€5
In the suitably appropriate setting of Druminilra Farm Kitchen, we welcome award winning journalist, author, farmer and producer. His memoir The Cow Book is a number one bestseller and details the story of his life from working around the world to return to farm in his native Longford
Free
The Moylurg Writers from Boyle have been meeting on a regular basis for over thirty years. They have published four anthologies and for many years now, An Evening with the Moylurg Writers has been a popular item in the Festival programme. The evening will consist of members of the Moylurgs reading from recent work. The content is always entertaining, frequently thought-provoking and betimes quite inspirational. Come along and judge for yourself!
There will be writing workshops on Saturday 21st July and Sunday 22nd July, see workshop page for more details
FREE
Featuring Aoife Grennan, Guitar and Vocals, Brendan Emmett, Mandolin and Vocals and Gerry Grennan, Guitar and Vocals. The band plays a wide range of music including Folk, Jazz, Country, Blues and Rock.
The Hotel is a public art project that aims to capture local stories about The Royal Hotel. You can get involved in The Hotel by calling into the Spool Factory during Boyle Arts Festival to recount and record your personal memories and anecdotes. The interviews collected will form part of a new installation piece in response to this historic building.
The Royal Hotel in Boyle played a central role in local lives until its closure some years ago. It represented much more than somewhere for guests to stay, it was a space for significant life events or congregating and socialising with neighbours and strangers. The Hotel is a project to investigate the hotel’s role within a rural town, to capture conversations about the importance of everyday practices of hospitality, to explore common values and challenges around hosting and welcoming others.
Do bring along any photographs or objects you might have to illustrate your story
for more info please contact Greer MacKeogh greermackeogh@gmail.com
The Hotel is a public art project that aims to capture local stories about The Royal Hotel. You can get involved in The Hotel by calling into the Spool Factory during Boyle Arts Festival to recount and record your personal memories and anecdotes. The interviews collected will form part of a new installation piece in response to this historic building.
The Royal Hotel in Boyle played a central role in local lives until its closure some years ago. It represented much more than somewhere for guests to stay, it was a space for significant life events or congregating and socialising with neighbours and strangers. The Hotel is a project to investigate the hotel’s role within a rural town, to capture conversations about the importance of everyday practices of hospitality, to explore common values and challenges around hosting and welcoming others.
Do bring along any photographs or objects you might have to illustrate your story
for more info please contact Greer MacKeogh greermackeogh@gmail.com
Free
Boyle Parish Folk Group will be performing as part of Evening Mass
€8
Eoín Fleming is a 19 year old Irish Pianist, studying at Shenandoah University, VA. He started his studies in piano at age 6 in the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) with Colma Brioscú. He then continued studies with Alexander Bernstein, Prof. Réamonn Keary and is currently studying at Shenandoah University with Dr. John O’Conor.
By the age of 7 (2005) Eoín had performed in the RDS Concert hall at the High Achievers award concert, the High Achievers Award Gala concert in Dublin Castle. In 2009 he performed for former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtarán at a Dinner Soirée. And in the same year he was asked to be the Child Pianist in the movie “Parked” starring Colm Meaney.
Eoín excelled in his studies of Piano in the RIAM, achieving Scholarship with Distinction in every grade. He has won numerous competitions in the RIAM Pianofest and Feis Ceoil most recently the Anthony Glavin Cup for his performance of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Sonata in Bb minor.
He has participated in masterclasses given by Alexej Gorlatch, Pavel Nersessian, Martina Filjak, Finghin Collins, Christopher Elton, Robert Kulek, Murray McLachlen. In 2013, Eoín performed Beethoven’s “Ghost” trio in a masterclass giving by Peter Cropper at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. Also Eoín performed Mozarts Sonata no.17 in C major for Piano and Violin with Colma Ní Bhriain
He was one of 23 in the world to be selected to compete in the inaugural Junior Van Cliburn International Piano competition, Texas (2015).Eoín has also been awarded 1st Prize in; The Fr. Frank Maher Classical Music Award (for all instruments), The Lucien and Maura Tessier Scholarship for Pianists, and The Bank of Ireland Catherine Judge Memorial Award (for all instruments)
In 2016, Eoín debuted Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall performing Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto “Emperor” with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, October 2016. And he debuted with Shenandoah University’s Symphony Orchestra performing the 1st movement of Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto.
