LISTEN: News Roundup October 15, 2019 – I Love Limerick Podcast Episode 23

Pictured at the launch of the Richard Harris International Film Festival which was held in the George Hotel on Friday, October 4. Picture: Kate Devaney.

LISTEN: News Roundup October 15, 2019 – I Love Limerick Podcast Episode 23

Claire O’Dowd is joined with Elysha Folan to look at this week’s Local Business, Events, Sports, Arts and Entertainment news around Limerick.

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Discussed in the opening episode of I Love Limerick’s Podcast show was the recent events that took place in Limerick last week. To start Claire talked about the launch of The Limerick city walking map. It’s  designed to resemble a traditional underground style public transport map and presents key locations and points of interest as stops on a pedestrian network

An initiative of Rian Mac Giobúin, North Circular Road, who founded EireannachTharLear.com in 2018, the design was funded by Limerick City and County Council and developed by Rian in partnership with Piquant Media. He said the main objective of the map is to encourage people to walk instead of taking the car.

Rian said, “We often forget how many great things there are to see and do around the city and I hope the map will be used by tourists visiting the city as well as locals.” Welcoming the initiative, Mayor of the City and County of Limerick, Cllr Michael Sheahan said that the map is an innovative way to show just what a walkable neighborhood Limerick city center is.

Cllr Michael Sheahan, said, “When you look at the map you realize the compact nature of the city center and that it’s really just a few minutes’ walks between so many attractions and venues. There are so many lovely walks in Limerick and it’s an ideal city to explore on foot for everyone.

In other local news, Elysha discussed the celebrations at the Limerick Going For Gold grand final, Tuesday, October 8th, as the South Limerick village of Ardpatrick was named as overall winners of the Limerick Going For Gold competition for 2019.

Fresh from their Bronze Medal in the National Tidy Towns last week, the party continued as judges awarded Ardpatrick with the top prize in the Going For Gold competition.

Limerick Going For Gold is a community-based competition aimed at making Limerick a cleaner, brighter place to work, live and visit. The competition is sponsored by the JP McManus Charitable Foundation and has a total prize pool of €70,000. It is organized by Limerick City and County Council and supported by Live 95, The Limerick Leader and The Limerick Post, Parkway Shopping Centre, I Love Limerick and Southern Marketing Media & Design.

A total of 11 communities made the final of the Limerick Going for Gold Tidy Towns Category before the winners were announced at the grand finale, attended by hundreds of people from communities across Limerick city and county in the Limerick Strand Hotel. Five of the finalists in the Tidy Towns Category were selected by popular vote on the Limerick Today show on Live95 with the remaining areas chosen by the judges, Richard Barry (Tidy Towns Chair Tallanstown, Co Louth) and Michael Griffin (retired, Limerick City and County Council).

In other news, Limerick City and County Council and the family of Dolores O’Riordan are pleased to announce the establishment of a Dolores O’Riordan Music Bursary in memory of the Cranberries singer who died suddenly in London on 15 January 2018. Limerick City and County Council has been in regular contact with Dolores’ mother Eileen and her family to discuss ways that Limerick can remember and commemorate the global superstar.

Following discussions with her family, it has been agreed that The Dolores O’Riordan Music Bursary will be established to support a Limerick professional musician to develop their career. The Dolores O’Riordan Music Bursary Award scheme is to support Limerick-based professional musicians to develop their artistic practice such as costs relating to the production of a specific body of new artistic work -development of new work for performance, presentation or recording.

Eileen O’Riordan said, “I am delighted that Limerick is honoring Dolores in this way and in particular in such an imaginative way. It’s my hope that the Dolores O’Riordan Music Bursary will allow a musician to follow their dreams.” Closing Date for receipt of applications is Thursday 31 October 2019 and you can visit Limerick.ie for more info. 

