MUSIC: Connemara Bog Week rolls round again

Connemara Bog Week rolls round again


Going Out
Henry McGlade

The annual Connemara Bog Week 2009 festival starts on Friday, May 22, and runs until Bank Holiday Monday, June 1. This is the 25th year of the festival, and the organisers, Connemara Environmental Education and Cultural Centre, are promising an exciting line-up for the birthday celebrations.
This multi-layered festival attempts to provide spaces for expression for various interests in the community, embracing young and old, sporting, cultural and artistic. The whole festival is wrapped in the very best of trad music, and there is a great line-up of musicians to join in the festivities.
Two of Mayo’s finest accordionists, Mary Staunton from Tourmkeady and Seamus Heneghan from Louisburgh, will lead the way. Other musicians slated to play include Conor Keane, Laoise Kelly, Don Stiff, Yvonne Kane, Marcus Hernon, Maire Keane, Mat Kane, Liz Kane, Edel Fox, Fergus Feely, Frank and Theresa Custy, Noel Shine, Mary Greene, Quintan Cooper, Eoin O’Neill, John O’Halloran, Gerry Whelan, Gary Quinn, Canadian quartet Van Django and a host of local players, singers and dancer, such as The Cunningham Family and Emma O’Sullivan. There’ll also be a few surprises along the way…
Connemara Bog Week ’09 opens on Friday with a programme for national schools.  The fun continues with a gig in The Bard’s Den.