Open Call for Culture Night proposals

Culture Night Logo

What is Culture Night?

Culture Night/Oíche Chultúir is a national moment, celebrating all that makes up the richness and diversity of Culture in Ireland today, connecting people to cultural activities locally and nationally and aims to open up pathways to ongoing engagement. An annual, all-island public event which takes place each year and this year taking place on Friday 22nd September 2023, it celebrates culture, creativity and the arts and seeks to actively promote the belief that this rich and varied culture is alive, treasured and nurtured in people’s lives, today and every day. Special and unique events and workshops are specifically programmed at participating locations and thanks to the continued support of the Arts Council and local Authorities across the island of Ireland, all activities are made available to the public free of charge.

Culture Night
  • Encourages more people to visit cultural venues and experience culture in their locality
  • Reminds us all about the fantastic cultural facilities and resources that we have locally and nationally
  • Raises the profile of cultural organisations, activities and facilities
  • Encourages people to try new things and to get into the habit of going more often to cultural venues and activities in their locality
  • Makes it easier for people to play a role in their local cultural scene
  • Helps create a sense of community and belonging
Who makes Culture Night happen?

Culture Night happens because many people share a vision and enthusiasm for enjoying, celebrating and promoting creativity and culture. The following list gives a taste of the wide range of institutions that make it happen across Ireland: The public, artists, performing groups, galleries, museums, sport clubs, libraries, arts centres, craft workers, studios and workshops, theatres, public spaces, broadcasters, schools, community groups, local authorities, government departments, state agencies and public bodies, transport companies, universities, shops and many more! For full details on Culture Night see: www.culturenight.ie   

Culture Night in County Monaghan

 Culture Night has been celebrated throughout County Monaghan for several years and we want to build on this momentum again in 2023. If you are a Monaghan based creative practitioner/artist, not-for-profit organisation, local community group, arts, heritage and cultural groups, venues, and societies, we would like to hear your proposal.

What are we looking for?

 In terms of programming, as per Culture Night criteria it is not only about promoting our cultural venues and organisations but engaging creative practitioners as we endeavour to promote the Pay the Artist initiative. We are particularly interested in participatory projects that can give ownership on the part to the audience; initiatives which may broaden the concepts of culture; projects which include equality, inclusion, accessibility and diversity; and projects which can have lasting legacies beyond Culture Night. We also advocate for groups/venues to collaborate on programming with creative practitioners. We seek programming which creates opportunities for increased participation with those who may not always have easy access to events of a cultural nature, particularly but not limited to the following – Asylum seekers, migrants and migrants; arts and disability; Irish traveller culture; promoting gender equality.

To find out more and receive application form email culturenight@monaghancoco.ie

 

Closing Date: Expression of interest applications must be returned by 5pm Friday 23rd June by email only.

Temporary Closing of Roads – R927-3 at Magheross for a distance of 900m from its junction with R179-5 Kingscourt Road to its junction with LP-4800-0 Tullynaskeagh.

Monaghan County Council gives notice to close the following road in the Municipal District of Carrickmacross-Castleblayney in County Monaghan:

Date:                     Monday 29th May 2023 to Friday 30th June 2023

To Facilitate:      Road Improvement Works

Road Closed:

R927-3 at Magheross for a distance of 900m from its junction with R179-5 Kingscourt Road to its junction with LP-4800-0 Tullynaskeagh.

 

Diversion Routes:

Southbound traffic travelling from Kingscourt Road on the R179 will be diverted left onto R927 heading North along Main St and continuing to Castleblayney Road, at the Castleblayney Road roundabout traffic will be diverted right onto the Southbound Lane of the N2 at the Carrickmacross North Interchange. At the junction of N2/LP4922 traffic shall be directed right onto LP4922 heading Northwest and proceed to the LP4800 Drumconrath Road junction.

Northbound traffic travelling from Drumconrath to Carrickmacross on the LP4800 shall be diverted right onto LP4921 heading Southeast, at the junction of LP4922/N2 traffic shall be diverted left onto the N2 heading Northbound, at the Carrickmacross North Interchange traffic shall be diverted left towards Carrickmacross Town Centre. At Castleblayney Road roundabout traffic shall be diverted left onto the R927 towards Main St heading south and proceed towards R179 Kingscourt Road junction.

