School of
Music and Drama’s Rock School, and Let’s
Sing, a lively Arklow-based choir. A
continuous line of performers will take the
stage through the day. During the week,
the Festival Arts Trail and Art on the Railings will again brighten
up the town. A new, impressive Festival website is now up, and
events and gig are continually been added. To keep up-to-date
with what’s happening at the Festival, subscribe to the Festival
newsletters on their website : www.wicklowartsfestival.ie
W
Jimmy Deenihan, T.D. was
appointed Minister of Arts,
Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs
on the 9th March 2011.
Opening an art exhibition at
his Dept’s offices in Killarney,
he said, ‘ I hope this exhibition
will be the start of a great
future of promoting art in
public places and making art as
accessible as possible to the
widest audience – we have to
remember that art is not
exclusive, it is for all.’ And so
say all of us.
Derek Landy talks about
‘Mortal Coil’, the fifth
instalment of the
bestselling Skulduggery
Pleasant series, in the
Grand Hotel.
n ancient Ireland, the Aos Dána were the wise men,
and occasionally women, of the Clan who included
judges, priests, poets and historians. Today,
membership of Aosdána is purely open to artists: be
they musicians, novelists, poets, visual artists,
chorographers or architects.
Aosdána was set up in 1981 by Taoiseach Charles
Haughey, on the suggestion of the writer, Anthony
Cronin. The idea behind its formation was to honour
artists who made an outstanding contribution to the
arts in Ireland, and to financially assist members to
devote their energies full time to their art.
The Toscairí.
Funded by the State through the Arts Council, which
handles all of its administrative and financial
arrangements, Aosdána’s members are currently
limited to 250.
Membership to the club is by peer
nomination and not by application. The
nominee must have created a significant
body of work and be a native of, or resident
for at least five years in Ireland. The
committee of Aosdána is the Toscaireacht, a
group of ten members who are called
Toscairí. When new members are
proposed, the Toscairí have the task of
verifying that the nomination process has been
complied with, and also that the candidate is willing to
accept membership – something that cannot be taken
for granted.
To be or not to be
Heated debates on this organization continue. The
poet Brendan Kennelly, in an Irish Times article said,
‘On an unconscious or subconscious level I might feel
compromised (by membership).’ In the same article,
playwright Hugh Leonard stated, ‘I am not a member
by choice. And if I did ask to get in, they wouldn’t let
me in . . . the whole thing seems unforgivably political .
. . that thing of exclusivity and elitism I despise.’
For those who have been
accepted into Aosdána the
benefits are many. The poet
Pearse Hutchinson has
described his membership as ‘a
miracle and godsend’ that
allowed him to continue writing
at a time when he might have
had to give up.
And composer Roger Doyle
tells of the difference it made
to him. ‘I was elected to
Aosdána in 1986. This gave me
a small stipend from the Government each year, which
enabled me to devote all my time to composing.’
The benefits
Members of Aosdána are eligible to receive an annuity
for a term of five years. This stipend is called a Cnuas,
and is intended to allow recipients to work full time at
their art. Its value, in 2010, was €17,180 p.a. It may be
renewed for subsequent terms of five years, if the
artist shows that a work of merit has been produced
during the previous term.
Aside from these financial benefits,
members may also be awarded titles.
The Saoi – the wise one – is the
highest honour that can be bestow
upon a fellow member. The title is
awarded for ‘singular and sustained
distinction in the arts’. The President
of Ireland confers the symbol of the
office, the gold Torc, and no more
than seven living members can be so
honoured at one time.
It is Aosdána’s obligations under the Residential Redress
Act 2002 that causes some artists a problem. But,
recently, a motion was passed calling for clarification
on sections relating to censorship. Also, a motion was
passed unanimously that ‘Aosdána deplores some of
the recent tax exemptions granted to the authors of
books and calls for the introduction of new guidelines
in accordance with the spirit of the Act.’ I wonder to
whom they could possibly be referring.
