2023

Sat 29th, 4.30pm, King House,

Free (booking advised) LIMITED NUMBERS, DURATION 40 / 50 MINS

Linda Shevlin has an impressive and extensive career in the arts, working as an curator and cultural producer in Ireland, Europe and world-wide. Linda has facilitated and managed fascinating large and small-scale visual arts projects, commissions, and exhibitions.

Linda has curated Tulca Festival in 2018. In 2017 she was the invited curator for the Hennessy Art Fund, purchasing new works for the IMMA collection and also curated the visual art programme for Bealtaine Festival 2017/2018. She received the Arts Council of Ireland’s curator in residence award for three consecutive years from 2013-2016 working with Roscommon Arts Centre and Arts Office. In 2016 she curated Radical Actions at RMIT Galleries, Melbourne as part of Culture Ireland’s 2016 International Programme ‘I Am Ireland’ .

Linda was curator of Meta’s Open Arts program from 2019-2022, commissioning site specific artworks in their offices across Europe, The Middle East & Africa and programmed Meta Art Partnerships in 2023, working with partners including Times Square Arts New York and Superblue Miami.

FREE (BOOKING ADVISED) LIMITED NUMBERS, DURATION 40 / 50 MINS

Cultural Producer, and curator Laura Mahon, is Visual Arts and Education Manager at The Dock. Laura has extensive experience in arts production, working closely with artists to develop talks, visual arts mediation programmes and exhibitions, at The Dock in Carrick on Shannon and throughout the region.

Sarah Searson has a background in visual arts, curation, education and cultural policy and production. Sarah works independently and has worked in the region for the past eight years. Sarah and Laura have worked closely together and with Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh to select and produce this annual exhibition.

FREE (booking advised) LIMITED NUMBERS, Duration 40 mins

A Walking and Talking Tour of the Exhibition Highlights led by artist Anna Spearman

Anna Spearman is currently working between Sligo and Dublin and has recently been artist in residence at The Harrington Studios, King House. Spearman’s practice explores how sculptural objects, the space around them and the viewer in that space interact as vital elements in a temporal and performative experience.  She attempts to transpose the joy and excitement of her day-to-day encounters into three dimensional forms and installation Anna holds an MA in Fine Art: Contemporary Practice from Falmouth University, a BA in Fine Art from Sligo IT, and a BA in History of Art and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin.

Ticket Price: Free

Ages 5 – 10

(AutismFriendly – Please let us know if your child needs support)

Duration: 75mins

In this combination of kids yoga, mindfulness practices and sound play with singing bowls and other instruments we breathe together, sing together, do yoga poses together and learn and play with therapeutic instruments. Kids can experience wellbeing through yoga, mindfulness and sound practices, growing, learning, relaxing, playing, being creative, building confidence and making new friends.

For this age group I focus on yoga poses and alignment through stories, fun facts, yoga journeys to different cultures and countries and age group appropriate games.

For example a session theme could be to explore where yoga comes from, learning about India, we might listen to some indian music and learn about poses related to all things India. I always include breath work and relaxation as they are an important part of yoga and can be so beneficial for children in coping with life in school, friendships and everyday challenges.

I also like to encourage children to use their creativity and body awareness to come up with their own poses. We might read yoga stories together relating to how we can be good to ourselves (coping with emotions, stress relief, healthy eating). With sound play we explore another wellbeing tool in which we learn actively how we can relax ourselves through our auditory and tactile senses as well as our interoception.

Yoga mats are provided, please have your child bring a pillow and blanket and wear comfortable clothing.

Ticket Price: Free

Ages 1 – 4

(Siblings Welcome)

Duration: 60mins

This is a wonderful class to introduce small children to the practice of yoga. As playful as can be, with songs, music, age appropriate games, sensory fun, instruments, bubbles, parachutes, balls, books and yourself, this is some quality time to bond and have fun with your little one (s) while picking up some tricks to integrate yoga, breath and mindfulness into your routines. After the practice there is time for chats and enjoying a cup of tea together while the children can play with the yoga toys.

Yoga mats are provided, please bring pillows and blankets and wear comfortable clothing.

