LOOKING FORWARD TO HERITAGE WEEK
A NUMBER of Wicklow events are already lined up for Heritage Week which this year has a theme of ‘Pastimes/Past Times’.
The annual event takes place nationwide from August 17 to August 26 and will encourage members of the public to take a stroll through history and explore how our free time has evolved in often fascinating ways.
Coordinated by the Heritage Council, National Heritage Week is Ireland’s most popular cultural event and in 2019 half a million people are expected to participate in over 2,200 heritage events. National Heritage Week is part of European Heritage Days which promote Europe’s common cultural heritage.
Numerous events are already due to take place in Wicklow, while anyone who would like to run their own event still has time to get involved.
Dunlavin and District Forum are hosting a tour of local heritage sites, while a talk on the plant folklore of Glendalough takes place in the information office of Wicklow Mountains National Park. Tours of Coolattin House take place on August 26. Free guides tours of Mount Usher Gardens take place on August 23, while Ballymurrin Quaker Homestead will celebrate 300 years of Quakers at Ballymurrin.
Hollywood Tidy Towns will organise a nature walk for children and Bray Cualann Historical Society have a number of events lined up. An open day will take place at Wicklow Lighthouse and walking tours will take place at Russborough House parklands.
A seabed survey vessel open day will take place at Arklow Harbour, while a whale watch has been arranged to take place at Bray Head and another in Wicklow town. Tours of Glendalough Graveyard will take place as well as tours of the excavations that have taken place.
Blessington Library will hold an event on the flooding of the Liffey Valley. A barbecue and exhibition takes place at Donard Community Hal courtesy of the Donard-The Glen History Group.
Visit heritageweek.ie if you would like to register a community event or event of your own.
COMEDIAN Jason Byrne comes to The Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely on Sunday, March 3.
Byrne presents his hilarious new show ‘You Can Come In But Don’t Start Anything’. The star of ‘Ireland’s Got Talent’, Jason Byrne is one the most exciting live comedy performers in the world.
What he achieves on a stage cannot be adequately described by audience members, critics or fellow comics.
Thus his legendary shows become a secret shared experience among his audience. Every night stars are born, friendships are formed, mascara is ruined and pants are binned.
Don’t miss the chance to become part of this unique comedy experience.
This show is for over15s.
Doors at 8 p.m. Tickets are €24/€22. INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day 2019 will be celebrated in Rathdrum with a Poetry Ireland event at St Saviour’s Church.
The event, entitled ‘Feminism Past, Present and Future’, will feature an art exhibition ‘Our Bodies Ourselves’ by Wicklow women, poetry readings by Jane Clarke and Jo Shapcott, Shonose and Seanchaí with Wicklow Traveller Women, poetry readings from Acorn Women Rathdrum and Croi Rath Naoi Rathnew Women, and Wild Cats Voices in Song, BBH Wicklow Town.
The event takes place on Friday, March 8, at 7.30 p.m. For information contact Mary Millett at 087 6440693. THIS YEAR’S West Wicklow Historical Society Journal is due for release in the Autumn and outside contributions are welcome.
The journal accepts articles regarding neighbouring parts of counties Kildare, Carlow and Dublin, particularly if the subject matter impinges into west Wicklow.
If you would like to contribute a paper, have students who might like to submit a suitable essay or know of anyone who would like to contribute an article, then contact West Wicklow Historical Society.
The deadline for submissions will be around the end of June. If you would like to contribute this year, please email Chris Lawlor on lawlorcm@hotmail.com or phone 087 9321737.
The 2019 journal will be the tenth issue in all.