I
FEATURE
Aosdána – an archaic
club for conferring honours
or a lifeline for artists.
Aosdána is a members’ only club that arouses strong opinions
among Irish artists. Carol Boland takes a look at this unique
institution and the controversy that continues to surround it.
Artist Patrick Scott with
President Mary McAleese
at Saoi ceremony in 2007
Current Toscairí
Seóirse Bodley (Music)
Anthony Cronin (Literature) Theo Dorgan (Literature)
Gerard Mannix Flynn (Literature) Dermot Healy (Literature)
Brian Maguire (Visual Arts) Hugh Maxton (Literature)
Nick Miller (Visual Arts)
Jane O'Leary (Music) Macdara Woods (Literature)
Events that caught the Space Inside’s eye What’s On Where
Where Theatre
The Moment
Tall Tales Theatre Company
Fri 8 & Sat 9 Apr
8pm
Fresh from success at the Bush
Theatre in London, Moment is a
thrilling new play by Deirdre Kinahan,
one of Ireland's most celebrated new playwrights. On a
seemingly ordinary evening an Irish family sit down to tea.
The difference tonight is that Nial is home - back from prison
having committed a dark crime many years earlier with some
news to share and a conscience to clear. Fast, witty and
frighteningly real, Moment takes you on journey through
trauma wrapped up in tablecloths and teacake.
Tickets: €18/€16 conc
Mermaid Box Office T: 01 272 4030
www.mermaidartscentre.ie
Music
12th Bray Jazz Festival
30 April – 2 May
Bray Jazz Festival is back on the May Bank
Holiday weekend.
Visual Arts
'Bye Bye Bog'
Exhibition by Willie Redmond
Tues 12 April to Sun 24 April
Signal Arts Centre, Bray
www.signalartscentre.ie
Music
Francesco Turrisi's Morisca
15 April
8.30pm
Morisca is an Irish based ensemble whose members have a
mutual interest in early classical, folk and world music. The core
members of the ensemble have all studied in the Netherlands.
Morisca is breaking the rules of classical music performance by
engaging with audiences in ways usually reserved for traditional
and contemporary artists.
Pauline Graham (Voice) Laoise O’Brien (Wind) Francesco
Turrisi (Percussion). Guest performer to be confirmed.
Tickets: €15 / €14
T; 0402 38529
www.tinahely-courthouse.ie
Music
RTÉ National
Symphony Orchestra
‘Horizons’
10 May
1.05 pm
Featured composer: Philip Hammond
The fourth of the Horizons series free lunchtime concerts
features composer Philip Hammond with a celebration of works
to celebrate his 60th birthday.
The programme includes Waterfront Fanfares, Die ersten
Blumen, Concertino for Flute and Strings as well as '…while the
sun shines' (in memoriam H.H.H.) and '...the starry dynamo in
the machinery of night...'.
MAIN AUDITORIUM
Roy Holmes piano
Gavin Maloney conductor
www.nch.ie
Brazilian bandolim virtuoso Hamilton de Holanda
teams up with fellow countryman Andre Mehmari
as one of the headliners at this year's Bray Jazz
Festival.
Programme features concerts, recitals, late night club gigs,
jazz trail shows and matinee performances.
www.brayjazz.com
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Frank Gallagher Frank Gallagher is a singer and a regular
acoustic and a slide guitarist. He has been
playing blues and jazz in Ireland and in
Europe since the 1970s.
Over the years, he has performed regularly with the likes of Don
Baker, Red Peters and Johnny Norris, to mention just a few. In the
1980s, he formed the Jitterbug Jug Band with Gerry Clarke. Since
that time he has mainly performed solo or in small groups with
Gerry Clarke.
Frank has also lectured and written about blues and jazz, both in
Ireland and abroad. He is co-founder and the chairman for many
years of The Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely.
The Zoryanna
The Zoryanna are a Dublin-
based Tribal and Modern
bellydance troupe.