Ticket Price: Free

Family Yoga & SoundPlay, All Family Welcome for Quality Bonding Time

(Parents, Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles)

(Most Suitable for Children ages 3 – 10yrs, younger & older siblings welcome)

Duration: 90mins

In this class, family members have an opportunity to practice yoga together

and experience a magical interaction that is healthy, grounding and also fun.

Strong bonds are developed as you rely and assist each other in the yoga postures. Movement, storytelling, sound, breath, song, massage and play are combined with the yoga practice to create a very unique and fun experience.

Learn to relax together building lifelong skills to help with everyday little and big challenges which are all part of family life.

Yoga mats are provided, please bring pillows and blankets and wear comfortable clothing.

Ticket Price: Free

Bernadette McCarrick, a retired primary school teacher, has published three poetry books to date, the most recent being ‘To Walk in My Native Place’.

Many of the poems and photos in this collection describe in affectionate detail her early life in rural South County Sligo. Other poems celebrate the locality she has come to know since moving to Boyle in 2015. Recently the Roscommon Herald has published Bernadette’s contributions to ‘The Write Note’ and ‘Autumn Leaves’.

Ticket Price: €5

Lorraine Murphy is from Newtownbutler, in County Fermanagh. She has been singing from a young age, in local Feis and Scor competitions, but mainly enjoys singing among friends, at singing and music sessions.

Lorraine has a distinctive style of singing that is enjoyed in singing circles around the country. She attended The Boyle Arts Festival Singers night last year and is delighted to be asked back this year as guest singer.

AISTRIGH Dance and Architecture Workshop

Ticket Price: €6 payable on the day at King House

Date: Saturday 29^th July

Time: 10:30-12:30 and/or 2.30 -4.30pm

Venue: King House, Bridge Street Area and Riverfront, Boyle.

Facilitated by Eleanor Duignan and Sibéal Davitt

Join an experimental movement-based workshop to engage with the streets, lanes and buildings of Boyle through improvisational dance. The workshop will begin in the Ballroom at King House and move out into the surrounding streets and laneways.

This is a playful workshop. Please wear comfortable, colourful clothing. No dance experience is required.

Please note: for research purposes the workshop will be documented.

Suitable for adults (16+)

This workshop was aided by funding received from the Arts Council Engaging with Architecture Award 2022.

Ticket Price: Free (as part of the Family Day)

Mud Bugs provides nature based, educational workshops for children of all ages in Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and beyond. We aim to connect children and families with nature in a way that encourages confidence, builds self-esteem and promotes a lifelong love of learning and nature.

Our workshops are a magnificent exploration of the senses, indoors or outdoors. Jess provides the opportunity to play in a fun, exciting and special way that encourages children to question, investigate and examine nature in a way they never have before. By taking a closer look at nature, Mud Bugs is providing children with the opportunity to slow down, observe, question and reflect on their self-led learning.

Mud Bugs wants nature to be fully accessible to everyone.

“The future will belong to the nature-smart” – Richard Louv

Ticket Price: €5

Louise Flanagan from Co. Donegal is the author of the Dragonterra series, consisting of 12 books for emergent readers.

Dragonterra is a fantasy adventure aimed at readers aged 6-10 years old. Printed in larger font with carefully pitched vocabulary and beautiful hand-drawn illustrations throughout, these books will capture both the attention and the imagination of young readers.

Each book is divided into 7 chapters and contains approximately 4,500 words – a fantastic achievement for your young reader!

In this workshop, Louise will introduce readers to the Dragonterra adventure, showing them some magical objects that feature in the story, such as a magical compass, a feather and a telescope.

There will be time for a Q&A session as well as some fun worksheets based on the Dragonterra book series.

Each child in attendance will receive a signed copy of book 1 and a discount code to purchase the remainder of the series.

Silent Disco

The Pleasure Grounds, 2.30 – 5.30pm, €5

Silent Disco offers two DJ channels at the same time. You can listen to channel A or B, each with its own music, played by a DJ. The best part is that you never know what the next person will hear in front of or behind you, so the dance steps can be a bit confusing!

times:

2pm-2.30pm

2.45pm-3.15pm

3.30pm-4pm

4.15pm-4.45pm

5pm-5.30pm

€10 (including Booking Fee) Book Now

Cauvery Madhavan’s meticulous new novel is based on the aftermath of a real-life mutiny by the Connaught Rangers eney – Independent.ie. ‘Cauvery Madhavan’s evocative narrative spins together the intriguing lives of her characters over nearly seven decades and makes The Tainted a riveting read.

