DINGLE PENINSULA NEWS
Nuacht Chorca Dhuibhne
Annascaul International Tom Crean Festival lineup announced
The following details are provided by The South Pole Inn:
Friday, 21st June 2013
- 5pm Welcome Parade
Main Street Annascaul outside South Pole Inn Venue A
Admission: Free - 6pm-8.30pm Endurance Walk Registration
Annascaul Community Centre Venue B - 9pm NEW INTERNATIONAL IRISH DANCE SHOW
Dancing with Death: Tom Crean’s Journey
Introduced by Cliff Wedgebury and his Polar Ballads
Annascaul Sports Hall Venue C
Admission €20 Concessions €15 - 10.30pm Music with Derry & Rosie
Composers of The Great Tom Crean song
South Pole Inn Venue A
Admission: Free
Saturday, 22nd June, 2013
Pre Registration Required
Cost €40 incl BBQ - Limited Places
Faha (Mount Brandon) Venue D
Including music at Tom Crean’s old house, his tomb and special talk at Minard castle by Michael Smith
Cost €10
Completion Certificate sign by Michael Smith
Limited Places – Easy to moderate – 3 hours
Outside South Pole Inn Venue A
Annascaul Community Centre Venue D
Admission: Free
TOM CREAN ANTARCTIC EXPLORER
Annascaul Sports Hall Venue C
Admission €20 Concessions €15
South Pole Inn Venue A
Including Tom Crean Balladeers
Admission: Free
Sunday, 23rd June, 2013
- 12 midday Annascaul Tom Crean Trail
Including music at Tom Crean’s old house, his tomb and special talk at Minard castle by Michael Smith
Cost €10
Completion Certificate sign by Michael Smith
Limited Places – Easy to moderate – 3 hours
Outside South Pole Inn Venue A - 12 midday Talk by Frank Nugent
Annascaul Community Centre Venue D
Admission: Free - 2pm Family Entertainment
New International Irish Dance Show
Dancing with Death: Tom Crean’s Journey
Matinee performance
Followed by
DRUM DANCE IRELAND
Great fun for all the family with a Tom Crean theme
Followed by Ros Ward and her
SPECIAL PUPPET SHOW
Children’s Fancy Dress Competition
Admission: €5 per Child €15 per family (2A+2C or 1A+3C)
Annascaul Sports Hall Venue C - 6-9pm Music with Sean Prior
South Pole Inn
Venue A
Admission: Free
or email southpoleinn@hotmail.com or tomcreanfestival@outlook.com with a phone number.
Sunday show tickets at the door.
Oldest living islander returns to the Great Blasket
Dr Michael Carney (Mícheál Ó Cearna) is the oldest living Blasket Islander
and he's coming home for a week-long celebration:
the
Blasket Island and West Kerry Welcome Home Week
and to launch his memoirs,
From the Great Blasket to America – The Last Memoir by an Islander.
Events take place in Dún Chaoin from Thursday 23 May until Wednesday 29 May,
with Mícheál's book launch on Friday 24 May.
Mícheál and the last surviving natives of the Great Blasket
will gather for a reunion. The island was evacuated in 1953, and only seven
islanders survive: three in America, three on the Dingle Peninsula and one in Cork.
For a programme of events of the Welcome Home Week, click here.
"The Ventry Cowboys And The Egg That Reared Them!"
Talk of migration and its effects is, sadly, on Irish lips once again. Tearful farewells on the mountain road are re-imagined and experienced once again. Partings it seems are the never-ending punctuation to the story of the rural communities of this country. However, there is another side to that sad coin.
Fearaibh Fionntrá dó – Men of Ventry is a series of hopeful vignettes which will be broadcast on TG4 in two parts, on Sunday May 5 at 9.30pm and on Monday May 6 at 8pm. Tellingly, the film uncovers a tale of love and attachment that is undying and indeed is resonant of both the cherishing of and the seeking for quiet places. Brenda Ní Shúilleabháin, the West Kerry domiciled documentary film-maker. records a reality which in these straitened times will nurture hope that other lives are still possible.
Viewers are admitted to the lives of those who stayed through earlier hard times. And The Merry Cowboys-Suaircfhearaibh na mB&ocaute; are still sticking it out through thick and thin as their families before them have done for many generations.
Sean Moriarty has had a happy life on his dairy farm. Coming into his inheritance as a result of his brother's leaving, he was witnessed the great changes and a some contraction of community, but regardless, he is content. While Muiris Ó Fiannachta isn't optimistic about the survival of their way of life, himself and his son continue to farm their land. Despite his doubts, he continues working with wit and good-humour. Witness his hand-rearing of Jaws, a toothless lamb, who has survived as a result of Muiris's nurturing of him with feeding bottles full of lager.
There has been emigration indeed, but the community has continued over the years to attract new blood. American native, Harris Moore, a well-travelled busker in another life has the local Celtic museum, which houses amongst the antique jewellery and paintings, the only skeleton of a Woolly Mammoth extant in Ireland; Michel Chauvet runs his restaurant 'The Skipper', which is located in the centre of the village. He says that he left the area once, but was inevitably drawn back: marine engineer John Holstead came to visit many years ago, and stayed, never to return to his Yorkshire home. After working in the Dingle dockyard he built a reputation as a sculptor. The film records the unveiling of his work which portrays, inside a shell structure, the fields and townlands and the surrounding mountains which incubate and enable the lives and talents, that nurture livestock and the land, and also gave birth to his creation 'The Ventry Egg'. Asked why they stay on in the parish, the participants in this moving and sensitive film say quite simply, it's because they like it there.
