Archive News
Galway festival celebrates uniqueness of the human voice
Date Published: {J}
The 2011 Spirit of Voice festival will take place from Friday, November 11 to Sunday, November 13 in venues across Galway City. Various artists and performers will hold shows across the city and people will have the opportunity to take part in the workshops run as part of the festival.
This exciting and unique cultural event is now in its eighth year and continues to grow in popularity. This year’s festival launch party is taking place at Tully’s Bar in Kinvara at 10.30pm on Saturday, October 22 featuring the electro swing sounds from two of thr UK’s leading Djs, Ali G & Cantina Bop, with musical support from Litehaus to launch the forthcoming series of concert and workshop events.
Inclusiveness and access to culture for all are extremely important values held by Spirit of Voice productions who are also promoting two “Social Inclusion Awareness week” events in the city and county. Award winning African gospel soul singer Toluking will be joined on stage by the Dub Doctor Reggae sound system together with the Sonke world music choir on Thursday, October 20 from 12 midday at Club Aras na Gael, followed on Saturday, October 22 in Johnston’s Hall Kinvara from 8.30pm. Admission to both shows is free and is supported by Galway City and County councils.
The Spirit of Voice festival celebrates the human voice, in all its fascinating and magnificent forms and adds another dimension to the vibrant cultural life of the city. The festival showcases the rich diversity and wonder of the voice, as it continues to grow from strength to strength and such has been its popularity that it’s a welcome date in the winter music calendar.
The Spirit of Voice 2011 Festival begins on Friday, November 11 with a line up to include music from the 1940s with the Bugle Babes, a female melody trio plus Opera Baritone Darragh McGann, aka the singing taxi driver, with Barbershop quartet Chill singing harmonies.
Songwriter Actress Nina Viertel will bring her Berlin sound to Galway for the first time, together with traditional sean nos songs from Connemara’s own Orlaith Ni Mheachair. Entry is €5/€10 after 10pm.
The annual voice workshops will be held on Saturday, November 12 providing a selection of vocal classes starting at 11am with Kundalini yoga voice chants as taught by Nina Viertel to open the day. From 12.30 Helen Webb invites you to a “world singing space”. After lunch, Mallika McCarthy will show how to be “the connected voice”. The final workshop at 4pm is hosted by Ireland’s champion beatboxer Cian Sayles aka Whitenoise beatbox. This is a great opportunity to learn the skills and techniques to play the beat urban style. To book call LISA @ 0876748557, €12 per class or €40 all day including free admission to Saturday evening show!
On Saturday, November 12 funky Reggae masters Madu arrive in town direct from their successful tour promoting new album “from the elders yard”, while there will also be a chance to hear the angelic voice of singing prodigy Casey Leigh who will showcase her new recordings. Sweden’s Erika Feeney plays her latest soulful melody rock n blues. Admission is €10 or €5 before 10pm.
Further information on the Spirit of Voice festival visit www.spiritofvoice.com
Galway in Days Gone By
The way we were – Protecting archives of our past
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Archive News
Galway have lot to ponder in poor show
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Archive News
Real Galway flavour to intermediate club hurling battle in Birr
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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