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Looking at what else happened on your birth day

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Evelyn O'Rourke....sharing her birthday with history.

TV Watch with Dave O’Connell

It was the year of Bloody Sunday and the Godfather; Sandy Jones singing Ceol an Ghrá and Thin Lizzy belting out Whiskey in the Jar much to the bemusement of Noel Edmonds on Top of the Pops.

It was 1972 – and it was also the year that author and RTE broadcaster Evelyn O’Rourke was born….on March 8, to be exact.

The date is important because An Lá a Rugadh Mé – a new series underway on TG4 – pulls three news items from the newspaper achieves from the date of the guest celebrity’s birth.

Presented by Harry McGee – not unfamiliar to this parish – it is a pacey half-hour through the vaults….a sort of cross between Who Do You Think You Are and Reeling in the Years.

And the headlines also showed that Pele and Ali were both in Dublin that year, one with Santos and the other to pulverise Joe Lewis. Richard Nixon visited China – and then came Watergate to end his lifetime of free foreign travel.

It was the year that Ireland voted to join what was then the EEC, and in an unrelated development the pocket calculator went on sale for the first time. Although, from the look of it, you’d need a fairly big pocket to house it.

For the more personal aspect of this concept, Harry and his guest select stories that may or may not have been the main headlines on the day – and for Evelyn, one was big news that morning and the other two were down the agenda.

But each is humanised in that they try to find out what happened next and what those who might have been part of the story then might make of it all now, in this case 42 years later.

The big story on the front of the Irish Independent of March 8 1972 concerned a baby snatch on the heart of Dublin – a drama that thankfully turned out to be short and sweet and to have a happy ending.

Lilly Craine was in the housing office of Dublin Corporation when she parked her baby Martina in her pram inside the front door before she ascended the flights of stairs to her meeting.

But when she came down, baby and pram were gone, taken – according to reports – by a mystery woman in a blue coat who, unlike baby Martina, was never found.

The kidnapping kicked off a huge Garda operation and lock-down of the city centre – before Martina was found in her pram a few hundred yards away outside what was then Woolworth’s.

For more,  read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.

CITY TRIBUNE

Folk duo launch What Will Be Will Be

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Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce.

Folk duo Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce are launching their new album What Will We Be, a  blend of folk, Americana and acoustic music, this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in An Taibhdhearc.

The success of their well-received 2020 release Taobh le Taobh, as well as recent successes at the Pan Celtic and Oireachtas Song Contests, spurred the duo on to record this new album which represents many years of collaboration and musical development.

It features Niall and Pádraic on vocals, harmonies, and acoustic guitars, Maidhc Ó hÉanaigh on double bass and Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle. The catchy title track, What Will We Be, features contributions from percussionist Jim Higgins (The Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) and haunting, driving melodies on vocals, guitar, and fiddle.

Themes of love and hope are woven through Come Away with Me which features interplay between piano and fiddle as well as rich vocal harmonies.

People, places, and broken dreams are celebrated and lamented on Martin and Tom, Guitar Gold, Memories of You and Achill Island. The influence of David Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden features on the tracks Simple and Wise and Walden, with the beauty of nature, escape and simple pleasures at their core.

The album moves from minimalistic folk ballads such as Galway Ghost to swirling, string-laden arrangements on the song Neptune, both of which are influenced by maritime tales from Galway. Much of the work on this album was supported by the Arts Council, including work with musical arranger Eoin Corcoran and the string ensemble Treo.

The album will be launched this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in an Taibhdhearc. Tickets €22, plus booking fee at Eventbrite.ie.

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All roads lead to Dunmore as town tunes up County Fleadh

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Most of the competitions for young musicians will take place this Saturday in Dunmore Community School. All the competitions are open to the public.

Dunmore is the place to be this weekend for lovers of traditional music, as the Galway County Fleadh will take place there from this Friday, May 19, to Sunday, May 23.

It is 10 years since Dunmore last hosted a fleadh and the local Comhaltas branch, which has re-formed since Covid, is looking forward to facilitating this gathering of music, song, dance and craic.

The official Opening Concert will take place in Dunmore Town Hall this Friday at 8pm with the acclaimed Mulcahy family from Limerick. Mick, Louise and Michelle are well known throughout the country, thanks to their live performances, television appearances and numerous CDs. They were the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Grúpa Ceoil Award for 2023.  Tickets for their concert can be purchased on the door and a great night of music is promised.

Two days of competitions will kick off this Saturday at the town’s Community School, with more than 1,500 competitors taking part. Participants will be hoping to qualify for the Connacht Fleadh 2023, which will be held in Ballina, County Mayo, from June 23 to July 2.

Competitions for those aged Under 10, Under 12 and Under 15 will be held in a large variety of instruments on Saturday, as well as in singing and Comhrá Gaeilge. Sunday’s competitions will be for the Under 18 and Over 18 ages groups, as well as in dancing.

On both days a large entry is expected for Grúpaí Cheoil and Céilí Band competitions across all age groups.

Seventeen Comhaltas branches from across Galway will have participants in this weekend’s competitions, which will result in a large number of visitors to the Dunmore area.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the competitions, which offer a great opportunity to hear and see the talent on display. There will be sessions in local pubs over the weekend as well and everybody is welcome to attend these.

For more information on the County Fleadh, go to www.galwaycomhaltas.ie.

 

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CITY TRIBUNE

Piano concert rescheduled for Tuesday

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Pianist Cédric Pescia.

Music for Galway’s concert with renowned Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia which had been due to take place on April 27 but which had to be deferred, will now take place next Tuesday, May 23, at 8pm, in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the University of Galway.

This concert of German classics with Bach at its core, will brings the Bach element of Music for Galway’s 41st season to an end.

This world-class pianist who won the famous Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, has a repertoire that spans many eras from baroque to contemporary and he is widely known for his elaborate programmes. Cédric Pescia describes music as  ‘language and movement at the same time’.

Audiences will have a chance to experience his soft, clear touch as he performs a programme for solo piano that will include classics such as Schumann’s popular Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a suite of nine short pieces, and the penultimate of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, No. 31.  These pieces will be interspersed with French Suites by Bach.

■ Ticket for Cédric Pescia’s concert are available at www.musicforgalway.ie, or by phone 091 705962 and on the door on the night. They cost €20/€18. The price for fulltime students of all ages is €6 while MfG Friends can avail of the friends’ rate of €16.

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