Most recently Eoín was a competitor in the 2017 Suzhou Jinji Lake International Piano Competition, and was a Semi-Finalist in the 2018 Dublin International Piano Competition and received the Charles J. Brennan Prize, for the furthest Irish pianist in the competition.
Eoín has a passion for piano and performance that he hopes to further with his studies in Shenandoah
€3
Settled in with the Brown family, Paddington the bear is a popular member of the community who spreads joy and marmalade wherever he goes. One fine day, he spots a pop-up book in an antique shop — the perfect present for his beloved aunt’s 100th birthday. When a thief steals the prized book, Paddington embarks on an epic quest to unmask the culprit before Aunt Lucy’s big celebration
The Film has a PG Certificate
€3
Former rugby player Brent Pope also writes books for children. This storytelling session with Brent reading from his books is suitable for ages 4-8 years
€8
Bernadine is a Frenchpark native. A winner (2009) of Roscommon’s Got Talent, she has played support to the likes of Jack L and Nathan Carter. Bernadine joined De Dannan in 2014 as lead vocalist following previous leads such as Dolores Keane and Mary Black, and they featured in BAF ‘16. She is delighted to return for a solo performance, where she will be accompanied by Anne Kielty on piano.
(photo by Sean O’Dowd)
€10
Originally formed in 1991, local band The Stringwreckers are taking over The Storehouse for one night of blistering ‘Wreck & Roll’, after 25 years in hibernation!
Fronted by Derek Caldbeck, the band also includes Jonathan McGlynn, Seamus Simon, Brendan McGee, Matt Burke and Brendan Maloney.
While you can expect revved-up covers, with a few original songs and maybe a guest or two, you can be absolutely assured of a fun night!
This is a fully standing gig
***Please note new date***
Oliver Fallon is a native of Boyle, Co Roscommon and one of the founder members of the New Connaught Rangers Association founded in 2002. Oliver has contributed to numerous television and radio documentaries and publications and carried out extensive research on the history of the Connaught Rangers and the campaigns they participated in.
‘The contribution of thousands of Irishmen to significant events in world history was by and large neglected and almost forgotten. Their deeds overshadowed by subsequent events, which reinvented what being ‘Irish’ was then and is today. Maturity and time has now allowed us to finally acknowledge the significance of world events which so effected previous generations’
€5
In this commemorative year of Voail 100, Boyle Arts are delighted to honour a native of the town, Margaret (Gretta) Elizabeth Cousins (nee Gillespie) who co-founded The Irish Franchise Movement that helped to secure voting rights for women, amongst a host of other hard-won achievements as a women’s activist. In 1950, Margaret wrote that, “in my childhood I had watched with dazzled eyes and some glimmer of understanding many a torchlight procession in the struggle for political freedom in my home town of Boyle”.
Maire Egan Paul, a former Town Council member and last mayor, has been researching the life and times of Margaret since undertaking a Local History project with NUI Maynoth. She will share a fascinating and truly unique story about the enigmatic woman who was born at No. 7 The Crescent.
Maire’s background was in marketing and tourism and she lived for over twenty years between the U.K., Austria and Cyprus. Citing Dervla Murphy as her inspiration, she has travelled extensively to many of the world’s exotic and frontier outposts in a timeline that afforded an opportunity to observe the ending of colonial rule in many African countries; travelling safely as a woman in India, and south east Asia, and even spending a weekend in both the Sudan and Pakistan!
Since returning to Ireland, Maire completed diplomas in Christian Family Studies (NUI Maynooth) and Community Development (NUI Galway) (her thesis being The Battle of the Curlieus story as a community initiative) and has been involved extensively with local community activities such as Boyle Tidy Towns, Girl Guides, Rainbows, B. E. and a founding member of the Family Life Centre, having also written the first edition of its history. She also assisted with research for the book “They Dared to Challenge in the Garrison Town of Boyle”.
Maire is currently on the Roscommon Older Peoples Council, The Manifesto Group, Boyle Age Friendly Town and is setting up a regenerative project to deal with the forgotten history and value of Boyle’s original street, the Mail Coach Road, aka the Green.
