Artists’ tribute to Sharon for her support and dedication

Galway County Arts Officer Sharon O’Grady was honoured during the recent Clifden Arts Festival for her ongoing work and dedication to promoting the arts in Connemara.  Sharon was presented with a limited-edition print, the work of Inis Mór artist Seán Ó Flaithearta, which he created for a new show, Carrying the Songs. This multi-disciplinary project was showcased during the Clifden Festival at Interface, a unique arts space in Connemara’s Lough Inagh Valley, which was once the site of a salmon hatchery

Carrying the Songs, which was developed between March and September, combined the art of storytelling and the phenomenon of ‘Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean lei’, as it explored notions of memory, place, language communication and rumour. It opened during Clifden Arts Festival

The brainchild of Interface founder, artist Alannah Robins, Carrying the Songs began on the Aran Islands last March with a story told by 18-year-old Liam Ó Flaithearta, a great-grandnephew and namesake of the renowned writer. It finished in Istanbul last month. The original story was told and then retold more than 300 times on its journey across Europe and the final version was vastly different to the original.

On its journey, it was translated between well-known and minority languages. These included English, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, French, Breton, Occitan, Basque, Catalan, Kikongo, Swabian, Swiss German, German, Dutch, Flemish, Friesian, Danish, Swedish, Arabic, Norwegian, Norrsjö Bonska, Samiska, Meänkeli, Finnish, Estonian, Mulgi, Võru, Seto, Livonian and Latvian.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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