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Irish Examiner
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Gigs, drama, art, dance... 10 highlights of Galway Arts Festival
1 Theatre Druid, Riders to the Sea & MacBeth: The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane July 10 - 26 Druid theatre company presents a double bill of JM Synge's Riders to the Sea and William Shakespeare's MacBeth. Both are directed by Druid founder Garry Hynes, feature actress Marie Mullen, and are staged in the theatre named for the late Mick Lally. It is 50 years since the three established Druid as the first Irish professional theatre company outside Dublin, a landmark anniversary that is also celebrated in an exhibition of photographs by Joe O'Shaughnessy, at the Kenny Gallery on Tuam Road, covering the broad sweep of the ensemble's achievements. 2 Kevin Barry, The Cave: Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square July 22 - 26 Kevin Barry is best known as the author of a series of inventive novels, including the International Dublin Literary Award-winning City of Bohane. Barry's adaptation of his short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms, was produced to great acclaim by Meridian in Cork in 2008, and it seems extraordinary that it has taken so long to present his work on the stage once more. The Cave stars Aaron Monaghan and Tommy Tiernan as Bopper and Archie McRae, a pair of petty criminal brothers holed up in the mountains in Co Sligo, with Judith Roddy as their garda sister Helen. 3 Oh…: Galway Atlantaquaria, Salthill July 8 – 26 Mikel Murfi Mikel Murfi's unforgettable one-man theatre productions have included I Hear You and Rejoice and The Man in the Woman's Shoes. Murfi trained at L'École Internationale de Théatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where the emphasis is on physical performance. Never one to shirk a challenge, he presents his new show - a reflection on new journeys, partings and the possibility of moving on - in the main tank of Galway Atlantaquaria. 4 Mogwai: Heineken Big Top July 24 Mogwai's eleventh album in 30 years, The Bad Fire, landed in January. The Scottish noise merchants' song titles are even better than Morrissey's – Fanzine Made of Flesh, Pale Vegan Hip Pain and If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others are just some of the beauties on The Bad Fire – and their politics are far more palatable. Most of their oeuvre is instrumental, but possessed of a grandeur that belies their origins in the indie scene in 1990s Glasgow. 5 Mary Coughlan: Heineken Big Top July 23 Since her first album, Tired and Emotional, in 1985, the Galway-born chanteuse Mary Coughlan has interpreted everything from smoky blues to jazz and trad, Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen to Jimmy McCarthy and Johnny Mulhern. Her sometimes tumultuous life has been grist to the mill for the tabloids, but at 69, she remains a formidable and much-loved talent. Coughlan's 40th Anniversary Greatest Hits Show features her full band, along with a string and brass section. 6 David Mach, Burning Down the House: Festival Gallery, William St July 14 – 27 David Mach's Cheetah 1 The Scottish sculptor and installation artist David Mach presents his fourth major project at Galway Arts Festival, after Precious Light in 2012, Rock'n'Roll in 2018 and The Oligarch's Nightmare in 2023. Mach, a Turner Prize nominee in 1988, is known for his large-scale public art projects, such as Brick Train, assembled from 185,000 bricks, at Darlington, Co Durham. Burning Down the House is one of several exhibitions at GIAF that address climate change. Mach will give a talk at the gallery at 11am Tuesday July 15. 7 Eman Mohammed, What Lies Beneath the Rubble: Studio 2, O'Donoghue Centre July 14 – 27 Eman Mohammed Eman Mohammed was born in Tabouk, a small village in Saudi Arabia, in 1983 and educated in Gaza City, Palestine. She began her career in photojournalism at 19, and quickly cemented her reputation as the first woman war photojournalist in Gaza. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and her memoir The Cracks in My Lens was published in 2022. Her photo essay, Layan's Steps, published in the Atavist Magazine in July 2024, helped reveal that Gaza is home to the world's largest concentration of child amputees, victims of Israeli attacks on the territory. 8 Aoife Dunne, Good Grief: Róisín Dubh, Dominick St July 24 & 25 Language teacher Aoife Dunne had amassed more than 100,000 followers for her humorous videos on Instagram before it ever occurred to her that she might be a comedian. And even then, it was only because she was invited to perform at the legendary Dead Rabbit club in New York. The Galway native is not shy about tackling contemporary issues such as toxic masculinity, and posted a memorable rebuke to Conor McGregor on social media after his appearance at the White House on Patrick's Day. Good Grief is billed as 'a unique blend of stand-up, storytelling and spoken word,' and deals with the death of Dunne's mother, the loss of her job and relationship during the Covid pandemic, and her efforts to rebuild her life thereafter. 9 Resistance to Trump: Bailey Allen Hall, University of Galway July 26 Journalist Fintan O'Toole interviews Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the Democratic Party politician who has represented Washington's 7th Congressional District, encompassing most of Seattle, since 2017. Born in Chennai, India, Jayapal emigrated to the US in 1982, aged 16, to attend college at Georgetown University. She is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the US House of Representatives. A vocal critic of Donald Trump's presidency, she has condemned his budget reconciliation bill of July 2025 as 'one big, beautiful betrayal.' 10 Planete Vapeur, Microcosmos: Les Insectes Fantasiques: Eyre Square 9.30pm Friday July 18 / 6pm and 9.30pm Saturday July 19 Planète Vapeur's Microcosmos French street theatre specialists Planete Vapeur present Microcosmos, featuring a twelve-metre grasshopper, a spinning spider and a swarm of mysterious stilt-walkers, musicians and acrobats. The hour-long spectacle begins at Eyre Square before proceeding to Lower Fairhill Road via Shop Street and Bridge Street. What could be more magical on a summer's evening in the City of the Tribes?
