Clifden Arts Week launches on Monday

Clifden Community Arts Week, the west of Ireland’s most prominent and longest running community arts festival, will return this September for its 34th year of artistic celebration. Taking place from September 15th to 25th, the festival boasts an impressive line up of national and international talent with a jam-packed programme that covers all spectrums of the arts from literature and music to theatre, film, and comedy, as well as inspirational talks and lectures and a dedicated schools’ programme.

This year’s highlights include readings from presidential candidate and politician Michael D Higgins and Ireland Professor of Poetry Harry Clifton with Leanne O’Sullivan. The impressive literary programme also includes poets Dermot Healy, Louis DePaor, Tom Paulin and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Eilean Ní Chuilleanan and Macdara Woods, who as husband and wife are great pioneers for modern Irish poetry. Playwright and novelist Thomas Kilroy will also read as will Hennessey New Irish Writer of the Year and local Clifden woman Siobhan Mannion.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra will make a welcome return to Clifden as they perform in concert with fiddle player Martin Hayes and guitarist Dennis Cahill while the RTE Vanburgh Quartet, one of Europe’s most successful string quartets, will execute a breathtaking concert fresh from their recent 25th anniversary celebrations.

Like every other year, the local Clifden community schools are at the heart of the Clifden Community Arts Week Festival, where the vision was nurtured and became a reality. From Monday September 19 to Friday September 23 the schools will play host to a number of different events which will help to educate and encourage local students in appreciating the arts. A variety of workshops will take place throughout the week including writing, guitar, meditation, knitting, crochet, and singing with Marie Sheridan.

Renowned for generating the very best in artistic and literary talent, Clifden Arts Week never fails to ignite the spirit of the Clifden community and the surrounding areas of Connemara, while attracting an abundance of visitors from all over Ireland and overseas year after year. The 2011 festival programme looks set to be a huge success with a fantastic line up that adds another colourful splash to Galway’s calendar of artistic events.

Full details of the 34th Clifden Community Arts Festival and the current line-up can be found online here.