Maire has two daughters, Davinia in Inverness and Christina in Wellington NZ
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The idea of this event is to give a non-expert, lay audience a glimpse at new scientific discoveries that impact on areas of health that are relevant to all. The presentations will be given in an easily accessible non-formal way.
Ian Robertson studies mind-brain links in emotional and brain disorders. He is Emeritus Professor at Trinity College Dublin and co-director of the Global Brain Health Institute (www.gbhi.org). He has published numerous scientific manuscripts. His multiply-translated popular books include Mind Sculpture, The Mind’s Eye, Stay Sharp, The Winner Effect and The Stress Test.
Kingston Mills studies the immune system and how it helps us to control infection and allows us to develop effective vaccines. He is the Professor of Experimental Immunology and Head of the Immunology, Inflammation and Infection Research Theme at Trinity College Dublin. He has published over 250 research articles and is co-founder of Opsona Therapeutics, a university spin-out biotechnology company developing drugs to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer.
Marina Lynch studies the changes that take place in the brain with age which cause a gradual deterioration in function. She is the Professor of Cellular Neuroscience in Trinity College. She has published over 230 research articles and has given numerous talks, not just at international scientific meetings, but also at public events.
€5
Jude McCann is 17 years old and currently attends St Andrew’s College, Dublin where he is in his 5th year. He has been playing piano since he was 9 years of age and is a student of Dr David Mooney at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. He has participated in many competitions, both nationally and internationally, including:
ESB Feis Ceoil, Newpark Music Festival, Piano Academy of Ireland National Piano Festival, EPTA Ireland Piano Festival and Young Pianist of the North International Competition, United Kingdom.
At Newpark Music Festival in 2014, Jude won 1st Prize in Piano Under 16 and 1st Prize in Junior Piano Sonata. At ESB Feis Ceoil 2016, Jude won the Dorothy Stokes Cup for Junior Sonata and was a finalist in the Patricia Read Memorial Cup that year. In 2018, Jude won the Katherine Dunphy Memorial Award at DIT, Conservatory of Music and Drama
Sidi Bao (age 14) has been studying the piano and violin since the age of six, at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin under Shirin Goudarzi-Tobin,Mary Breslin and David O’ Doherty.She is a multiple prize winner in national and prominent competitions in Ireland including EPTA, Newpark, Interschools, Piano Academy and DIT. She has also been a 1st prize winner at ESB Feis Ceoil in competitions such as Junior Piano U9, Junior Piano Duets U13 & U15 and Junior Violin U9, U11, U13, U15, Rhoda Coghill Cup and Junior Chamber Music Cup.
She has performed solo piano and solo violin in the National Concert Hall, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Freemasons’ Hall, McCann Hall, The Irish-Chinese New Year Festival organised by the Dublin City Council, the RDS ‘International Charity Bazaar Dublin’ and DIT concerts. Sidi completed her Grade 8 exam at the age of 12 and is currently studying for her ALCM piano diploma exam. In 2017, she made her violin debut in Carnegie Hall as an “International Shining Star” and obtained distinction in her LRSM Violin Exam in Music Performance.
Fourteen year old Gerry Yang studies piano with Shirin Goudarzi-Tobin and trumpet with Eamonn Nolan at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin. He is a multiple prizewinner both in national and international competitions. In 2016 he was awarded first prize at the International Competition “Giovanni Musicisti – Citta di Treviso” in Italy and has performed in the Hugh Lane Gallery, the National Concert Hall and different DIT concerts in Dublin, and abroad, in Estonia, Italy and the USA.
Gerry was chosen to perform at the Late Late Toy Show in 2014, and in October 2017, he made his Carnegie Hall debut, performing as a soloist with the New York Sinfonietta.
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€10
*Please note new date and venue**
Tommie Gorman has been the Belfast-based Northern Editor of RTÉ News since 2001. Born in Sligo, educated in Summerhill College and the College of Journalism, he spent his first 3 working years (1977-80) under two legends of Irish provincial journalism, John Healy and Jim Maguire, in the Sligo Journal/Western Journalism. He joined RTE in 1980 and worked as North Western Correspondent (1980-89), Brussels-based Europe Editor (1989 to 2001) and Belfast-based Northern Editor since then.
