The tiny west Clare village of Kilbaha expects to be humming in three weeks' time, when the inaugural ESB jazz school attracts some of the finest national and international jazz musicians.
Almost 50 students have booked places on what has been billed as a week of top quality music from June 19th to 25th.
Under the artistic direction of Louis Stewart, tutors will include pianist Myles Drennan, drummer Stephen Keogh, singer Honor Heffernan, sax players Heiner Franz and Michael Buckley and bass player Michael Cody.
Apart from the daily classes, there will be entertainment nightly in local venues. The initiative is intended to complement the ESB's other musical interests, including its Music Network, the "In Tune" music residencies with the National Concert Hall, the Opera Theatre company, the National Children's Choir and the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.
The idea has been attributed to Jim Connolly, founder of Rural Resettlement Ireland and Kilbaha resident, who approached Dr Stewart with the proposal. For further details, the secretary of the ESB West Clare Jazz School can be contacted at (065) 58229 and fax (065) 58242.
Music of a different kind is promised this weekend on Leo Hallissey's Connemara Walkabout. Poet Moya Cannon, musicians Mary Staunton and Gerry Mulvihill, US painter Pam Berry, who is currently based in Letterfrack, Co Galway, ecologists Marie-Louise Heffernan and Mike Millar, and the Clifdenborn archaeologist, Erin Gibbons, have promised to lend their expertise for three days of a "gentle exploration" of the magical Connemara landscape.
The group will assemble at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Letterfrack National School, and the fee for the weekend is £30. For more details telephone Mr Hallissey at (095) 41034 and 43443.
The Famine and the role of the Church of Ireland is the theme of a talk on Saturday in Cong, Co Mayo. Father Liam Swords, who recently published an account of that period in the north Mayo area, entitled In Their Own Words, will deal with the approach of Church of Ireland rectors in that region. All are welcome to attend the talk at 8 p.m. in St Mary's Church, Cong, which is in the grounds of Ashford Castle Hotel.
Two films produced by the Galway company, Parzival Productions, are to be screened by RTE television.
Most Important, which will be broadcast on Wednesday at 10.10 p.m. on E Network 2, is an award-winning half-hour drama starring Colm Meaney and Tony Rohr. On Tuesday, June 8th, a half-hour documentary on the making of John Behan's bronze sculpture, Famine Ship, will be broadcast on RTE 1 at 10.40 p.m. .