New Statesman
02-07-2025
- General
- New Statesman
The endless variety of England's folk traditions
Photo by Tom Jamieson / New York Times / Redux / eyevine Perhaps there are two kinds of people in the world. There are the collectors, the enthusiasts, who want to keep, save and preserve: 'Nequid pereat,' they might say, 'Let nothing perish.' Then there are the others, already on the phone to the skip-hire company. Lally MacBeth is firmly of the former persuasion. If you're of the latter, The Lost Folk might make you hyperventilate, so crammed is it with places, practices and stuff. The word 'save' appears many times. So indeed does the word 'skip', as in 'saved from a skip'. But persist, because you might see the culture of the UK in an unexpected light. MacBeth says 'Britain', but even in her introduction she apologises for the lack of coverage of the devolved nations; her book stays close to her home in south-west England. It's forgivable: we only have one lifetime and it would take several more to extend her project into the Celtic countries. Generation succeeds generation, and what she wants to save is their multifarious folk productions, old and new. Of folk, MacBeth gives a definition that widens as we go: she means the unofficial, hand-made and localised, the private collections and archives, the pageants and dances, the costumes and cakes. If not physically saved, then everything must at least be documented, and the means of recording archived too. She writes: 'We must use all means of recording to build a full picture of the customs, traditions, people and places of Britain, and we must work to preserve all methods of documentation.' This picture is not just of the past, not only tradition or lore, but of now and the future because 'folk' is happening, arising and emerging everywhere. In MacBeth's mind, her own predecessors now need saving. 'The Lost People' she calls them, meaning the early folklorists and folk collectors. Many have fallen from view, especially the women. Cecil Sharp, active at the turn of the 20th century, remains well known as the 'collector of folk song and reinventor of Morris dancing'. But despite being 'tireless', Sharp managed, in McBeth's opinion, to 'write women and people of colour out of his work… creating a folk that suited him: sanitised, classist, racist and very, very male'. To counteract that, MacBeth introduces us to an alternative roster of folk-collectors, often female. From Victorian days into the mid-20th century, there were women who travelled about gathering recipes, stories, costumes, tools and 'country ways' just as these were dying out, and whose notebooks and collections were often dispersed or destroyed when they died. It sounds harmless but collecting was not without tensions: it could get competitive and, as MacBeth again notes, classist, with one social class (usually the upper-middle) making judgements about what was worth saving from among the productions of the lower orders. The invention of recording equipment was revolutionary, with people's voices and dialects also able to be saved, as well as their tales and tools. There was, for example, Dorothy Hartley, born in 1893 in Yorkshire. Hartley cycled around collecting and interviewing and sketching. Thanks to her we know how to thatch a haystack, or bake bread in a brick oven. Others collected objects. Eva and Edward Pinto of Middlesex favoured 'wooden bygones': butter pats, mangles, hand-made boxes, toy animals and the like. They created a collection which soon outgrew their house, spilling into sheds and chalets and mocked up shops, which the public could view. Yet others were more nautically minded. In Gravesend, in a building fitted out like a ship, Sydney 'Long John Silver' Cumbers amassed a huge number of ships' figureheads. Cumbers sported an eyepatch, cigarette holder and yachting cap when he showed visitors around. MacBeth's embrace even includes 'living' collections – or what photos and notes now remain. Upon retiring in the 1940s, the Welsh miner David Davis turned his hand to topiary, creating in his garden a 'mystical paradise' of tableaux, mostly biblical: there were bushes cut to look like angels, and a hedge shaped like the Last Supper. Many came to see it. One might ask: was it art? To which the author would reply – it was certainly folk. 'If it's by the people, for the people, it is 'folk'.' Therefore, she welcomes the local parades and festivities up and down the land as folk. Hastings has an annual Jack in the Green festival as part of May Day, with Morris dancers, giants, milkmaids and choirs. There is Lewes's famous effigy burning. Penzance now has its mid-winter Moltol. Since 2017, Toxteth has held its own Day of the Dead, no less folk for being a modern introduction, and hardly traditional. Indeed, when it comes to tradition, there existed what MacBeth calls 'uncomfortable folk practice'. In Morris dancing, once the preserve of men, gender roles are now being contested. Molly dancing used to refer to men dressed as women, but today there are women's teams (or 'sides') of Molly dancers. In Bristol, the term has been reclaimed by a group called Molly No Mates, a 'queer drag Molly dancing team'. Some traditional Morris dances involved blackface, but in 2020, the Joint Morris Organisation agreed to ban the practice. 'It was a monumental moment in the history of Morris dancing,' says MacBeth. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Pageants and galas are one thing, but what astonishes is the folk-stuff: the gloves and garlands, horse brasses and love spoons, pub signs and special cakes, the button badges, corn dollies, and 'obby 'osses. And it is everywhere, especially in pubs – and also in churches, where there are church kneelers, a special passion of MacBeth's. These are women's work, often embroidered to depict local scenes or stories. But the question keeps arising: if all must be saved – or at the very least recorded – what should be done with it? And where should it be kept? And who decides what goes where? 