With members from all four corners of the world, The Zoryanna
has developed their only style of Improvised Tribal Bellydance. They
also mix-and-match many other styles into their dance. The group
love to experiment and create, and every time they take to the stage
you can expect to be surprised and mesmerized.
www.thezoryanna.net
Colm Nolan
Colm runs workshops with diverse
groups, from Yoga classes to special
needs, schools and businesses. He
explores the voice and connects with the
deeper, authentic self. His unusual sessions find audiences joining in
with vocal exercises, releasing inhibitions, and tuning the voice by
singing Indian and Sanskrit words. He also offers his unique
performances at intimate gatherings and festivals around the
country. E: [email protected] Tel: 087 6836688
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Liz O Riordan & Pat
Connery
We welcome for the first time
to the Space Inside, a musical
duo who brings us newly-
composed, traditional Irish and classical music and song.
Pat Connery is a singer and plays uilleann pipes, concertina
and guitar. Liz O’Riordan is a composer, singer and pianist
who is inspired by language and poetry. She arranges
beautiful harmony for well-known Irish songs, and has
composed musical settings of her own and other people’s
poetry. She also plays fiddle and bodhran.
www.patconnerylizoriordan.com
Conor O’Donnell
Hailing from Wicklow Town, Conor
comes from a musical family. He’s
toured the states several times with
various acts and plays a lot of shows
now with his current band, The Big
Muddy.
He also is the visionary founder of one of Ireland’s hottest
music festivals, the Americana Roots Weekend in
Greystones, on the June bank holiday.
Conor will give us his lively version of songs by Bruce
Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.
Would you like to perform at a Live Night?
Then email [email protected] or phone
0851138367.
Donated raffle prizes keep Live Nights free and are
gratefully received.
Check us out at www.thespaceinside.blogspot.com
Join us around a log fire at Wicklow Sailing Club for a local
FREE night out with excellent poetry, music and dance
Doors Open 8pm
Live Night
6
Daydreams & Nightmares
Those Dancing Days
Scandi-licious Sophomores
Those Dancing Days are an indie pop
band from Stockholm. Michael Tinsley reviews their latest
album.
When Those Dancing Days first hit the blogosphere in
2007, they were fresh-faced Swedish schoolgirls pedalling
cute indie-pop. Now, with their second album Daydreams
& Nightmares, they are all grown-up.
When reviewing this album, I came across a bit of a
problem: last year they released the track Fuckaris as a
taster. It is a phenomenal pounding, two-fingers-up kind of
song, complete with a catchy chorus and squalls of
feedback. But, I haven’t found anything else to match it.
That’s not to say the rest of the album is aural dandruff.
Indeed, Cissi Efraimsson’s snare-rolls & tom-thumping are
worth the admission fee alone - see opener Reaching
Forward, if you don’t believe me. Also worth a mention
are, I’ll Be Yours, with its ebullient refrain & giggley-girl
backing vocals, and hand-clapping ‘take me I’m yours’
chorus of Keep Me In Your Pockets. The album closer, One
Day Forever, is a yearning duet featuring The Maccabees’
Orlando Weeks.
So there you go: Those Dancing Days, Great Look,
Beautiful Hair, and quite a few top fuller and thicker tunes
for good measure.
The Ice Princess
Camilla Lackberg
Early one morning, Erica Falck
responds to the cries from her
elderly neighbour and friend,
Alex, to find her dead in the
bathtub. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice
cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life.
Erica, a writer, conceives a memoir about the beautiful
but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about
their lost friendship. But, as she delves deeper, she starts
to uncover some disturbing facts. And while her interest
grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is
following his own suspicions about the case.
It is only when they start working together that the truth
begins to emerge about the small town with its deeply
disturbing past.
This is the first of four novels translated into English by
the Swedish crime thriller writer. If you mixed Stieg
Larsson and Jo Nesbo you’d get Camilla Lackberg, so if
you like Swedish crime thrillers, you’ll love this!
