Showing posts with label Matt Mooney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matt Mooney. Show all posts

Friday, 15 June 2018

Opening Night Listowel Writers' week 2018, Elizabeth Stack's New Post and Emmetts Under 16s



Charming mosaic picture in the window of Olive Stack's Gallery

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Photos taken at Opening Night, Listowel Writers' Week 2018


















Niall MacMonagle was here to work, but not tonight. Also working were Máire Logue, Maria McGrath, Maria Leahy, Noel Twomey and Louise Lyons.  Eddie Moylan came to support his daughter, Catherine who introduced proceedings on the night and Robert Pierce and the Walshes of Aspire Technology were there to present their prizes. The rest were heading to the Listowel Arms for a night out, one of the highlights of the Listowel season.

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Emmetts Abú

I spotted this story and photos on Listowel Emmetts' website

Emmets U16's choose the bog over the beach 😀
Fair play to our U16 team and mentors who spent this evening in the bog with Seamus Stack. It was all for a great cause too as the turf will be sold to raise much needed funds for The Nano Nagle School here in Listowel. 


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 Listowel Lady doing well


This is the account in this week's Kerryman of Elizabeth Stack of Listowel and her new job.

This is what it says in The Irish Echo;

The Irish American Heritage Museum has a new director.
Elizabeth Stack has taken the helm and has plans to extend the reach of the museum beyond its physical location in New York’s state capital, Albany.
“I have lots of plans for the museum and am excited to settle in to the capital region,” said Stack, who previously worked at the Institute of Irish Studies at Fordham University.
“I am looking forward to meeting the wider community,” said Stack who indicated her intent to extend the museum’s activities beyond its home city.
The museum describes its educational mission as “To preserve and tell the story of the contributions of the Irish people and their culture in America, inspiring individuals to examine the importance of their own heritage as part of the American cultural mosaic.”
The museum was first organized in 1986 by the New York State American-Irish Legislators Society and was initially financed by the State Natural Heritage Trust, the State Council on the Arts, and private donations.
Initially, and after it opened in June, 1990, the museum was located on the grounds of the Irish Culture and Sports Center in East Durham, in New York’s Catskills region.
In 1992, the museum was permanently chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
The museum was relocated to downtown Albany in 2012. The 3,250 square foot space opened on January 17, 2012 and includes the Paul O’Dwyer Library and the Ancient Order of Hibernians’ archives.
Exhibits at the museum have included: “Irish in the Civil War,” which looked at Irish Americans in the American Civil War; “The Irish and the Erie Canal,” which highlighted the contributions of the Irish in all phases of the Erie Canal construction, and “Dublin: Then and Now,” which included photographs of the streets of Dublin in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
States the museum on its website: “Our museum….provides year-round access to our exhibits, our Paul O’Dwyer Library, lectures, presentations, film screenings, book signings and other special programs and events.
“The Museum was an integral force in providing instruction in New York State’s public schools about the Irish Famine of 1845-1853.  Further, we are the first Museum of its kind here in America to have exhibited at the National Library in Dublin.”
The museum is located at 370 Broadway in Albany.

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Remembered with Love

Sunday, June 10, would have been Fr. Pat Moore's birthday. In this age of social media, people find solace in posting messages on a dead loved ones' page. I visited Fr. Pat's page on his birthday and it was lovely to see the old pictures of his smiling brave presence among us.
Ní imithe uainn atá sé, ach imithe romhainn.











Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Listowel Writers Week, Opening Night 2017

People at Opening Night, Writers' Week 2017

Rose McGinty is a writer who attended Writers' Week. Her wonderful blog is Here

Here is what Rose writes about opening night

"All of Listowel was out last night for the opening ceremony of the Writer’s Week. No other literary festival that I have attended over the years feels as loved by its own town as this. It’s family, pure and simple."

If you had any doubt of the truth of her statement look at my photos, taken on Opening Night 2017.  I stood outside the Listowel Arms as people filed across The Square to partake in the great night.










From the door of the hotel Maire Logue one of the two brilliant festival managers emerged accompanied by Elizabeth Dunn, Chairperson of Listowel Writers' Week, and Colm Tóibín, president  and the V.I.P. guest Richard Ford who was due to officially open the 2017 festival. As they reacted to the music, they broke into an impromptu waltz .




But they reined in the giddiness and composed themselves to greet the night's special guest who was to receive this year's lifetime achievement award.


Local people were continuing to arrive in droves as the great man's car pulled up and Liz greeted her guest.




Richard Ford and Colm Tóibín shared a joke as they waited to greet Brendan.


Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose....Brendan Kennelly is waylaid by a lady.





The four are now in place and ready to pose for the "real" photographer.


Brendan's daughter, Doodle arrives.


Stars of opening night, two giants of Irish literature, right here among us in lovely Listowel.


We stood back in awe and gaped and photographed.


Brendan headed indoors to his big gig as family arrived in numbers to support him.




( I have more photos from opening night for you tomorrow.)