All Detours will be signposted in order to direct the Traffic. (Local Access and Emergency Vehicles will be catered for at all times).

 

This notice complies with the Roads Act 1993 (Section 75)

Kevin West

A/Senior Engineer

Roads and Transportation

18th May 2023

 

 

Celebrating ‘St Dymphna. The Tragedy of an Irish Princess’ at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Monaghan County Libraries have teamed up with Tydavnet Twinning Committee to celebrate the arrival of ‘St Dymphna. The Tragedy of an Irish Princess’ to the National Gallery Of Ireland for a limited run.  This exhibition has been organised in partnership with The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp.

Tydavnet Twinning Committee would like to organise their own Exhibition on the life of St. Dympna which will be on display in Tydavnet community centre on Sunday 14th May 2023.  As part of this, we would love children from across the County to re-tell the story of St. Dympna their way – it could be a story, a poem, an art piece, a digital creation etc.  All forms of creative expression will be accepted.  Closing Date is Friday 5th May.

Further information about the life of St Dympna can be found on the Tydavnet Village Website.

This competition is open to children from 3rd – 6th Class.  We are also including a SENsational Category for children who have been diagnosed with a Special Educational Need.

If you have any questions please get in touch at libraryactivities@monaghancoco.ie or phone 047 74702.

Prizes will be awarded for all categories.  We will endeavour to include all entries in the exhibition on May 14th

Please note:  All submissions must be accompanied by a signed Entry form.

Legend has it that St Dympna was a 7th Century Irish princess who lived in Monaghan around Tydavnet (the Irish name is Tigh Damhnata meaning House of Dympna) before fleeing to Geel, Belgium to escape her heathen father who wanted to marry her when his wife died. He later killed her when he discovered her hiding place. Her story of martyrdom and how she became patron saint of mentally illness has been captured in seven beautifully restored paintings that are on display at the National Gallery of Ireland. We want you to re-tell the story of St. Dympna Your Way for display in Tydavnet Community Centre on Sunday 14th May. This competition is open to children in 3rd - 6th Class. (Prizes will be awarded for each class category) Entries must be received by 5pm on Friday 5th May. Entries can be submitted to any Library branch in Co. Monaghan or emailed to libraryactivities@monaghancoco.ie You can choose whatever format you like to submit your retelling of Dympna's story. It could be a poem, a story, an art piece, a comic strip, an audio recording, a video recording or an animation. Whatever is your preferred creative outlet! An Entry form must accompany each submission

Come here til I tell ye!

Drumlin Yarnspinners are taking up a permanent monthly residence in Monaghan town.  If you enjoy listening to or telling a tale, come along and join in. If you have ever wanted to try your hand at telling a story, come along and join in too!  The Yarnspinners will run on the last Tuesday of each month in the Market house, Monaghan.

Monaghan town is rich in local stories, songs and poems. Local characters will be recalled from the past and will live again in the tales that are told. The ‘other crowd’ are sure to feature to, so be careful who you talk to!

Local Monaghan Storyteller in Residence, Francis McCarron, will be joined by special guests for this fun night not to be missed. Admission is free and there’s a cup of tea and maybe a ‘foosie’ with it! There will be a donation box with all proceeds going to Crocus Cancer Care.

The Storyteller in Residence project is developing a county Monaghan Storytelling Group, Drumlin Yarnspinners, to keep alive the ancient art of oral storytelling. It also seeks to gather local tales from across county Monaghan. If you are interested in learning more about storytelling or would like to tell at a future event contact Francis: email fmccarron@hotmail.com / 087 2068601.

Tuesday, Feb 28th @ 8pm:  Guest Storyteller Bryan Gallagher.  Bryan is the author of  ‘Barefoot in Mullyneeny’ and is a regular contributor to Radio Ulster Thought for the Day.

Tuesday 28th March @ 8pm: Guest Storyteller Frances Quinn.  Frances brings with her a large repertoire of Irish and multicultural stories as well as original material, verse and dramatic monologues.

‘Books On Buses’ for Ireland Reads 2023

Books on Buses for Ireland Reads

Monaghan County Libraries team up with TFI Local Link Cavan Monaghan to give away free books on buses.