Married to Ceara Roche, they with have two children and their home is in Sligo.
Carole Coleman is a news journalist and author and this is her fourth year presenting the ‘In Conversation’ series for BAF. Carole has been contributing to RTÉ news and other programmes for over 25 years. The mother of two lives in her home town of Carrick-on-Shannon and is also involved in initiatives to attract jobs and connect with the diaspora. Carole who worked for RTÉ in the US is the author of two books on American culture and politics.
FREE
A unique theatrical experience from the makers of Angels in the Park.
Will Trinity Medical student Finn be able to stomach digging up fresh graves for Professor Trollope? What will happen to maid Mary McCoy if her secret laundry in the gardens is exposed? Will Molly’s date work out, or will it be back to the Tinder drawing board?
Meet me in the Gardens, a new site-specific theatrical experience from Shiva Productions, consists of four short plays set in the famed National Botanic Gardens over its 200 year history. Based on true events and real life characters, spanning the cholera epidemic of the 19th century to the onset of World War II.
Written by Sharon McCoy. Directed by Aoibhinn Marie Gilroy
Duration: 60 minutes. The experience involves some walking. Seating is not provided, but blankets to sit on are welcome and umbrellas are advised.
€5
Robert Finegan is currently a 3rd year student at DIT Conservatory of Music studying music performance with Kevin Hanafin. In 2013 Robert was awarded a scholarship from St. Peter’s Male Voice Choir to study at DIT Conservatory of Music where he was recipient of the School of Excellence Award and went on to win the Macardle Young Classical Musician Award in 2014. In 2017, Robert was awarded 2nd prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year and was also the inaugural winner of the Flax Trust Music Award. This summer Robert will represent Ireland at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia playing music by contemporary Irish composers.
Other awards include the DIT Briscoe Cup and Concerto competition along with the ESB Feis Ceoil Senior Saxophone and McCullough Cup for Woodwind Concerto. He was also a finalist in the RDS Music Bursary. Robert was selected to perform at the ESB Feis Ceoil Gala Concert in the National Concert Hall. In April 2017 he made his Concerto debut with the DIT Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Brophy.
In addition to solo performances, Robert has performed with SinfoNua Orchestra, Hibernian Orchestra, Irish Symphonic Wind Orchestra, and the Ulster Youth Orchestra.
Luke Lally Maguire (20) has been playing piano since the age of thirteen. He is a second year BMus Performance student in DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama studying under Mary Lennon. An experienced performer both in competitions and on the concert platform, Luke recently performed in the 2018 Feis Ceol in which his successes allowed him to participate in the Morris Grant Bursary. He has performed several times in the National Concert Hall as an accompanist most recently at the Feis Ceol Gala Concert and at an ensembles concert organised by the DIT Conservatory Keyboard Department.
He has also participated in several masterclasses with Barry Douglas, Helen Krizos and most recently, Vanessa Latarche.
Luke and Robert have performed duets together in the National Concert Hall as well as in the ESB Feis Ceol in which they were the winners of the 2018 Irish Contemporary Music Cup.
€5
Catherine Donnelly is a soprano from County Down. She graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast with a degree in medicine and works part-time as a community doctor in care of the elderly. She is in her second year studying a Masters in music performance at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Colette McGahon-Tosh and répétiteur Mairéad Hurley.
This year, Catherine appeared as a soloist at the Irish National Opera launch in the Young Artist showcase. In January, she performed the title role in DIT’s production of Michael William Balfe’s The Sleeping Queen at the National Concert Hall. She made her professional role debut with Irish National Opera in April as soprano bridesmaid in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.
Other roles include her portrayal of Daniel in DIT’S dramatic production of Handel’s Susanna and the role of Belinda with Armagh City Choir in their concert performance of Dido and Aeneas. Catherine has joined NI Opera chorus in their productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosí fan tutte and Opera Theatre Company chorus for the revival of Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish language Opera Eithne back in October.
An experienced performer of sacred music, she has performed as a soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C; Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise; Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, Faure’s Messe Basse and two of Handel’s most famous Oratorios, Messiah and Samson.