This novel is inspired by the real-life mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India in 1920 in protest at the behaviour of the Black and Tans during the War of Independence. It is divided into two sections, the first set in the 1920s and ’30s, and the second in India in 1982.

Bio

Deirdre Higgins is an Irish soprano and is currently in the final year of her Masters of Music (Performance) in the TU Dublin Conservatoire. Here she studies under the excellent tutelage of Mairéad Buicke and Mairéad Hurley.

Deirdre is a multi-award winner and had great success in the 2023 Feis Ceoil competitions where she won the Nancy Calthorpe Cup, Lieder Prize, Mrs. P.J. Geoghegan Memorial Cup, and the Gervase Elwes Memorial Cup. She also received the Birr Lions Club Bursary at the 2023 Birr Festival of Music. In 2022, Deirdre had her first professional opera engagement when she joined the chorus of Irish National Opera for their national tour of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. Shortly following this she joined the chorus of Wexford Festival Opera for four productions – Lalla-Roukh (David), La Tempesta (Halevy), Armida (Dvořák) and the premier of Alberto Caruso’s The Master.

In the summer of 2022 Deirdre attended the ‘Corsi Internazionali di Musica di Lurisia Terme 2022’ where under the instruction of Maestro Ugo Benelli she performed the roles of La Contessa di Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) and Adina in L’Elisir D’Amore (Donizetti). She received high praise for her performances with reviews such as – “in half a century of activity in the operatic field I have rarely heard this very difficult aria from the Contessa sung so well” (Bruno Baudissone). 

         Richard McGrath Piano

Richard studied at NUI, Maynooth, the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of
Music and Drama in London. He was a trainee répétiteur at English National Opera and since then he
has worked with companies including Irish National Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Wide Open
Opera, Opera Theatre Company and Lyric Opera Productions. Richard is a répétiteur in the vocal
department at the TU Dublin Conservatoire, he is a coach for the Irish National Opera Studio
programme for young artists and is a regular recitalist with singers.
Richard has played with the RTE Concert Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the
Irish Chamber Orchestra and the orchestra of English National Opera. Radio broadcasts include
performances on RTE Radio 1, RTE Lyric FM, and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune

Curators tour of Exhibition

Fri 21st, 11am, King House
FREE (BOOKING ADVISED) LIMITED NUMBERS, DURATION 40 MINS

A Walking and Talking Tour of Exhibition Highlights with curator and artist Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh

Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh graduated in 2001 from Fine Art Painting at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Ní Mhaonaigh is widely considered one of Irelands leading painters. She has exhibited extensively in both Ireland and abroad at venues including Limerick City Gallery of Art, Anthony Slayter-Ralph Fine Art, Los Angeles, Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Armagh, Highlanes Municipal Art Gallery, and The Living Room Gallery, New York. Ní Mhaonaigh’s work is represented in numerous public and private collections. She is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. sineadnimhaonaigh.com

FREE (Booking recommended as limited capacity)

King House Auditorium

Mná100 in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs Irish Embassy India, have created a short film on the life of Roscommon woman Margaret Cousins.

Cousins worked for suffrage, the rights of women, and gender equality both in Ireland and in India. This film looks at her legacy in Ireland and India to this day.

Singskool Classes
Beat Buddy Babies

Designed and delivered by music education experts. Beat Buddy Babies is a unique opportunity for parents and carers to share a joyful musical learning experience with their babies and toddlers. Each class is uniquely designed to incorporate lots of different genres of music, movement, clapping, tapping, dancing and instruments and lots of friendly characters.

Age suitability 6 months to 2.5 years (30 months)

Date: Friday 21st July & Saturday 22nd July

Time: 10.00-10.30am

Location: Boyle Resource Centre

Cost €10 + booking fee (admits 1 child & 1 parent to 1 class)

Limited Availability.

Aodhamair Reilly, hailing from Navan, Co. Meath, is a pianist and harpist. Aodhamair recently completed her BMus in piano performance at the TU Dublin Conservatoire, during which she studied piano and harp.

