NEWS ROUND-UP

Emergency funds for west Sligo school

St Joseph’s National School in Culleens is to receive funding from the Department of Education under the Emergency Works Scheme.

The money will facilitate external environmental projects around the west Sligo school.

Local TD and Minister of State Frank Feighan TD said the precise amount of funding is not published “to ensure a full and fair tendering process which hopefully will get under way immediately so that works can take place while the school is closed for the summer holidays”.

€260,000 for live music performances

Funding of €267,988 has been allocated for the facilitation of live music performances in Sligo over the coming months.

Some two local establishments, a festival and a travelling show which is to visit Sligo will all benefit from the €25 million scheme which was rolled out nationally by Miniser for Culture Catherine Martin this week.

€60,912 has been earmarked for a number of live music performances at Fiddler’s Creek, while €30,349 will be provided to Anderson’s Bar and Grill to host a number of performances between September 6 and September 25. €74,049 will go towards the Wild Roots Music, Performing Arts and Adventure Festival to be held in August.

RnB Events Limited has received €102,688 to host a series of shows across five counties.

Developed in consultation with the sector, the main

Cllr Paul Taylor when he was elected leas cathaoirleach in 2015.

objective of this scheme is to provide significant employment and wellbeing opportunities across the live entertainment sector and will support the continued generation of high-quality artistic output for the general public. Sligo-Leitrim TD Frank Feighan said: “I want to congratulate the successful applicants and also to recognise Minister Catherine Martin and her department for recognising the live music sector in this region for funding.”

Paul Taylor to be new council cathaoirleach

Sligo County Council will meet on Monday afternoon next to elect a new cathaoirleach.

It is expected that the person to be elected to the position will be Cllr Paul Taylor of Fianna Fáil.

The Gurteen man was first elected to the council in 2014 and was re-elected in 2019. He has previously served as council leas cathaoirleach

Paul Murray as James Joyce during a recital for Yeats Day. and has been chair of Ballymote-Tubbercurry Municipal District.

Cllr Taylor will succeed Fine Gael councillor Dara Mulvey as cathaoirleach. On the following Monday, the Mayor of Sligo Borough District will be elected and it is expected that Cllr Arthur Gibbons of Sinn Féin will be elected to succeed Cllr Rosaleen O’Grady of Fianna Fáil.

Open water swimming presentation

Sligo Water Safety is organising a free online presentation about open water swimming later this month.

Open water swimming has seen a huge increase in popularity in the last 12 -18 months. Open water swimming has many benefits and in Sligo there are many locations to enjoy such exercise. Sligo Water Safety look forward to sharing advice from Water Safety Ireland regarding open water swimming on Wednesday, June 23 at 8pm. Registration for the presentation can be found on the Sligo Water Safety ((Sligo Surf Safety) Facebook page.

Exhibitions and recitals held to mark Yeats Day

The 10th annual Yeats Day celebrations were held last week with a range of events marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats.

Recitals of poetry, exhibitions of art and even a little bit of James Joyce all featured in Sligo’s recognition of the wordsmith last Sunday.

The day began with the students of Ely Kilgannon’s School of Speech and Drama performing various poems

that were penned by Yeats. This was followed by a presentation from the Hamilton Gallery, an exhibition of new work by 125 visual artists based on the theme of the Yeats poem, Meditations in Time of Civil War.

Later in the afternoon, the celebration of two Irish writers merged as Ireland’s ambassador to the United States – Dan Mulhall – talked about both Yeats and Ulysses author James Joyce who is also recognised ever June through the Bloomsday celebrations.

The day’s events concluded with a discussion about Ulysses as Sligo-based Paul Murray offered his take on the book in character as Joyce, who he is related to through the author’s mother, May Murray.

South Sligo in three online short films

The first of three short films which chronicle the spellbinding imagery of south Sligo at night will be streamed on Saturday next Monday, June 21, as part of the Sligo Library Creative Ireland programme. The series, Aireannach: Night Ramblers, was funded by Creative Ireland, Sligo Library and Sligo County Council.

Aireannach refers to the traditional custom of night rambling, whereby music and storytelling would be shared at an individual’s home or at a suitable outdoor location in rural Ireland.

Written and directed by Margaret Kilcoyne and Niall Flynn, the short features a wide variety of performances from local actors, performers and musicans. The soundtrack is by south Sligo fiddle player Joe O’Grady.

For more details see visit sligolibrary.ie/creative-ireland-programme/.

Tubbercurry scoops digital town award

Tubbercurry has won a national award for its embracing of digital technologies. Tubbercurry and south Sligo, which was designated as Ireland’s first smart community in 2019, won the Digital

Rising Star category at the inaugural .IE Digital Town Awards 2021.

The result was announced on Thursday last at a virtual ceremony attended by Damien English, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The .IE Digital Town Awards, established by .IE, the company that manages and maintains Ireland’s country domain name, were launched earlier this year to honour local town projects and people that have demonstrated how digital projects have contributed to enhancements or digital improvements in areas such as health, tourism, education, public services, employment opportunities, citizen empowerment, and social entrepreneurship.

The aim of the awards was to “shine a light” on the good work and achievements of towns that demonstrated digital thinking and innovation for the betterment of local people, services, and society. There was a total prize fund of €100,000 across 14 award categories. Eleven of the awards were for individual town projects, with a further three special awards recognising a Digital Changemaker, a Digital Rising Star, and a Digital Hero. Tubbercurry won a total prize of €8,500, with its people recognised for coming together as a community to embrace digital technologies in a bid to address problems facing rural communities. This included hyperlocal

content created and streamed in Tubbercurry using VR, podcast studio plus outside broadcast camera training and facilities in a dedicated studio to harness and broadcast local content for local audiences.

Sligo’s Hannah in TG4 series for children

Fifteen-year-old Hannah Ní Dháimhín is representing Sligo in a new a new creative series for children called Cruthaím.

TG4, in partnership with the Creative Ireland Programme of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, is running the series to celebrate Cruinniú na nÓg 2021.

Cruthaím highlights the talent of young Irish speakers across the country and in Gaeltacht areas and their unique creative processes. One young Irish speaker from each county and a representative from the diaspora of Irish speakers showcase their creativity in the series of videos that are broadcast on Cúla4’s YouTube channel. TG4 says that young people “are given a voice and a unique opportunity to show what creativity is to them”. Sligo’s representative Hannah Ní Dháimhín, who attends Mercy College, loves photography and creating art pieces.

You can watch Hannah’s video at www.cula4.com/ Cruthaím/.

Fifteen-year-old Hannah Ní Dháimhín.