And in other cranberries news, Zombie, one of the band’s biggest hits in the bid for a billion views. In a message on the Cranberries TV channel, which has more than two million subscribers, fans are being asked to “be on the of the billion”. If they do this, the Cranberries will become the first Irish band to reach the mark. The song currently has over 962 million views, so get streaming!

They also discussed the amazing work of Brian Cuddy, the brains behind the successful homelessness-aid initiative, StreetSmart, has returned to Limerick with The SCOOP to make their first donation, of 3’000 euro to Novas in support of the great work they do in Limerick to help those experiencing homelessness. 

This will be StreetSmarts third Christmas operating the Dine Out Help Out campaign in the Tuscany Bistro restaurants in Limerick and its aim is to activate a proactive community in the hospitality industry by diners and customers being asked to add €2 onto their meals to go towards a charity of the restaurants choice. 

As StreetSmart founder, Brian Cuddy says, “Less than the price of a cup of coffee, but all them 2euros add up”. Over €120,000 has been raised in the past five years since StreetSmart was set up- all of which has gone on to help homeless charities such as The Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland, Irish Soup Kitchen Centers, Novas and many more. 

The difference with this initiative compared to others is that the money collected goes directly to the restaurant who personally choose and deliver it to a charity of their choice in the area. This means if the money is collected in Limerick, it stays in Limerick. The impact of the money in question comes into fruition in the same place it’s collected, making it a better place. 

In 2018, StreetSmart joined forces with SCOOP, a foundation with a similar aim to help those most vulnerable in the world.SCOOP use creative fundraising to achieve their aims through initiatives including art, music and social events. StreetSmart’s goal for 2019/2020 is to grow this initiative even further by getting more restaurants and generous diners on board. 

If your a restaurant keen to get involved you can visit Streetsmart Ireland.ie or visit their facebook page under the same name. And if your interested to get involved as a customer, you can visit ILoveLimerick.com, find this article online, and a list of participating restaurants will be linked at the end of the article.

Claire then informed us of “Are You Afraid of The Dark” Media festival by LCFE. The Festival is back for a second year and will be taking place on Wednesday the 23rd of October. This is an LCFE Halloween media festival and all entries will be submitted by media students across the college. This year’s theme is “Legends” and students are asked to make an audio or visual piece of their own interruption. The media department is one of the largest in the college, including art, photography, film, radio and all types of creative media. The submissions will be shown on the night, with prizes given out also, inc best film and best audio piece. This is sure to be a great night for anybody looking to get into the Halloween spirit.

Elysha then talked about the upcoming Richard Harris International Film Festival returns to Limerick this October for its seventh year after launching its biggest and most expansive program yet on Friday the 4th of October in the George Boutique Hotel. The Richard Harris International Film Festival is one of the fastest-growing film festivals in Europe. The festival takes place from the 22nd to the 28th of October this year in multiple locations across Limerick city and county.

The festival will have a strong selection of World, European and Irish Premieres. As always the Richard Harris retrospective will feature prominently, with a screening of Trojan Eddie’ with Stephen Rea – this year’s selection.

Among many highlights in this year’s festival is the world premiere of Brian Reddin’s documentary on Richard Harris, followed by a Q&A with the director and documentary participants. The documentary features Jim Sheridan, Tom Berenger, Robert Duvall among many others. There will also be a screening of Terry McMahon’s Prizefighter – a searing documentary on the life of Middleweight boxing contender ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan, followed by Q&A with the director and subject. Other premieres will be announced closer to the time of the event. As always, stars from the big screen are expected to descend on Limerick

Another highlight is the screening of Brownbag’s documentary on the making of the charming ‘Angela’s Christmas’ followed by a Q&A with Malachy McCourt and director Damien O’Connor on Monday the 22nd of October, which will kick off the week of cinematic and tech events. This will give the audience great insight into the creative process behind the exciting art-form that is animation.

