Baltimore Heritage Festival (9th - 11th April)

The weekend after Easter Baltimore celebrates its cultural history and skills with the 3rd annual Heritage Festival. The Festival features based on Baltimore’s local talent, together with its wonderful blend of people, seascape, maritime activity and enterprise.

The weekend kicks off on Friday evening at 8 p.m. in the Glebe Café. Join our local shanakees, Mrs. Walsh and Mr. Neily Bohane, around the fireplace with tales from our past while enjoying a drink and fingerfood, followed by music, song and dance.
There will be leisure activities, history, drama, music and old trades, crafts, vintage vehicles and old-time kitchen and cooking utensils. The presentations & talks are as follows:

• Saturday 11 a.m. in the Glebe Café – Tim Rowe on “Bees & Beekeeping under Threat”

• Saturday 3 p.m. in Dún na Séad Castle (entrance fee €3 pp) – Gary McMahon on the “Restoration of the Ilen”

• Sunday 3 p.m. in Dún na Séad Castle (entrance fee €3 pp) – Bernadette McCarthy on “The History and Restoration of the Castle”

• Sunday 11 a.m. in The Glebe Café - Darina Allen on “Forgotten Skills of Cooking” and book-signing afterwards

For children there will be a chance to see some small animals including goats, donkeys, chickens, sheep, rabbits, turtles, fish and a horse & trap, near the Sailing Club on Saturday between 2 and 4 pm. Inside the Club there will be a book exchange, face painting and crafts for kids.

Activities by local enterprises include kayaking with Atlantic Sea Kayaking; scenic rib rides in the harbour and to nearby islands with Baltimore Sea Safari; River Ilen Cruise or Ten Island Tour with the Sherkin Island Ferry company; marine wildlife tours with Whale Watch West Cork; sailing on a 50’ yacht to the Skeams or Horse Island with Baltimore Yacht Charters. Due to popular demand, these all need to be prebooked and are of course weather dependant. You can also avail of the special swim concession in the Baltimore Community Leisure Centre or play lawn croquet at Inish Beg.

It might sound odd to be asked to pay to attend a wake, but the wake on Saturday evening is one with a difference. The Skibbereen Theatrical Society will perform “A Wake in the West”, a black comedy by Mayo man Michael Joe Ginnelly. Set in a small West of Ireland fishing village, it’s a wonderful play about a professor and a student who meet after 16 years, when the student discovers that his much loved tutor is suffering from a terminal illness. The performance commences at 8.30 p.m. on Saturday evening in the Fr. Cashman Community Centre (fee €10 pp and tickets for sale in Casey’s Hotel Baltimore and Thornhill Skibbereen).

On Sunday afternoon there’s the “Now and Then” traditional trade and craft exhibition in the Sailing Club. Displays include lobsterpot and basket weaving, bronze / copper craft (which in the Bronze Age brought traders from the Mediterranean hereabouts, who fetched local copper to be combined with Cornish tin for bronze), jewellery and stained glass-making, wool spinning, crochet and knitting, portrait art, butter, soda breads, local honey and jams, chutneys, wine and Irish carrigeen moss dessert (free entry). Outside the Sailing Club will be a display of vintage cars, bicycles and agricultural transport.
Those wanting to stretch their legs may join the Baltimore Tidy Town group for their walk and unveiling of the Heritage Trail together with the launch of an accompanying brochure. New plaques give details of historical buildings and structures. It will be viewed with a local guide during an easy stroll through the village, starting Sunday 2 p.m. at Casey’s.

Over the weekend, local bars and restaurants will have live music and include traditional Irish choices on their menu. All proceeds during the festival are for the Baltimore Community Playgroup.
Further details available on www.baltimore.ie

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Rianne Smith o.b.o. Explore Baltimore (Marketing Cooperative)
Aquaventures, The Stone House B&B, Baltimore, Co Cork 028-20511 / 087-79614546
Email: rianne@aquaventures.ie

ENDS

A Summer School on Cape Clear...

Island Ecology

A Summer School on Cape Clear
Monday 5th – Friday 9th July 2010
Éiceolaíocht Oileán

A course organised by Drs. Geoff Oliver and Paddy Sleeman on behalf
of Comharchumann Chléire Teo, Cape Clear Island, Co. Cork
www.oilean-chleire.ie

Islands are fascinating places and Cape Clear is no exception. Situated approximately 9 miles off the south west coast of Ireland it is a famous place for numerous species of rare migratory birds and a well-known sighting point for cetaceans. It has a dramatic and beautiful landscape and can be easily and safely explored on foot.

As a participant on this summer school, you will discover habitats in the hedgerows, fields and seashore and explore the rich variety of flowers on the island. You will learn the basic skills of bird and whale watching from experts and learn other hands on skills such as diet analysis of native animals.

