Details of live performance events taking place around the county this weekend, supported by the Kildare Local Live Performance Programming Scheme (Phase III)

Kildare County Council Arts Service is delighted to announce details of live performance events taking place around the county this weekend, supported by the County Council and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sort and Media’s Local Live Performance Programming Scheme.

Arts & Mind Festival ~ Thursday 5^th – Saturday 7^th May

Arts and Minds is a new festival welcoming everyone to a series of live and in-person events in the beautiful surrounds of Maynooth University campus from Thursday 5th - Saturday 7th May. Arts and Minds is supported by Maynooth University, Kildare County Council and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media’s Local Live Performance Programming Scheme. View the Arts and Minds Festival Programme.

Thomas McCarthy and Zodomo 

Featuring Zoë Conway, Dónal Lunny and Máirtín O'Connor, presented by Ola Majekodunmi. Thomas McCarthy is an Irish Traveller, singer and storyteller. He was named Traditional Singer of the Year in the Gradam Ceoil Awards in 2019. Zodomo is a traditional Irish supergroup, featuring Zoë Conway on fiddle and vocals, Dónal Lunny on guitar and bouzouki, and Máirtín O’Connor on button accordion. Read more about this event

Aula Maxima, Maynooth University | Thursday 5th May, 8pm

 

Adam and Paul - screening & panel discussion

Film screening of Adam and Paul followed by panel discussion with award -winning director Lenny Abrahamson and  Dr Sarah Arnold and Dr Denis Condon from MU Department of Media Studies. Written by Mark O'Halloran. Winner of the Best First Feature award at the 2004 Galway Film Fleadh and the Grand Prix at the 2005 Sofia International Film Festival. 
Iontas Building, North Campus, Maynooth University | Friday 6th May, 6.45pm

 

In conversation with novelists Louise O’Neill & Louise Kennedy

Novelists Louise O’Neill and Louise Kennedy in conversation with Dr Sinéad Kennedy. Two of the most exciting writers in Ireland discussing their novels, their writing processes and reading from their work.

Louise O'Neill's first novel, Only Ever Yours, was released in 2014 and went on to win the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year at the 2014 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards; the Children’s Books Ireland Eilís Dillon Award for a First Children’s Book; and The Bookseller‘s inaugural YA Book Prize 2015. Louise Kennedy's short stories have been published in journals including The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, The Lonely Crowd and Banshee. Read more about this event
Iontas Building, 1.37, Maynooth University | Saturday 7th May, 3pm

 

Festival in a Van - Shane Kennedy & Megan O'Neill 

Irish virtuoso guitarist Shane Hennessy has established himself as one of the leading guitarists on the world stage, known widely for his fingerstyle, flatpicking, and percussive guitar-playing approaches. With a unique style of solo guitar playing that encompasses the range of a whole band – covering drums, bass, rhythm and lead lines – Shane builds a complete sonic world entirely on his own. Songwriter Megan O’Neill released her second full length studio album in March 2021 - titled Getting Comfortable with Uncertainty. To date Megan has toured the UK, Ireland, US and Germany. She has had her song 'Don’t You’ featured on ABC’s hit TV Show ‘Nashville’ and has opened for the likes of Sir Tom Jones, Lighthouse Family and Jamie Cullum. Read more about the event
Front of Logic House, Maynooth University | Saturday 7th May, 4pm

 

Victoria Kennefick in conversation with Dr Catherine Gander and Dr Karl O'Hanlon

With her recent debut book, Eat or We Both Starve, Victoria Kennefick is a bright new star in Irish poetry. Victoria will read from and discuss her visceral, startling and beautiful work. Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet) was shortlisted for both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Costa Poetry Book 2021. It was a book of the year in Irish Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Independent and The White Review and was also selected as one of The Telegraph's Best Poetry Books to Buy 2021. Read more about the event Iontas Building, 1.37, Maynooth University | Saturday 7th May, 5pm

 

Irish National Opera concert

Irish National Opera presents 'Faisons un rêve – let us dream' - an evening of opera and song. Singers Sarah Shine and Gemma Ní Bhriain, both Irish alumni of the Atelier Lyrique (Young Artists' Programme) of the l’Opéra National de Paris, are joined by pianist Máire Carroll in a programme that includes well-known arias by by Berlioz, Delibes, Offenbach and Balfe alongside music by Pauline Viardot, Cécile Chaminade and Philip Martin. The concert will also feature some rarely performed works by Franco-Irish composers Augusta Holmès and Joseph O’Kelly, including O'Kelly's setting of the Victor Hugo poem 'Faisons un rêve'. Read more about the event Aula Maxima, St Patrick's College | Saturday 7th May, 8pm

 

Festival in a Van ~ Thursday 5^th – Saturday 7^th May

Festival In A Van, a mobile live outdoor venue has been bringing the magic of live Covid safe performances to community settings around the country since 2020. This month we are delighted to welcome them to various locations throughout the county programmed as part of the Kildare Local Live Performance Programming Scheme, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Transformed as mini mobile pop up venue, with drop down staging and full sound and lighting rigs, and led by a team of theatre professionals, Festival in a Van has re-configured the indoor performance experience to an outdoor setting with a mission to support artists and give communities access to live cultural experiences. Devised under full lockdown, and now roaming free, Festival in a Van brings the joy of live performance, and democratic access to the arts across Ireland. Events 5th - 7th May are programmed in partnership with Music Generation Kildare. Festival in a Van has been supported by Creative Ireland. 

See www.festivalinavan.com for details.

FREE Family Friendly Outdoor Concerts | Saturday 7th May

with Shane Hennessy and Megan O'Neill
• Irish National Stud, Tully, Kildare | 12pm (noon) and 1pm
• Maynooth University as part of the Arts and Minds Festival | 4pm

FREE Family Friendly Outdoor Concerts | Saturday 21st May

with Shauna Davey and John Walsh
• Castletown House, Celbridge as art of Drawing Day 2022 | various times 

Visits to Community Settings & Schools
On Thursday 5th, Friday 6th, Thursday 19th and Friday 20th May the Festival in a Van will visit care homes, schools and community groups in North Kildare, featuring artists Shane Hennessy, Megan O'Neill, Stephen Faganm Éamonn Galldubh, Rhythmn African and more. 

 

Nás na Rí Singers present a Concert for Peace ~ Sunday 8^th May

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Naas-based Nás na Rí Singers, the choir with ochestral ensemble, will perform Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man. Jenkins The Armed Man to mark the new millennium. It is essentially an anti-war piece, and the music which is often described as enthralling, takes the listener on a journey beginning with the throbbing notes of the march of the "L’Homme Armé", through the nervous excitement and ultimate horror of "Charge!" and ending with the repeated ringing out of the message "Better is Peace than Always War". The choir has engaged an ensemble of 20 professional musicians to add to the drama and excitement of the performance. Church of Our Lady and St. Joseph, Caragh | Sunday 8th May, 7pm

 

More details of Kildare Local Live Performances from locations around the county will be announced in the coming weeks. The scheme is supported by Kildare County Council and funded under the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media’s Local Live Performance Programming Scheme (Phase III). The scheme aims to support live performance opportunities and assist established artists, arts organisations/groups, producers and promoters to programme and present live performance events in county Kildare from April to June 2022.

 

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