The festival wouldn’t be the same without its famous afterparties. The modern Speak-easy cocktail bar 101 is the festival after-party hub and will offer a great opportunity for festival-goers and visitors to network or just unwind and meet stars from the silver screen. Richard Harris Film Festival 22-28th October 2019; various locations Limerick City and for more info you can visit  richardharrisfestival.com

In other film news, Limerick’s very own 21-year-old Rachel McGill,  a fourth-year student at the National Film School in Dublin, has been announced as the winner of the Talent Nation Showcase Competition in the Twenty Two in Dublin last week. Rachel, who has to create a graduate film completely self-funded as part of her final year in film school, won under the Film and TV category and is walking away with a cash prize of €10,000. Speaking about her win, Rachel said, “Winning really is a life-changing experience for me. I’m now able to truly express myself without financial worry. The event was amazing, there aren’t words to describe how it felt to win.” 

Rachel has an extensive background in film making, with perhaps one of her most impressive accolades being that she is the only women to have ever been crowned ‘Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year’ at the Fresh International Film Festival, after winning in 2016 with her film ‘Poppies’, which won awards in the UK, US, and Europe. Rachel’s filmmaking career was kick-started by the Fresh International Film Festival and she credits her early on success to this. The call for entries for Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2020 is now open. The closing date for entries is Friday, January 24, 2020.

She has found producing short films very difficult since losing her mother over the past year after a long illness. Her mother was her greatest inspiration and while she has found it very difficult to make content, she is very determined and is constructively using her grief by basis her graduate film on her own experience.”  

“Having the opportunity to create a film with a high budget gives me more creative freedom with my work. I won’t have to work within tight restraints and can release my full potential.” – she added. You can check out her Fresh Young Filmmaker of the Year winner “Poppies” on Youtube. 

Another amazing local woman they discussed was Saoirse Exton, who won Limerick Person of the Month for her contribution to climate change. 14-year-old Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh student Saoirse Exton wins the Limerick Person of the Month award for her work related to climate change issues with the Fridays for Future Limerick movement. Saoirse, a Climate Activist with Fridays for Future Limerick, is now nominated for Limerick Person of the Year and will go forward to next year’s Limerick Person of the Year awards and is with a great chance of winning. 

Saoirse said she felt very honored about being nominated. Her work with the Fridays for Future Limerick is impressive and the project is part of a global initiative that encourages students in every education level to strike in front of their local government buildings. 

On September 20, 2019, a Global Climate Strike was held in Limerick and over 1,000 people joined Saoirse and fellow Friday for Future Limerick representatives in protest. On Saturday, October 5 Limerick Against Pollution held a ‘March for Our Lives’ protest. Saoirse was a key speaker at the protest and spoke to ilovelimerick saying that, “the environment issue is about life and death. It is climate injustice, we have to respect everyone, we have to respect people, but our government keeps ignoring us for too long and now we need to stand up and fight back. You can join them every Friday from 9 am to 3 pm and follow the Fridays for Future Limerick Facebook page for updates. 

Last but not least On Monday, October 7, No. 2 Pery Square with the help of Senator David Norris, officially opened its doors to the public as the People’s Museum of Limerick during an evening of wine, canapes and classical music. A longtime political activist and Georgian house enthusiast, Norris was the perfect choice to celebrate the opening of this latest project from Limerick Civic Trust, which seeks to represent the diversity of the people of Limerick in the showcasing of the historic collections in its care.

Addressing the audience and Limerick Civic Trust, Senator David Norris said, “Limerick was always a glowing presence in our lives. The Georgian core of Limerick is extremely special and I’m delighted you have Mr. Pery the Earl of Limerick supporting you because he built this square” Speeches were also heard from Limerick Civic Trust CEO, David O’Brien, and Chairman, Thomas Wallace-O’Donnell. 

The People’s Museum of Limerick is currently open Monday to Friday, 11 am to 3 pm, with extended opening hours coming soon. Rooms in the house are also available for rental and for community use, and events are held in the museum most nights of the week.  

You can visit ILoveLimerick.ie for pictures of the night and you can visit peoplesmuseum.ie for more info. 

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