What do you do if your community's name has become linked to a terrible event, a violent murder? You could do what Caltra in Co Galway has done - host a summer festival.
In fact, so successful has the event been that Caltra hopes to be able to put the memory of the murder of Philomena Gillane in January 1994 behind it. Caltra was home to Philomena and to her late mother, Nonie Gordon, who collapsed and died at the subsequent trial of her daughter's husband, Mr Pat Gillane, in September, 1996.
In an effort to dispel some of the effects of the subsequent media coverage, the Galway County Council arts officer, Mr James Harrold, set to work.
His foundation was the existing fair, traditionally held in August and involving the surrounding farming community. With the co-operation of movers and shakers, like chairman Mattie Kilroy and teacher, Maxi Kelly, a street festival was planned. It was felt that it would complement the existing programme, comprising sheepdog trials, hurling and football matches and the like, and would also foster local development initiatives.
Last year a summer series of art workshops for children was run with community visual artists Eimear Greaney and Mary Doyle.
This was repeated this year, with the addition of Pete Sammon.
Best known as a co-founder of Macnas, the street theatre company, Sammon is originally from Ahascragh, close to Caltra, and has earned an international reputation for his work, particularly with marginalised and disadvantaged groups. For the past two years he has spearheaded Galway Corporation's St Patrick's Day community parade and projects.
The result was a little piece of noonday drama last weekend which took a farmyard theme, complete with chickens being chased by a fox and a fox being chased by a farmer. Sammon worked on costumes with a group of seven- to 13-year-olds for two weeks, while masks had already been made under Eimear Greaney's guidance.
Maxi Kelly believes it was a great success and James Harrold now has further plans for Mr Sammon. You'll hear more about it close to the time, but the theme is equine; namely, the long association between Ballybane in Galway and the Travelling community, before housing estates forced them out. The aim is to hold a big community bonfire on Hallowe'en night, complete with a burning (wooden) horse . . .
Back in the city, the Galway Arts Centre is hosting a carnival of Latino and Hispanic music this coming Thursday with Dennis Costello on violin and Oliver Sandig on guitar, at 8 p.m.
This past weekend the poet Rita Ann Higgins opened an exhibition, entitled Women Beyond Borders, and an installation by Gary Kendellen at the gallery in 47 Dominick Street. The Galway Arts Centre is open from Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Galway Flower Club, which has won a national reputation for its exhibitions over the past 32 years, particularly at St Nicholas's Cathedral, is establishing its headquarters at a new location in the Westwood Hotel, Galway, tomorrow with a wine party at 5 p.m.
And out in An Damhlann gallery in Spiddal, the self-taught Carraroe artist, Padraic Reaney, who is now based in Moycullen, has put together a retrospective, entitled Suil Siar (Looking Back). Opened by Bob Quinn last Friday, the exhibition of Reaney's graphic work since 1973 runs at An Damhlann until September 9th.