On The Town:The Butler family were out in force for the opening of the first solo dance programme, Does She Take Sugar?, from Jean Butler at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin this week. Two slim, red-haired women turned out to be the dancer's younger sister, Cara Butler, and her mother, Josephine Butler, who grew up in Ballyhaunis in Co Mayo. They were joined at the first night by other family members.
"I took her to dancing when she was in America because I wanted her to keep the culture," said Josephine, recalling her own mother, who also took her to dancing lessons when she was a child growing up in the west of Ireland. Mae Byrne, who died last year, was aged 99, she said.
Cara, who is also a professional dancer, was there with her boyfriend, fiddle player and dancer John Pilatzke. They were just back from Westport, Co Mayo, where they were both recording an album with Chieftains musicians. She was there to record the sound of her steps. "Yes," she said, "there will be taps all over it." Jean's older brother, Michael, was at the opening, along with his wife, Kelly.
The audience also included a number of other dancers, designers and directors. Butler's husband, designer Cuan Hanly, was there along with dancer Colin Dunne, of Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels fame. Designer Mariad Whisker, stylist Catherine Condell and financial analyst Pascal Martel were all at the opening. "Jean was my muse for A-Wear and I did her wedding dress," recalled designer Peter O'Brien, who designed his A-Wear collection around the dancer last year. "She has great innate style. It's always quite understated," he said.
Other guests included John Scott, director and founder of the Irish Modern Dance Theatre, who has just returned from New York where his company has had "rave reviews" for its show at PS 122; artist Maedhbh McMahon, whose show Amygdalae opens next Thursday at Dublin's Kevin Kavanagh Gallery; Paris-based Maggie Doyle, of Laffont Publishers; Paul Johnson, director of Dance Ireland; Wolfgang Hoffmann, dancer and director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, with his wife, Fionnuala; and director Tom Creed, who is currently working on Martin Crimp's play, Attempts on Her Life, which opens later this month in the Project.
Does She Take Sugar? closes tonight at Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin 2. The performance begins at 8pm
Cultural cacophony on the quays
David Teevan promises NoFitState Circus will deliver "a non-stop flowing cacophony of movement" when they perform ImMortal in June in Dublin's docklands area.
"It's theatre, it's music, it's acrobats, it's clowns," said Teevan.
It's just one of the events that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority has organised as part of Down at the Docklands, a summer programme of events and attractions.
Performance artist Nigel Rolfe said he's looking forward to hearing Glen Branca create "noise bands" with his 100 guitarists who "all play the same tune. It's really exciting. He's a bit of a name from the past. I'd have been big on him in the 1980s".
At the programme launch, local musicians, who form the North Strand Klezmer Band, played a selection of traditional Jewish and Gypsy music, such as Moshe Emes (Man of Truth). "Fear na Fírinne," added the band's manager Billy Ó hAnluain helpfully. The band's drummer Peter Sheridan, commenting on the level of development in the docklands area, said, "It's exciting and at the same time there's a great sense of community here. "
"What's really inspiring and different about the docklands is the heart and soul that goes with it," said Paul Maloney, the authority's chief executive, who launched the summer programme.
Listing developments in the area, he mentioned the new national conference centre, which is to be completed by 2010, with capacity for 8,000 delegates a day; the new Abbey Theatre, which is "full-steam ahead"; the Point Depot, which has just got planning permission to refurbish it into a world class theatre, and also the Daniel Liebeskind Grand Canal Theatre, which will seat 2,200 people and be completed in 2009.
"Our aim is to bring arts and culture to the docklands . . . The fact that we are on the water is very particular and very special," he said, adding "we feel it's important to create a family atmosphere."
Down at the Docklands runs from May to the end of Aug. For more information, visit www.dublindocklands.ie
All the presidents' programmes
Many personal recollections were swapped at the launch in Dublin's Newman House of a new series, Uachtaráin, (Presidents), which will be screened on TG4 from next week.
Dr Donal Caird, the former archbishop of Dublin, who knew all eight presidents, recalled knowing Douglas Hyde, the first president of Ireland, from when he attended meetings of Cumann Gaeltach na hEaglaise, the Church of Ireland's Irish society.
"He was lovely, humorous, charming," Caird said. "He had a sparkle and a charm about him and he was a beautiful Irish speaker and brilliantly clever."
Film-maker Éamon de Buitléar, whose father, Éamon, was aide-de-camp to Hyde, recalled being invited to Áras an Uachtaráin by the thoughtful president to fish in the lake there when he was a young boy of eight or nine.
"Bhí sé an-dheas," he said, noting that you would know Hyde was friendly from his eyes.
The political commentator and historian, Jim Duffy, described Sean T Ó Ceallaigh as "bubbly, unpredictable, moody and fun . . . and he could be tactless".
Psychotherapist and Green Party councillor Nessa Childers, youngest child of former president Erskine Childers, said her father "was a very interesting man . . . He took children seriously. He listened to you carefully".
The series was launched by Éamon Ó Cuív TD, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, and grandson of Ireland's third president, Eamon de Valera. He stressed the importance of the freedom of the presidency.
"Tá sé neamhspleách," Ó Cuív said, referring to the independence of the position.
Among those who came to the launch were Sinéad Ní Mheallaigh, a primary school teacher at Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire and her father, Mícheál Ó Meallaigh, TG4's senior commissioning editor, Gavin Ó Fearraigh, Ros na Rún actor and a dancer on Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels, Antoine Ó Coileáin, head of Gael Linn, former Labour minister for health Barry Desmond and the writer and playwright Ulick O'Connor.
Uachtaráin will begin next Wed at 9.30pm on TG4
On wings and songs
Angels were pasted to the walls, friends smiled beatifically and heavenly vibes emanated from every corner of the room at the launch of Angel in Disguise? by Victoria Mary Clarke at Dublin's Shelter@Vicar Street.
The cameras began whirring when Clarke's fiance, Shane MacGowan, walked out on stage to sing Devil in Disguise with his sister, Siobhán MacGowan. The writer, who stood alongside, wore angels' wings over a black PVC mini-dress.
The classic Elvis Presley song was, said MacGowan, "for Victoria, who I love very much". His mother, Therese MacGowan, smiled up at the stage. "We could be in a pub in Listowel," whispered someone quietly. Among those in the audience were writers Julia Kelly and Mia Gallagher, artist Charlie Whisker, mathematician Robin Harte, journalist Nell McCafferty, designer Therese McKeon and publisher Trevor White.
The owner of the Angel Shop in Dún Laoghaire, Máiréad Conlon and her assistants Anne O'Connor and June Brady, were also present. The designer Michael Mortell, said angels have always intrigued him. "Angels have always been with me since childhood," he said.
The writer JP Donleavy, author of the cult classic, The Ginger Man, launched Angel in Disguise? declaring it a non-fiction, self-help book that "even helps those to whom logic doesn't make sense any more".
The writer Emer Martin, whose most recent book, Baby Zero, was published earlier this year, said Clarke's book is "laugh-out-loud funny. There are parts that are really an exposé of the celebrity culture . . . It's almost a catastrophe to be ordinary these days and she taps very well into that culture".
Clarke "is a very vibrant and a very daring individual, and a very provocative individual like most good artists," said artist Gerard Mannix Flynn. He said there is magic between herself and MacGowan, who have known each other for over 20 years, because "they know each other and they trust each other and most importantly they accept each other and encourage each other".
Angel in Disguise?, by Victoria Mary Clarke, is published by The Collins Press