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Celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Skibbereen!

This year’s St Patrick’s Day Parade in Skibbereen is themed – “The Wild Atlantic Way” and schools, clubs and businesses throughout the community are encouraged to participate in this ever popular family event.  Businesses can get involved straight away by dressing their windows and turning Skibbereen “green” for the festival of events.

Festivities in Skibbereen get underway with the Comhaltas Féile Cheoil weekend from Friday March 13-15 with a full programme of music and cultural events to suit all – please find full details here

St Patrick’s Day Church services take place in Abbestrewery at 10 am and in St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 9 am and 11:30 am.

singing at paradeThe annual parade then starts at 2:30pm, from the playground in Skibbereen and follows its traditional route before finishing at the Old Mart Car Park on Bridge St.  The Julia Hickey Memorial Shield will once again be presented to the overall winner on the day and there will be runner up prizes too, as well as a special prize for the best little leprechaun!

The fun doesn’t stop there as between 4 and 6pm in Abbeystrewery Hall the Gaelscoil are holding a fundraiser with teas and coffees, face painting and many more fun activities for all.

 

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Kids’ Passport for Skibbereen & surrounding area

If you need something to do with the kids before they go back to school, or if you have family and friends visiting West Cork over the last few weeks of the season why not pop in to the tourist office for your free copy of the ‘West Cork Passport for Kids’?

The Passports have a full list of things to do in Skibbereen and surrounding areas and you can even get your passport stamped when you visit different venues! The Passports also have pages for colouring, as well as information on beaches and places to visit.

Pop into the Skibbereen Tourist Office for your copy (but be quick there are only a limited number of Passports left)!

Thanks also to Inspire Design for their help in producing the Passports

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A little bit of Broadway in the heart of West Cork!

On Tuesday 29th July, the Skibbereen Arts Festival is presenting a selection of performances at four landmark locations in ‘4 Plays in a Day’.

To start the day, Wild Productions will wake us up with their comedic play ‘Mrs. Shakespeare’.  Performing at the stately Liss Ard House, Irene Kelleher will play a female patient in a mental hospital, who thinks she is the reincarnation of writer, William Shakespeare. Back to set right her mistitled ‘Hamlet’, she is set on a rewrite for a new play with a more feminine perspective called ‘Ophelia’.

Following on from there, Karen Minihan of Playacting Theatre will present her one-woman play, ‘Eileen’ at West Cork Arts Centre. The story of a middle-aged country woman facing the divorce from her farmer husband. The play deals with the stigma of being a divorcee in a traditional, rural town.

Schull Drama Group will present five revue sketched by Harold Pinter. Written in the late 1950s, these are all early works by Pinter. They all focus on an aspect of an incident which may or may not have happened. The five sketches are ‘Special Offer’, ‘Request Stop’, ‘Last to Go’, ‘The Black and White’ and ‘Trouble in the Works’.

To finish off this rather dramatic day, the award-winning Kilmeen Drama Group will present their production of JM Synge’s ‘The Playboy of the Western World’. Winner of the 2013 RTE All-Ireland Drama Finals, and performed at the Abbey Theatre, Kilmeen are now bound for America where they will tread the boards in October. Make sure you see it here first!

Each performance is individually priced but for the hardcore theatre buff there is a special day ticket for all of the performances at €20.

For more information and booking please check out the Skibbereen Arts Festival website at www.skibbereenartsfesitival.com , or phone the box office at 087 126 0327 for ticket information.

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West Cork Crafts hosts new exhibition by local artist Martin Stone

West Cork Crafts in Townshend Street, Skibbereen is hosting a show of new work by well-known local artist Martin Stone. The show is now open from 11am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday (including the Arts Festival), and Martin will be in residence to demonstrate his painting style and talk about his work. All work is for sale, at significant reductions over normal gallery prices. During August, Martin will be joined by local watercolourist Peter Mabey, for a joint exhibition.

Adrian Brentnall, Secretary of West Cork Crafts – the popular arts and crafts co-operative, said ‘We’re delighted to host Martin’s exhibition again this year. West Cork Crafts is dedicated to promoting the work of local artists and craftspeople – and we currently feature some 18 individuals, with everything from Art to Woodcraft – and lots in-between. Because we work as a not-for-profit co-operative, we don’t charge any mark-up on anything we sell – so customers can purchase unique, locally-produced art & crafts at very affordable prices.”

Adrian continued – “We’re finding that more and more customers (visitors and locals alike) are wanting to buy gifts that have been hand-made in the local area, in preference to items manufactured overseas. We are lucky in West Cork to have such a vast array of local talent – and it seems pointless to import items, when higher-quality work is available from local artisans.

Although our shop currently has a full complement of artists and craftspeople, we’re always happy to talk to new people who might be interested in joining us later in the year – for full details of what we do and how we work – take a look at our website – www.westcorkcrafts.ie. West Cork Crafts is open at 61 Townshend Street, Skibbereen from Tuesday to Saturday – 10:30 to 5:30 – call in & prepare to be amazed!