On The Town:Students from Béara Community School in Castletownbere, Co Cork stole the show at a party in the Arts Council headquarters in Dublin this week.
Their performance of their poems about the sea to the music of David Geraghty, as part of a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Writers in Schools scheme, was "an example of the amazing work being undertaken through arts education initiatives by artists, teachers and students in schools all over the country", said Jane O'Hanlon, education officer with Poetry Ireland, which runs and organises the Arts Council funded scheme.
The dedication of artists, often "heading out on dark, miserable mornings and making long journeys by car, bus, train and sometimes even boat or plane", was praised by Anna Boner, of Poetry Ireland. Poet Thomas McCarthy recalled visiting a series of eight post-primary schools in Co Clare in the 1980s as "a fantastically creative time".
Young people "are a fantastic audience. Their response is immediate. There's no messing with the kids. You'll know instantly whether they like their poetry or not. They remind you why you write poetry because they are so life-giving," said poet Tony Curtis, who has been a writer in many schools stretching from Armagh to Cobh.
A key function of the Writers in Schools scheme is to "calibrate and mark that interesting space between the mysterious and the normal", said Martin Drury, arts director with the Arts Council.
"What I love is writing for children," said poet and children's writer Áine Ní Ghlinn. "You get back as much as you give."
Writer, and former school principal of Lucan Community College, Jack Harte recalled his first meeting with John McGahern through the scheme. "He loved it," he said. And after the (classroom) session "we went off down to the pub and had a great conversation. It was lovely."
Others who attended the party included writers Rose Doyle and June Considine, film producer David Collins, who instigated the scheme when he worked at the Arts Council, and Orlaith McBride, director of the National Youth Theatre.
Cool young customers perform
Eight-year-old Éirinn Quaid, in a cream satin and tulle dress, was calm and composed as she walked out on stage to play a piece by Dmitri Kabalevsky in front of President Mary McAleese and a packed auditorium at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin on Tuesday night.
Nine-year-old Art O'Mahony from Castleisland in Co Kerry was equally cool when he strode out to recite the Roger McGough poem It Wasn't Me, Miss! "He hasn't a nervous bone in his body," said his mother, Kate O'Mahony, afterwards.
At this stage, Devin O'Shea-Farren (12), currently playing the part of Young Pip in the Gate's production of Great Expectations, is an old hand at playing for heads of state. He played for former US president Bill Clinton when he visited his family home in Dublin recently, but he admitted to being "just a little bit" nervous when he took his seat at the piano to play Johann Burgmüller's Orage.
These young people were among the 13 who performed at the Permanent TSB High Achiever Awards Gala Concert this year, having been chosen from 40,000 who were examined at venues around the country in music and speech and drama grades.
"This is the creme de la creme," explained John O'Conor, concert pianist and director of the RIAM. "It just shows what's on the way up and . . . they'll have a love of music all through their lives."
The academy's Katherine Brennan Hall was packed to the gills with parents, friends and musicians for the concert, which was presented by Eoin Garrett, chair of the RIAM Senior Examiners. Others at the event included Clara Mai Fitzsimons (17) and Miriam O'Connor (17), who were there to support their classmate at Mount Anville Secondary School, Katie Fanagan, when she performed an extract from A School for Scandal; senior examiner Lorna Horan; Niall O'Grady, director of marketing at Permanent TSB; and Annette Andrews, former chair of the academy's Senior Examiners.
Brainy brass knockers and a teddy bear chair
A sale of works by almost 100 artists opened to the public on Thursday evening in Dublin's Temple Bar. Items such as funky door knockers made of brass in the shape of the brain's medulla oblongata, designed by Matthew Harrison and costing €500 each, went on sale.
"We wanted to have a big shop for art, just to be obvious about the commercial nature of the show," said Rayne Booth, co-curator of the show with Alan Butler at the opening of The Big Store exhibition at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. "We have a bit of everything, you can find everything artwise under the one roof," she said, pointing to items such as €5 prints by Fergus Niland, USB keys with animation by Aideen Barry at €100 and bags by Ida Mitrani at €10.
"We gave [ the artists] a really open brief to respond to consumerism," said Butler. Some artists had "adapted" and created "by-products of their own works," he added. He loved Niland's prints for their "dark sense of humour".
Operating like a big department store, and based around the Marx Brothers' 1941 film, The Big Store, the exhibition also includes work by the established international artist Gottfried Helnwein, whose piece called Sleep was marked at €37,000.
Marian Lovett, director of the gallery, had her eye on a pencil drawing by Mitrani of her daughter, Martha Lovett Cullen (eight). "I love the chair made out of teddy bears, it's hilarious," said artist Michelle Considine, of the piece by Jonathan Mayhew called Teddy Chair, priced €1,000. Anthea Richard (two) sat in the chair and laughed, her mother Evy Richard looking on. Artists in the show, who were also "shop assistants", included Mark Beatty and Sarah Woods.
The Big Store at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, 5-9 Temple Bar, Dublin 2, continues until Saturday, December 22nd.
A reading from the literary gospel
Speaking from the pulpit in Dublin's Unitarian Church, poet John O'Donnell described the 12th volume of the Cork Literary Reviewas "a collection of epistles from apostles".
"This book has been a long time in the making," he continued, his voice rising like a man speaking to his flock, as he looked out over the heads of the writers and poets - including many of the contributors to the review - who had filed into the pews of the beautiful church. "What we are celebrating here is the arrival of a new series of messages, a collection of epistles from apostles, if you will.
"The writings in this handsome book come through the letterbox from all points of the compass. Some are messages from the front, others take us back. What matters most is that when we hear them in our head, the sound they make is true."
The collection includes the best stories, poems and essays, he said. "They shock. They sadden. Sometimes they make us laugh. More often they make us cry."
The volume is also a commemorative journal, following the deaths of Micheál Davitt, John Moriarty, Seán Ó Tuama and Greg O'Donoghue, as one of the book's editors, Eugene O'Connell, pointed out. The other two editors - Sheila O'Hagan and John William Sexton - were also at the launch.
Four contributors to the review - short story writer Mary O'Donnell, poet Gerard Smyth (also a managing editor of this newspaper), poet and critic Maurice Harmon and the writer Paul Lenehan - read from their work.
And musician John Sheahan of The Dubliners played on the tin whistle and later on the fiddle, finishing with the much-loved Marino Waltz. Then we went in peace out into the night.
Cork Literary Review, Vol 12 is published by Bradshaw Books