LUX AETERNA St Nicholas Singers in concert with poetry from Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins, 17th November at 5pm

A Requiem for modern times

In its first outing in November 2012, St Nicholas Singers performed one of the great nineteenth century Requiem settings, that of Gabriel Faure; this year it gives Galway audiences the chance to hear a thoroughly modern take on this ancient form.

Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna was written in 1997 and is a work of 25 minutes’ duration in five movements, setting various Latin liturgical texts, some of them from the Requiem Mass and all of them suffused with the notion of light. The composer himself says “I composed Lux Aeterna in response to my Mother’s final illness and found great personal comfort and solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels—spiritual, artistic, and intellectual.”

This is a poignant, quietly serene Requiem for modern times. There is no gloom or grim foreboding, no Day of Judgement lurking, but rather a generous radiance captured in the lush harmonies and haunting melodies.  It is a work that is as uplifting for listeners as it is to sing, and in the glorious acoustic of Galway’s medieval collegiate church promises to be a very special experience.

Interspersed with the movements of the Lauridsen work will be readings from acclaimed Galway-based poets Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars. Susan will read excerpts from her recent publication The God Thing, in which she writes with compassion and clarity about the terminal illness and death of a family member and her own resulting struggle to keep faith and love alive within herself.

St Nicholas Singers is an all-comers group of 40-60 voices which prepares its performances over two weekends of intensive rehearsals. It is open to all regardless of age or experience, and new members are always welcome.

The choir is conducted by Mark Duley and accompanied by organist Ronan De Burca.

The concert takes place in St Nicholas Collegiate Church on Sunday 17th November at 5:00pm.  Tickets are 10 Euro (with concessions) and are available at the door.

Further information available from info@scholacantorumgalway.ie

Padraic McCormack, Audrey Dinneen & Niamh Boyce for November Over The Edge: Open Reading

Niamh Boyce 

The November ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, November 21^st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Niamh Boyce, Audrey Dinneen & Padraic McCormack. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. 

Audrey Dinneen’s initial foray into the world of creative writing was through a Diploma in Childrens’ Literature while resident in the USA. She continued to attend creative writing classes in England and does so now in Galway. She is an avid reader and a member of two book clubs. She was thrilled to be invited by Susan Millar DuMars to participate in her first public reading at Over the Edge.

Padraic McCormack is a retired politician having represented Galway West from 1989 - 2011. He was twice chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party and a former Mayor of Galway City. He has recently published his memoir The Rocky Road To The Dáil - politics from the inside. Since he retired from the Dáil, Padraic has taken part in creative writing classes at both GMIT and Galway Technical Institute. He is planning to publish a book of short stories, some of which he will read at Over The Edge. 

From Athy, Co Kildare, Niamh Boyce's debut novel The Herbalist was published by Penguin in June 2013. She won the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year in 2012 for her poem 'Kitty'. Her short fiction has been nominated for The Francis Mac Manus Competition, The Molly Keane Creative Writing Award and the 2009 New Irish Writing Award. Her work can be found in magazines such as The Moth, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg, Boyne Berries, The Poetry Bus, and New Irish Writing Today Magazine. She blogs at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.ie/

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council. 

Sarah O’Toole, Margaret Brady & Frank Dullaghan for October Over The Edge: Open Reading PLUS the announcement of the winners of the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year

Frank Dullaghan

The October ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 31^st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Sarah O’Toole, Margaret Brady & Frank Dullaghan. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners in this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which received a large number of entries again this year. This year’s competition judge is Sarah Clancy. 

Sarah O'Toole hails from the West of Ireland and works as a theatre practitioner and lecturer. She was the winner of the Aran Islands/Hillstead poetry competition in 1997 and travelled to Connecticut to read at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival with other emerging poets from both sides of the Atlantic. Since returning to her passion for poetry she has been published in Emerge Literary Journal, Crannóg and The Irish Left Review. She has also written two plays which have been performed in Ireland - an adaptation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" and an original piece "The Heroism Hotline" co-written with Donnacha Bushe.

Margaret Brady grew up in 1960s Dublin. An only child, she filled the long, lonely winter evenings curled up by the fire with good books. Over the years she remained a voracious reader of virtually every genre of book with a particular soft spot for science fiction. She moved to Galway from Dublin as a trailing spouse nearly 20 years ago. It was only meant to be for one year, but Galway seemed to be the perfect place to raise children. She hasn't returned to Dublin yet. She shares her home with her two college going children, an energetic dog and four and a half cats. She has recently been a participant in creative writing classes at Galway Technical Institute.

