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Multi-award winning musician to perform on home soil 

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A very talented musician from Killarney, who has not only toured with Riverdance but also won multiple awards for her fiddle and concertina playing, will perform locally this Saturday night. 

Niamh Ní Charra toured from 1998 to 2006 as a soloist with Riverdance, before returning to Ireland where she is now based. Her recently released fifth album 'Donnelly’s Arm', recorded under challenging circumstance during the COVID-19 and several lockdowns, has none-the-less received much critical and public acclaim.

Niamh will be joined by regular bandmates Kevin Corbett on guitar, and Dom Keogh on bodhran at 9pm in the INEC Acoustic Club, Gleneagle Hotel.

"The album, my fifth, was recorded in between lockdowns, and released just over a year ago," Niamh said.
"It's only now I'm finally getting to perform on home soil. The gig was moved from January because of restrictions that came in December."

Niamh will be performing material from all five of her albums. 2022 will mark 15 years since she released her first album 'Ón Dá Thaobh/From Both Sides' to critical acclaim, and her most recent album was just crowned Number 1 Trad album of 2021 in reviewer Alex Monaghan’s Top Ten. Alex is a reviewer for several publications including Irish Music Magazine, Living Tradition and FolkWorld.

Niamh is strongly influenced by a wealth of local Sliabh Luachra musicians, she started playing music at the early age of four.

AWARDS

She is the recipient of several awards including 'Instrumental Album of the Year' in 2014 in the Chicago Irish American News’ TIR awards for her previous album 'Cuz', 'Female Musician of the Year' in 2012 and 2014, in the Live Ireland Music Awards, 'Best Trad Music Act 2008' from UK publication The Irish World, and 'Best Fiddle/Violin 2008' from the American based Irish Music Association. Her music also featured on the programme 'Ireland in Song' which aired on Aer Lingus transatlantic flights.

Along with touring extensively as a solo artist and with her own band, Niamh has also performed and recorded with The Chieftains, Carlos Núñez, and in 2011 released an album 'The Basque Irish Connection', in collaboration with Basque musician Ibon Koteron. She regularly gives workshops and masterclasses on both fiddle and concertina, has performed for several presidents and members of royalty and has additionally coordinated concerts hosted by the Irish embassy, on behalf of the Government.

Niamh is also a professional archivist and is currently project manager and project archivist for the Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League) and Mary Robinson Collections in the National University of Ireland, Galway.

She is also the Communications and Campaigns officer for the Archives and Records Association, Ireland, and regularly gives presentations on her work in this field. She is a founding member and archivist for the volunteer campaign group FairPlé established in 2018, which aims to achieve gender balance in production, performance, promotion and development of Irish traditional and folk music.

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Fossa School says ‘bonjour’ to French classes

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Fossa National School is giving its pupils a headstart in learning a new language.

The school signed up to Language Sampler scheme as part of the ‘Say Yes to Languages’ initiative in primary schools organised by Post Primary languages Ireland in 2021. This is the school’s third year running the module.

Hélène Olivier-Courtney, the school’s French teacher and director of French For All Killarney School of French, covers ten schools in Kerry over the three terms.

The success of the initiative relies on an all-school approach and the active involvement of class teachers and management.

“The whole staff in Fossa certainly helped make this new journey a special and enjoyable experience for the children as we learnt French through art, songs, games and food tasting! This year, we also organised a catwalk on our last day. Our sixth-class students will have such a head start before secondary school and most importantly will have develop curiosity interest and love for the language,” said Hélène.

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Opinion: Silent majority needs to stand up and call out far-right hate

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By Chris Davies

Last Friday’s Dublin Riots should not have come as a surprise to anyone. It has been bubbling under the surface of Irish society for a good number of years now. The actions of a small minority last week was a culmination of years of racism, hatred and misinformation shared online by far-right groups.

Late on Friday night a disturbing WhatsApp voice note was doing the rounds on social media where a far-right actor could clearly be heard encouraging violence on the streets of Dublin. 

“’Seven o’clock, be in town. Everyone bally up, tool up…Any foreigner, just kill them”

Watching the Riots unfold on social media brought me back to when I was working in Dublin a number of years back. My morning commute from Skerries to the city centre involved a dart to Connolly Station followed by a short trip on the Luas to the Jervis. Every week, without fail, I would witness at least one racial slur or attack on someone who didn’t fit the narrow minded view of what an Irish person should look, dress or talk like. I don’t know if it is the eerie silence of public transport that seems to amplify the situation, but that’s where I found it to be most common. The abuse was usually perpetrated by a group of youths or someone who was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs. The victims were always of colour, often dressed smartly enough to presume they were on their way, or coming from work. A far cry from the perpetrators who you could tell were roaming aimlessly around the city looking for trouble.

While shameful to admit, I would often look on and watch the abuse unfold, only to spend the rest of my work day thinking about the poor person who was told to “F*&K off back to your own country”. I would sit at my desk questioning why I didn’t step in and say something. There were one or two occasions where I did step in and call it out, but not nearly often enough.  

This disgusting behaviour is much more visible in our cities. Since moving back to Killarney I wouldn’t witness as much direct abuse on the streets but working with the Killarney Advertiser I would be tuned in to local news and some of the comments I read on our social platforms are far worse than anything I witnessed during my time in Dublin.  

There is a significant group of people in Ireland that I would call the ‘silent majority’. We are not as outspoken on issues we care about. We tend to observe and consume the news quietly, and only speak of our support or disgust on certain issues in close circles, too afraid we might offend someone. The problem with this is that we are leaving these far-right groups unchallenged, to become louder, more aggressive and more hostile as seen last week. 

The past week Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats have been busy in the media expressing no confidence in Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris but I would suggest that there is a large percentage of the Irish population that bears some of the responsibility. We witness racism in our communities and online every day and we need to start speaking up and calling it out. 

On the issue of immigration in Killarney, there is no doubt resources are being stretched and our tourism industry is suffering as a result of an influx of immigration. Locals have also raised concerns in relation to the placement of so many male international protection applicants in one setting and we only have to look back on the incident in Hotel Killarney last year where a number of men were involved in a harrowing stabbing incident to see how that played out.  

However, being concerned around immigration is not the same as anti-immigration. It is important to raise these issues with local representatives and Kerry TD’s but also to separate ourselves from far-right groups who are only interested in encouraging violence.  

The anarchy we witnessed last week should never be the answer and research shows it is completely unnecessary. Harvard University have looked at hundreds of protests over the last century, and found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns and that it only takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Let’s continue to protest peacefully for issues we believe in, but stand up and speak out against people and movements in our community that incite hate and violence. 

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