'Where people collect together of their own volition, there is folk, and it is not for collectors to judge the ways in which this happens or how the objects are made.' When decisions are made – when official museum curators judge that something should be brought in from the wild – it can be political. Take Sydney Cumbers' collection of figureheads: in 1953, he donated them to the Cutty Sark, where they are now displayed. MacBeth believes the fact that his collection was accepted 'was due in no small part to his… standing as a white male'. In contrast, there have been several efforts to establish an official museum of Romany culture, assembled from private collections, but all have floundered. The book itself is a veritable trove. There is no index. Perhaps appropriately, one has to rummage. MacBeth herself spends a lot of time in junk shops, on Ebay, or in county archives, searching for photos and newspaper reports, noting and saving. Folk, she says, is what gives us a sense of place and belonging. Perhaps she's right about that – and perhaps folk is what will save us from the samey-ness of our high streets, the soullessness of our new-build housing estates. It might be a council-sponsored pirate parade, or even – ye gods – a knitted post-box topper. If it's a real, of-the-people creation or event, she says, it's worth recording, worth getting involved. We just have to alert ourselves to its existence. And cancel the skip. Kathleen Jamie's books include 'Cairn' (Sort of Books) The Lost Folk: From the Forgotten Past to the Emerging Future of Folk Lally MacBeth Faber & Faber, 352pp, £20 Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from who support independent bookshops [See also: Jacinda Ardern's unexamined life] Related
Scottish Sun
02-06-2025
- General
- Scottish Sun
Seven in 10 Brit parents have taken time off work to revise for their kids' GCSEs, survey reveals
WORKING HARD Seven in 10 Brit parents have taken time off work to revise for their kids' GCSEs, survey reveals Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Seven in 10 parents have taken time off work - to revise for their kid's GCSEs. A study of 500 parents with children taking exams this year found they actively started getting their own heads GCSE-ready three months ago. 3 Parents started preparing for exam season three months ago Credit: SWNS 3 Some students welcome help from their parents, while some prefer solo study Credit: SWNS To prepare, 45 per cent of parents drafted a revision plan, 16 per cent have read study notes on An Inspector Calls, and 12 per cent have attempted to memorised MacBeth. While 33 per cent have sat with their kids during revision sessions, 16 per cent have listened to audiobooks, and 12 per cent have stayed up 'all night' reading. The research was commissioned by online learning platform, MyEdSpace, which is running a series of free GCSE 'Exam Cram Courses featuring live interactive three-hour lessons, which would normally be £300, ahead of this year's core subject exams – maths, English, and all three sciences Co-founder of MyEdSpace, Sean Hirons, said: 'Understandably, parents just want to help their kids when it comes to exam season – especially those intense few days just before a big test. 'But that doesn't have to mean pulling all-nighters themselves or learning Macbeth off by heart.' 'Right now, the best thing parents can do for their kids is keep calm, give them some space and make sure they're not forgetting to do the basic things like eating regularly or getting a good night's sleep while they prep.' 'We don't want any students, or parents, to be feeling overwhelmed or unsupported during this extremely stressful time of year.' Despite their efforts to familiarise themselves with the current GCSE syllabus, half of all parents polled have struggled to get their heads round what their children are learning. While 69 per cent admitted their kids are stressed about the weeks ahead. 'Math-fluencer' Neil Trivedi, who is part of the MyEdSpace team and has streamed revision classes reaching more than 43,000 students, said: 'Bedding in knowledge evenly across the year is obviously the best way to learn. Britain's favourite nicknames for bodyparts revealed in survey - does yours make the list- 'There are ways to optimise the revision process. "One way to try and solidify your knowledge is to try and explain your work to a peer, those who study together, succeed together. "And finally, take breaks, eat healthily, take your omega 3s and drink lots of water!' Parents' efforts to help manage their kids through this daunting period are welcome for the most part as 65 per cent 'actively' want their mums and dads to help them with revision. Although the research, carried out through OnePoll, found 19 per cent would prefer it if they didn't. Reasons why include wanting to be independent (46 per cent), thinking they can revise better on their own (36 per cent), and 28 per cent wanting to prove themselves (28 per cent). Kharis Yanakidis, co-founder for MyEdSpace, which aims to make exams less stressful and improve exam performance said: 'GCSE season can be overwhelming for students and families, so making revision fun and enjoyable can make all the difference. 'That's why our team is made up of expert teachers - many of them previous examiners - who last year helped MyEdSpace students achieve grades 7-9 at more than double the national average.' 3 Seven in ten parents have taken time off work to help during GCSE season Credit: Getty
