Women, travel, music, sport, birds and of course the sea, will all be celebrated at this year's Connemara Sea Week, which runs in and around the north Connemara village of Letterfrack until next Sunday, October 30th.
This is the 14th year of Sea Week which, with its companion event, Connemara Bog Week, held each May, celebrates Connemara's natural heritage with an array of indoor and outdoor events for children and adults.
Highlights of Sea Week 2000 include the launch of a new CD, Behind the Mist, featuring some of the musical sessions which have taken place during Sea and Bog weeks over the last 14 years.
Musicians on the CD include Sharon Shannon, Sean Tyrrell, Davy Spillane and Josephine Marsh, Mary Staunton and the current singer with De Dannan, Andrew Murray, who hails from nearby Inishbofin.
"It's 50 per cent outside music and 50 per cent local," explains the week's director and principal of Letterfrack National School, Mr Leo Hallisey.
Behind the Mist has been produced by P.J. Curtis and will be launched at Renvyle House Hotel next Thursday, October 26th. The Josephine Marsh band will play at the launch and will be joined by visiting and local musicians. Everybody is welcome, there is no admission fee.
Next Saturday, journeys, large and small, as well as spiritual journeys inwards will be discussed by botanist Michelle Sheehy Skeffington, zoologist Faith Wilson, artist Fiona O'Farrell, theology student Rosalie McDonagh, writer Gaye Shortland and film maker Lelia Doolin.
Michelle Sheehy Skeffington will describe her work in the tropical rainforests while zoologist Faith Wilson, who has lived on the island of Tonga, will talk about her experiences of Pacific island hopping.
The conference will begin at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, 28th October in Letterfrack National School and will cost £30 or £15 for unwaged. An art exhibition to coincide with the event is being held in the Ellis Tate Gallery, Letterfrack. Shorelines of Travel opens on Friday October 27th at 8 p.m. and will feature the work of Fiona O'Farrell, Eithne Griffin and Orla Callaghan.
More details on the Sea Week Conference are available from 095-43443/41034.
Achill islander and Killybegs supertrawler owner Kevin McHugh will receive the first Maritime Person of the Year award which is being presented at Galway's Maritime Ball on Saturday, October 28th in the Corrib Great Southern Hotel. Proceeds from the ball will go towards the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Galway lifeboat. Tickets are available from (091) 582400.
Whiden Toie is the title of an evening of music and storytelling tomorrow in Galway's Black Box theatre, hosted by the Galway Travellers' Support Group and the Galway Arts Festival. Now in its second year, Whiden Toie, which translates as "Talking nights" in Travellers' cant, provides an opportunity to hear and experience Travellers' culture, and is part of a series of events in Galway to complement a two-day conference on community work and human rights for Travellers.
The "Travelling Forward" conference opens tomorrow in the Ardilaun Hotel. Further details are available at (091) 562530.
Kieran Hanrahan, Jimmy McGreevy, Jim McKillop, Nuala Hehir and many more musicians will be in Gort, Co Galway this week for the 16th Cooley-Collins Traditional Music Festival. Opening with a folk Mass on Thursday night in Peterswell Church, the festival runs through the bank holiday weekend. For information, ring Mary Coen, festival secretary on (091) 632370. Accommodation for visitors can be arranged.