Whilst piano is Aodhamair’s main instrument, she has studied harp under Denise Kelly-McDonnell, Andreja Malir, and Claire O’Donnell. She has performed at recitals at the TU Dublin Conservatoire and at numerous weddings. As a member of the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland, Aodhamair has performed in venues across Ireland for their Peace Proms tours. The orchestra recently performed a gala concert in Carnegie Hall, New York on St. Patrick’s Day, 2023. Aodhamair’s harp repertoire includes music from the traditional Irish, classical and popular genres.

Aodhamair’s grandfather, Michael Madden, was a native of Grange, Boyle, and she still has ties to the locality.

Iona Sound explore and interpret traditional material connecting Ireland, Scotland and
Scandinavia.

Rory Pierce – Low D Whistle and Cello; Max Greenwood – Piano; Bríd Cannon – Violin playing traditional melodies – such as Long Dances, Reels, Waltzes and Airs – Iona Sound
let their melodic and harmonic interpretations breathe, and encourage the listener to drift off
into thoughts about what lies “North of here…”

Bios:
Max Greenwood is a Musician, Songwriter and Educator. As a pianist he is influenced by
Pop, Gospel, Blues, Jazz & Traditional Folk. His expressive versatility on the piano has
contributed to the live and recorded repertoire of Iarla Ó’Lionáird (The Gloaming), Albert
Hammond (Award winning Songwriter), Gerr Walsh, Mundy, Mik Pyro (Republic of Loose),
Jerry Fish, Jack L, Vyvienne Long, Fionn Regan, Tom Baxter, Naimee Coleman, Adrian
Crowley, and Mick Hanly.

Rory Pierce is a composer, performer and educator. As a performer he is a founder member
and cellist in the UK’s award winning ‘Grit Orchestra’, performing a contemporary mix of
traditional music and classical music. The orchestra’s last performance was in the Royal
National Concert Hall in Glasgow, 2022. As a composer he has created hundreds of scores
for film, television, theatre, dance and animation.

Bríd Cannon commenced her musical studies in the Cork School of Music before
subsequently studying violin with Loretto Nelson and Maeve Broderick and piano with
Marie Jones.  She also studied chamber music under the renowned Hugh Maguire  and
Adrian Petcu.   She won major prizes at the Irish Fesiseanna as well as scholarships from the
Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. As a
performer,  Bríd has played both nationally and internationally,  including lunchtime
performances at the National Concert Hall Dublin. Her background in classical music training
has enabled her to expand her interpretation of folk and traditional music, collaborating
with artists of all genres.  She currently studies fiddle with Martin Hayes.

Anita Han (13) and Ryan Keogh (12), both study the piano at TUDublin Conservatoire of Music and Drama with Shirin Goudarzi-Tobin and the cello at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Miriam Roycroft. They began their piano duet collaboration in 2018 and since then, they have achieved remarkable success at both international and national piano duet competitions. In 2022, Anita and Ryan teamed up with two other talented young pianists to participate in the highly regarded eight-hand piano performance at the Late Late Toy Show.

Liam Ryan is a pupil of Dr David Mooney in TU Dublin Conservatoire. He has completed his ATCL piano diploma & also holds a DipAbrsm for cello. He is a multiple prizewinner for both piano and cello. This year he was the recipient of the John Benson Memorial Cup in the Feis Ceoil and winner of TU Dublin’s Petrof Cup. He has enjoyed masterclasses with renowned pedagogues Barry Douglas and Prisca Benoit. This September Liam will perform in Westport’s Chamber Music Festival.

Tiantian Gao is 9 years old and studies the piano with Shirin Goudarzi-Tobin at the TuDublin Conservatoire. As a five year old, Tiantian won first prize at the Liszt International Youth Piano Competition in Shanghai/China, and since then she has continued to enjoy success at competitions internationally and in Ireland.

Her most recent awards include Platinum & Young Virtuoso Award in the 4th WPTA Singapore International Piano Competition as well as Platinum Award in Trinity International Music Competition and the first prize in VII. Danubia Talents International Music Competition. She has also won many national competitions in Ireland.