Grow and renew during Tipp’s Bealtaine
As the weather brightens and takes on a distinctly summery warmth, Tipperary’s Bealtaine Festival is, as usual, gearing up to bring our audiences an annual feast for the senses of music, dance, theatre, craft and this year we’ve added gardening to the mix. Bealtaine is Ireland's national festival, which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age.
For the 2022 Bealtaine programme, our theme of renewal and growth echoes the desire by people of all ages to get out and about again. The Covid-19 pandemic, and in particular its impact on older people, has underlined the natural and human ecosystem of dependence and connection.
The emphasis this year is on engaging people as they age as both makers and audiences for the arts. Once again Tipperary Arts Office and Tipperary Library Service have come together presenting concerts in the open air in care settings with Festival in a Van and local musicians, reminiscing with Age Friendly Tipperary and providing a range of workshops and concerts across the arts centres and libraries in the county with opportunities to gather and enjoy all that the festival has to offer.
Aoife Barrett has taken her Print Van Go project to Roscrea and will work with a group of older people active in Age Friendly Roscrea who will create Tinned Stories, their own stories and print images will be shown during May at Roscrea Courthouse. Artist Maureen Purcell has been working with a group in Clonmel to create a beautiful mosaic which will find its way into Clonmel Hospital later on in the month. Writer Margaret Galvin’s Focus on Four is a Tipperary Bealtaine creative writing project culminating in ‘Bridging the Distance,’ which will showcase the poetry and prose of four Tipperary writers: Mary Caulfield, Ann Dempsey, Richard Cahill and Mary O’Gorman. These writers address a diversity of subjects and will read from ‘Bridging the Distance’ at the following venues: including Marian Court Sheltered Housing, Morton Street, Clonmel at 10.30am on May 11 (residents only), Clonmel Library May 11 at 3pm (open to all), Cahir Library May 14 at 11am (open to all) Ballingeary ICA Guild, Cahir, May 14, 2.30pm (members only).
Over at Nenagh Library on Thursday, May 5, Age Friendly Tipperary presented ‘Reminiscing Back in My Day, the Story continues’ with a visit by Jimmy Duggan who collated and narrated the 2021 first volume of stories in the collection. In 2021 Tipperary Age Friendly captured stories from older adults across the county who contributed tales of their life growing up in Tipperary: wwwhttps://www.tipperarycoco.ie/community-and-economic-development/back-my-day. To continue this project Tipperary Age Friendly invites you to visit your library during Bealtaine where we will collect stories and reminiscences for the second volume of the project. Jimmy will conduct an interview in person with each individual in libraries throughout the county during the month of May. These will all be collated into the new volume of stories which we will launch and showcase during Positive Ageing Week 2022.
FURTHER DETAILS
It’s a jam packed month so pick up a brochure and keep an eye on our social media and website. Booking is essential for all workshops and events. The full programme is also available online from www.tipperarycoco.ie/arts.