There will be presentations on pressing environmental issues such as sustainability, biodiversity and conservation, given from a local perspective, and offering unique and valuable insights.

Cape Clear is one of the few remaining Gaeltacht areas in Ireland. It has a rich linguistic and cultural heritage. You will look at ancient remains and hear of some of the high and low points of the island’s 5,000 year history from a well known local historian. A professional linguist and Irish speaker will talk on the language and explore some of the evocative meanings and stories behind the local dialect.

The course will run between 5-9th July 2010. It’s a busy 5 days but there will be ample opportunity for wandering, spontaneity and fun.

Course Cost: €200

Now in its eight year Island Ecology is led by Dr Geoff Oliver and Dr Paddy Sleeman.

Geoff Oliver first visited Cape Clear on a birdwatching holiday in the 1960s and has been living on the island for 10 years now. He went to Exeter University as a mature student and gained a BSc in Biology and Geography in 1989 and a PhD from University Dublin in 2005 for a study of coastal lagoons. He is now based on Cape Clear and works as a self-employed biologist doing survey work mostly of coastal lagoons, estuaries and birds

Paddy Sleeman holds a degree in ecology from the University of Ulster and did his PhD on the Irish stoat at University College, Cork. He has worked on several wild mammals in Ireland and Britain. He has worked in South Africa, Zanzibar and Madagascar and is involved in the ecological reconstruction of islands. He is currently studying badgers and TB in south-west Ireland.

This course is open to all and is likely to be approved by the Department of Education summer course for primary school teachers.

Travel: www.capeclearferry.com

Accommodation:: www.oilean-chleire.ie/english/accom1.htm

Further Information: Stephanie Murphy on 085 1211281

Cape Clear Island Walking Talking Festival

May Bank Holiday Weekend 2010

Cape Clear Island, Ireland’s most south-westerly point, is famous for stunning scenery, birdwatching, Gaeltacht colleges, traditional music, sailing, storytelling and whale and dolphin watching . These attractions draw thousands of visitors every year. Like other similar places, the Island inspires poetry, art and storytelling and in recent years has become host to one of Ireland’s premier storytelling festivals.

The May Walking Talking Festival will be launched by author and broadcaster Damien Enright, author of many popular walking guides to Cork and Kerry. There will be a series of walks around the hidden corners of the Island focusing on different aspects of its history, folklore and ecology, all led by local enthusiasts. Whalewathing trips are combined with other low key events such as singing workshops, poetry readings, local folklore and also culinary and musical fare, sometimes idiosyncratic, always local.

This is a low key festival for those who like to give as much as to receive, who enjoy great walking in good company, who like to exchange tales and stories and also the art of good conversation. No pressure, no hassle, bring a raincoat and good walking boots, sing a song or play a few tunes if you are so inclined, or just sit back and listen.

The local cast of characters has been set and are looking forward with great anticipation to an enjoyable weekend. See website for details http://www.walkingtalking.info


Séamus Ó Drisceoil,

Comharchumann Chléire Teo.

Cape Clear Island, West Cork.

353-28-39159/41923

Cape Clear Island – Walking Talking Festival – May Weekend 2010

To paraphrase our chief walk leader, Damien Enright, "The thrill of a trip to Cape Clear begins at the ferry. As the mainland recedes, there emerges a sense that the everyday world is another country we have left behind. The island ahead moves in another time. For those not old enough to remember, this is what Ireland was like before the traffic and the hurry, a less busy and more gracious place."

Cape Clear provides superb walking. The stunning scenery is complemented by a marine environment frequented by whales, dolphins and basking sharks. Beside the paths and boreens, wild flowers bloom in a untainted profusion. The only sounds come from the ever present sea and the cries of the different birds in season. The Bird Observatory records large migrations of sea birds and the autumn brings exotic vagrants from the Americas, Asia and Africa.

The Islanders enjoy a rich and seasonal quality of life supported by farming, fishing and tourism. The Walking-Talking Weekend will explore the hidden places of the island with local guides and talkers and will mingle good conversation with poetry, stories and music in intimate surroundings. This is a weekend to slow down and enjoy nature's bounty and the joy of good company. Nature, history and folklore combined in a series of small human adventures.

Damien Enright is the author of the critically acclaimed A Place Near Heaven – A Year in West Cork and of an immensely popular series of walk guides to west Cork and Kerry including Walks of Seven West Cork Islands. His weekly column in the Irish Examiner has been running for almost twenty years.

Resident walkers and talkers include Chuck Kruger, author, poet and broadcaster and founder of the Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival; Steve Wing, Warden of Cape Clear Bird Observatory; Ed Harper, local goat farmer and singer: Mairtín Ó Mealóid, Sean Nós Singer and Seamus Ó Drisceoil weekend organiser and occasional guide. Music will be provided over the weekend by local musicians.

Full details including the weekend program are available on the website at http://www.walkingtalking.info/

ENDS