Hilary
€1 off from Bridge Street Books with Hilary’s review
Bridge Street Books, Bridge Street, Wicklow.
ph: + 353(0)404 62240
www.bridgestreetbooks.ie
REVIEWS
Hear Jay at Space
Inside on 5 October.
E-books – What’s it all about?
E-books are in the news, but what exactly are they?
An e-book is an electronic book where the text and
images are published in digital form and are readable
on computers. It can be an electronic version of a
conventional printed book, or can exist without any
previously printed version.
E-books are usually read on dedicated devices known
as e-Readers. Personal computers and some cell
phones can also be used to read e-books.
Apple released the iPad with an e-book application
called iBooks. Between April 2010 and October, Apple
sold 7 million iPads. Amazon.com reported that its e-
book sales outnumbered sales of hardcover books for
the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010.
One drawback of the e-book is that, while a printed
book remains readable for many years, an e-book may
need to be converted to a new carrier or file type in
the future.
This is a whole new world for publishers and
purchasers of books. We will come back to e-books
and e-publishing again in a later edition.
Twitters
7
Concert Series for April
This April, County Wicklow churches
will host a new concert series, Sacred
Spaces: Sacred Sounds. The concerts
will feature three well-known
Wicklow musicians: Eamon Sweeney,
Rachel Factor and Redmond O’Toole.
Concerts will take place on three
consecutive Sundays in Lent in Calary Church,
Roundwood, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Bray,
and Killiskey Church, Ashford.
Music will be from the Irish & Baroque traditions,
including works by J.S. Bach, Turlough O’Carolan,
Louis Couperin and Domenico Scarlatti.
Calary
April 3rd: Eamon Sweeney
April 10th: Redmond O'Toole
April 17th: Rachel Factor
Bray
April 3rd: Rachel Factor
April 10th: Eamon Sweeney
April 17th: Redmond O'Toole
Ashford
April 3rd: Redmond O'Toole
April 10th: Rachel Factor
April 17th: Eamon Sweeney
Concerts run from 3.30 – 4.30pm
tickets are : Individual concerts €15/€10
Series ticket (three concerts) €30/€20
For more information, email info@earlyguitarireland
Creative Writing Competitions
Over The Edge New Writer of The Year
Deadline: 3rd Aug 11
Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award
Deadline: 22nd Jul 11
Bridport Prize
Deadline: 30th Jun 11
Cork Literary Review Poetry Manuscript
Deadline: 19th May 11
MAG Poetry Prize 2011
Deadline: 30th Apr 11 Source:
poetryireland.ie/resources/competitions
New Cabaret Sessions in
Wicklow
The surge in poetry/music sessions over
the last few years has been something of
note. Inspired by the growing popularity
of these cabaret-style nights, the
Hotspot Café in Greystones has
launched its own performing arts nights called the
Speakeasy Sessions.
The cabaret kicks off at 9pm and tickets are €5 euro at
the door. Check out www.thehotspot.ie for date of the
next Friday night session.
Zeitgeist is another new cabaret-style evening,
showcasing spoken word, theatre, art and music. Run in
the Harbour Bar, Bray, detailsof the next session are on
their Facebook.
Dublin, of course, is teeming with such sessions. Here are
some for your diary:
The Glor Sessions in the International Bar on Georges
Street are on every Monday night.
The Last Wednesday series in the Twisted Pepper in
Middle Abbey St is on the last Wednesday of the month,
an exclusively spoken word evening.
Also on each last Wednesday, there is the Brownbread
Mixtape night, upstairs in the Stag's Head pub (off Dame
St). This is a very lively night with a mix of poetry, music
and comedy.
On the last Tuesday of each month in the Cobblestone
Bar in Smithfield there is the Tongue Box - mainly
spoken word with some music.
The Irish Writer's Centre now has a night in its
premises in Parnell Square on a Sunday night once a
month - it's called The Floorshow and the next one is on
27 March.
Nighthawks is another monthly event held in the Cobalt
Cafe on North Great Georges St. It is held on Saturday
nights and is run along the lines of the Glor and
Brownbread Mixtape.