"The House on An Irish Hillside"
‘From the moment I crossed the mountain I fell in love. With the place, which was more beautiful than any place I’d ever seen. With the people I met there. And with a way of looking at life that was deeper, richer and wiser than any I’d known before. When I left I dreamt of clouds on the mountain. I kept going back.’
The House on an Irish Hillside by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is a memoir of the author’s life - from her
Dublin childhood and first experiences of seanchas and béaloideas, sitting on her
Galway granny’s bed, to a hectic career as an actress and writer in London and her
return visits to Corca Dhuibhne where, twelve years ago, she and her husband found
their own home and contentment in a remarkable house back west.
To read a review and order a copy, visit
The Publisher's Website
Ryanair Magazine: "The town of Dingle is perhaps one of the most fun places you can go in Ireland."
Award-winning travel writer and author Turtle Bunbury wrote a glowing review of Dingle in the January 2012
edition of Ryanair Magazine.
Bunbury spent a brief few days surfing, hill walking and enjoying the local hospitality, and described
Dingle as "perhaps one of the most fun places you can go in Ireland."
You can read his article here.
Dingle Guesthouse named sixth best in world
Dingle's Castlewood House has been named the sixth best hotel in the world by Tripadvsor.com. The
guesthouse, operated by Brian and Helen Heaton was named the best hotel in Ireland
and the sixth best globally in the "Travelers Choice 2012" awards, based on visitor reviews.
You can read the TripAdvisor reviews here.
Dingle Peninsula recommended
by Country Walking magazine
In a recent issue of "Country Walking" magazine Jenny Waters described ten reasons for hillwalkers to visit Corca Dhuibhne:
"Mountains, saints, paternoster lakes, beaches, music, cliffs, pubs, the three Sisters, Guinness, and a dolphin called Fungie: 10 top reasons to walk Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula."The article is illustrated with beautiful photographs by Andy Wilson.
You can download the article (a 2.4 MB PDF document) here.
26 West Kerry businesses receive Eco Business Award
Corca Dhuibne Glas, in conjunction with the EPA Local
Authority Prevention Network (LAPN) programme and the
Regional Waste Management Office are delighted to announce
that 26 companies on the Dingle Peninsula have been awarded
the Corca Dhuibhne Glas - Dingle Peninsula Eco Award.
The award is an
environmental training and consultancy programme which was
launched in May 2011. The programme is supported locally by
Dingle Peninsula Tourism, MFG, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Dingle
Chamber of Commerce, Kerry County Council and Transition
Town Corca Dhuibhne.
The award was open to all businesses on the Dingle Peninsula to join and the initiative is geared specifically for small to
medium enterprises. Through participation in this local award
scheme the businesses involved engaged in the programme
which aims to reduce and implement best practice in waste
management, lower energy consumption and reduce their water
usage, thus reducing costs to the businesses while lessening the
companies' impact on the environment. The companies are also
rewarded for encouraging the use of local produce and products,
encouraging environmental transport options, appointing a
"green team" and setting out an environmental improvement policy
for their business showing how they are constantly looking
for ways to improve. The businesses will also receive acknowledgement from
customers and staff of a progressive business
concerned with their environment, compliance with environmental standards
and legislation and training for the staff in
best practices in waste management.
The businesses involved were inspected in June by an independent auditor
appointed by the LAPN / EPA to oversee
the Programme. 33 Businesses in total are taking part in the programme,
and following the audit procedure 26 companies
were successful and have received the Corca Dhuibhne Glas
award. Successful businesses are entitled to display the Corca
Dhuibhne Glas Award mark demonstrating their commitment
to environmental best practice in the locality. This award will be
recognised by all agencies and will be a vital tool in promoting
business in a growing environmentally conscience market.
It is planned to hold the official awards ceremony during the
Dingle Food and Wine festival from 30th September 2nd October.
The initiative is part of an overall ambition to get "Green
destination" status for the Dingle Peninsula and to develop the
peninsula as a leader in Green Area Tourism and Green business development.
Look out for the Gradam Feabhais Sticker in participating
businesses throughout the Peninsula.
Any companies interested in joining the programme can contact
cdg.glas@gmail.com or call: Lorcan Slattery on 086 1737944
Businesses that have received the award are indicated on this website with this "green e" mark:
"Dingle Dawdling"
"Dingle Dawdling" was the title given to an article by travel writer Neil Sowerby for the Manchester Confidential website.
Arriving on the eve of the Dingle Food and Wine Festival, the writer welcomed with a plethora of treats, a boat trip and squid stories.
"This far-flung corner of Kerry is an unlikely spot for the Irish National Food Awards, yet they have grown out of the entrepreneurial self-help spirit of the festival. The professional food industry judges go beyond the jolly in a scrupulous, comprehensive sifting out of the nation’s finest products."
Read the article here.
"Metro" recommends Dingle
Paul Baldwin, travel correspondent with the Canadian edition of '''Metro''' magazine recently sang the praises of Dingle. The article ''"It Must Be Dingle"'' in the 6 September edition said that the peninsula...
"is exactly the Ireland tourists want to see, pretty, upmarket, traditional, and with a sense you'll find the craic everywhere you go".
Download a copy of the article here (PDF format).
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Mount Brandon included in top walks list
 
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Mount Brandon has been included in the "Irish Times" ''Book of Irish Walks'', a collection of
the best walking routes in the country, chosen by contributors to the paper's travel supplement. |
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