Frank Dullaghan is an Irish writer living and working in Dubai since 2006. He holds an MA with Distinction in Writing from the University of South Wales (previously Glamorgan). His poetry has been widely published in UK and Irish journals. Prior to living in Dubai, Frank lived in the UK where he was a co-founder of the Essex Poetry Festival and chaired the judging panel for The Young Essex Poet of the Year competition. He was also editor of Seam Poetry Magazine for many years. In Dubai, he has run workshops in poetry and short story writing in schools, university and for various literary and writing groups. He is a member of the spoken word platform Poeticians as well as the Dubai Writers Group and the Emirates Literary Group. Frank has two collections of poetry - On the Back of the Wind, 2008 and Enough Light to See the Dark, 2012 from Cinnamon Press - and two collections of haiku published in the UK. His third poetry collection, A Slow Implosion of the Heart, is due out from Cinnamon Press in September 2014.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council. 

2013 OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR-SHORTLIST!

2013 OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR 

The winners will be announced at the October Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 31st, 6.30-8pm.

THE SHORTLIST

which was announced at 

the Over The Edge Culture Night event @ Kenny's 

is as follows:

Sheila Armstrong, Dublin

for her story 'To Come Home'

Bernie Ashe, Galway 

for 'Crow' & other poems

Eileen Bennett, Co, Galway

for her story 'John Byrne Rides Again'

Marie Cadden, Co. Galway 

for 'Up To Scratch' & other poems

Alvy Carragher, Galway

for 'Broken Symmetry' other poems

Brian Colgan, Galway 

for 'From Babi Yar to Bethlehem'

Teresa Coleman, Mayo

for her story 'Elizabeth'

Denis Collins, Wexford 

for 'Pete' & other poems

Maurice Devitt, Dublin 

for 'A Stranger in the House' & other poems

Cal Doyle 

for 'The Heist' & other poems

Kevin Doyle, Cork

for his story 'Whatever It Was About Men'

Erin Fornoff, Dublin

for 'On Planes' & other poems

Sean Glynn, Co. Galway

for his story 'Hackett's Hole'

Sandra Harris, Dublin

for her story 'A Death'

Mary Healy, Kilkenny 

for her story 'What's Worth Keeping'

Aidan Hynes, Dublin

for his story 'Hair'

Anne Irwin, Galway

for 'The Stations of the Crossbar' & other poems

Katherine Janeczeck, Galway 

for 'Genesis' & other poems

Rupert Jenkins, Scotland

for his story 'Tender To The Shore'

Susan Kelly, Mayo

for 'Mother Superior' & other poems

Brian Kirk, Dublin 

for his story 'The Creaseless Society'

Jennifer Matthews, Cork

for 'Planning Permission' & other poems

Anna McCarthy, New York

for her story 'An Inventory of Slights'

Pat McDonnell, Galway

for his story 'Three Sisters in the Sky'

Christopher Meehan, Co. Galway 

for 'The Ever Changing Definition of Youth in Revolt'

Brendan Murphy, Co. Galway

for his story'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Sinner'

Catherine Myddleton-Evans, London, UK

for 'under the sea' & other poems

Gerard O’Brien, Co. Galway

for his story 'Nissen Hut'

Clare O’Reilly, Kildare 

for her story 'Hey Presto!

 Eleanor O’Reilly, Wicklow

for her story 'Classifieds, Fags And Coconut Creams' 

Anita Ouellette, Massachusetts, USA 

for 'Almost Afraid To Talk To God While Others Are Listening'

Micheál Ó’Síocháin, Cork

for his story 'The Last Days of The Pavilion'

Maeve O’Sullivan, Dublin 

for 'Agent of Confusion' & other poems

Christine Paintner, Galway

for 'Remember' & other poems

Valerie Ryan, Kildare

for her story 'The Postman'

Breda Wall Ryan, Wicklow

for 'Inheritors' & other poems

Rejini Samuel, Galway

for her story 'The Alleyway'

Ashlie Schweitzer, Galway

for her story 'Prairie Lights'

Fiona Scoble, Galway

for her story 'What have you brought for us?'

Breda Spaight, Limerick

for 'Final Cut' & other poems

Ekaterina Tikhoniouk, Laois

for her story 'Katie'

Alison Wells, Wicklow

for her story'The Memory-Jar'

Dimitra Xidous, Dublin

for 'The science of hands' & other poems

We would like to thank our competition sponsors: 

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,

ISupply Flood Street, Ward’s Hotel,

Kenny’s Bookshop & Derek Nolan T.D

Competition judge Sarah Clancy

THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED

@ the October Over The Edge: Open Reading

in Galway City Library,

Thurs October 31st,6.30-8pm