New Library for Gorey
Gorey has a new public library
which is set within the Civic
Centre Plaza in the town. A state of the art building, the
Gory Writers are hoping to take up the offer of a room
there, for their writing sessions. You can find out more
about their move on Gorey writers website :
www. goreywriters.blogspot.com
Rachael Factor
Redmond O'Toole
Eamon Sweeney
Boland Press and ‘Scaling the Heights’
launch at Signal Arts Centre, Bray
Businesses: Yoga Sacred Space, National Fire Museum of
Power (Wales) www.internalfire.com, Healthy Habits Café
Wicklow, Maltfield Riding School Ballykeane Redcross.
Groups: Wicklow Writers, Shed Poets.
Individuals: Iris Brown, Helen Duffy, Jane Clarke, Avril Young,
Charlie Burke, Mary Boland, The Graham Family, Socorro
Murphy, Anne Cavanagh, J and E Whittaker, Gerry and Betty
Sheridan, Edward Ryan, Martin Swords, James Boland, George &
Meta Whittaker, Jean McGovern, Janet Smith, Martin Esseen,
Liam Walsh.
Space Inside Arts Journal is published monthly by
volunteers: Editorial: Carol Boland, Anne Graham and Michael
Tinsely. Submissions to [email protected].
Live Nights are run by Carol Boland, Anne Graham, Pascal
Moran, Cait Breathnach with help from Kerry. Distribution of
magazine by Evert Beerda and Tess Doyle. Phone 085113836
The Space Inside is grateful to Wicklow Town Council,
Wicklow County Arts Office, Wicklow Rural Partnership and
Friends for making the journal and Live Nights a reality. This
project was initially assisted by Wicklow Rural Partnership Ltd
under the European Union LEADER +/National Development
Plan 2000-2006.
Become our friend, please send €35 to Space Inside,
Grove Mill, Hollyfort, Co. Wexford, or bring it along on
a Live Night. Or donate €3 (or more) online at
thespaceinside.blogspot.com
W: thespaceinside.blogspot.com
Friends of The Space Inside 2010/11
POET’S CORNER
Published by Boland Press.
Printed by Conway Media
Rory O’Sullivan
I wish us more
I choose to sleep in frost.
A lonely mouth lustfully dry.
For no cherished drop can cure my thirst,
No taste of beauty from dashing eyes.
None but her, and she was just a friend of mine.
I remember heat from Paris.
And she pronounced my name like a choirs lure.
And we walked through passions glowing lights,
As it lit the rain in stormy nights.
And I wrapped her in a coat and smiled,
And wished to walk another mile.
To feel the heat upon her thighs,
But I saw no beauty in her eyes.
For none but one has my heart felt long,
And she was just a friend of mine.
A girl who smelt like strawberries.
She would pick fruit from blossoming trees.
A girl with none but berries to give,
But all she had she would share with me.
And we would walk among dandelions,
And blow rings in summer springs.
And the moon would sparkle the springs at night,
And the glow would fade into brighter light.
So we may bath in the sun.
And I’ll feel your heat against my chest.
We can share the comfort of a morning sun,
And leave our hidden wounds to rest.
But I only wish to rest with one, only one.
For she is the sky
And I am the sea.
Where we touch will be unknown.
When we met my heart was frozen tight,
And she heated my chest with her soothing light.
In that moment I melted for the first time,
But in her eyes, she was just a friend of mine.
Rory O’Sullivan
L to R : Poet, Rosy Wilson, Jo Woods, Poetry
Ireland & Carol Boland, Boland Press
Cosmic Poetry
A Wicklow Arts Festival Event
Following the success of last year’s session, the Wicklow
Writers bring their poems once again to the Cosmic Garden,
and invite you to bring along yours too. Enjoy a cuppa before
blast off, and bring a cushion. There may be some drumming,
too!
Sun, 29 May at 11:15
An Tairseach Ecology Centre
left thro’ gates of Dominican Convent
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