On Friday 24th February passengers using Transport for Ireland (TFI) bus services on the M1, M2, M3 & 176 routes  noticed book bags placed on the seats.  These bags contained a ‘Quick Reads’ title which Monaghan County Libraries gifted to TFI Local Link Cavan Monaghan passengers.

This initiative was part of ‘Ireland Reads’, a campaign to get the whole country reading.   Irish libraries have teamed up with publishers, booksellers, authors, and others for the campaign, which is part of the government’s Healthy Ireland programme and aims to celebrate reading and all the benefits it can have for wellbeing and enjoyment.

The campaign is asking everyone to ‘squeeze in a read’ on Ireland Reads Day, Saturday, February 25th.

We would like to say a huge thank you to David McMullan and all the Local Link drivers for their help in co-ordinating this initiative.  For more information on routes and departure times for the participating TFI Local Link buses visit www.locallinkcm.ie

Karen Mc Cague, Executive Librarian with Monaghan county Libraries spoke to ‘The Wider View’ on Northern Sound radio about the initiative.  You can listen back here.

IrelandReads.ie

The pledge to read can be made at www.irelandreads.ie where you can also see how much time has been pledged by the Irish public so far and sign up for reading reminders.

The website also offers book recommendations suited to a person’s interests and the time they have available. There are more than 1,500 recommendations from librarians all around the country for all interests and reading levels.

Participants  can simply enter their favourite type of book and how long they would like to read each day and the website will offer the perfect book suggestion and work out how long it will take to complete – so you can set yourself a challenge if you’re finding it hard to get back to reading.

A number of well-known campaign ambassadors are on board to help promote the campaign, including Marian Keyes, Joe Duffy, Colm Tóibín, Rick O’Shea, Liz Nugent and more. You can find out what reading means to them and why they support the campaign at www.irelandreads.ie.

Photo of Library Staff and Local Link staff holding books that were placed on Buses for Ireland Reads Day 2023

World Book Day Wooden Spoon Competition

Turn a Wooden Spoon into a Book Character for World Book Day 2023

There’s just 1 month to go to World Book Day and we have a very creative competition running in the lead up to it. We want you to turn a Wooden Spoon into your favourite Book Character! We have wooden spoons available at the library desk or use your own but be sure to pick up an Entry form to go with it. You can also use your own spoon from home and download the Entry form below.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!!!

Wooden Spoon Competition Entry Form

Announcing Children’s Book Festival 2022

Children’s Book Festival 2022

Welcome to Monaghan County Libraries Children’s Book Festival 2022.   We are delighted to present a fantastic line up of authors & illustrators for this year’s festival.  You’ll notice that some events are happening in our library branches, some are being pre-arranged with schools and some are being streamed live online and can be broadcast directly into your classroom  using the  platform Crowdcast, which we hope you are all familiar with at this stage. If not, full instructions on how to access the event will be provided on booking.

All events can be booked through libraryactivities@monaghancoco.ie  or call 047 74702 for more information.

(Click on image to view or download the complete programme)

New Library collection for TUSLA wellbeing Centre

Selection of books

Monaghan County Libraries and Tusla the Child and Family Agency  are delighted to partner together to provide a library collection within the Tusla Wellbeing Centre aimed at Children and Young People in foster care, their carers and all other young people who use the facilities in the centre. The books provided by Monaghan County Library cover a range of topics and are geared towards all age groups.

Karen McCague, Executive Librarian with  Monaghan County Library Services  explains  

“It’s important for children and young people to be able to see themselves and their life experiences reflected in stories so that they understand that they are not alone.   We hope that by having this collection of books available within the Wellbeing Centre, children will have the opportunity to explore the stories with a caregiver or on their own and perhaps recognise themselves, their thoughts, or their experiences.  This collection of books also encourages empathy and personal development as well as dealing with big themes such as grief, separation, self-confidence and identity. “  

Charlene Duff, Senior Child and Family Support Network Co-Ordinator based in the Tusla Child Wellbeing Centre in Castleblayney added that  

“The Child and Family Networks across Monaghan have a strong history of working together creatively and today is another example of how connecting with our colleagues can bring projects like this together to help support Children and Young People who use the centre. The books are a collection of stories that reflect the real lives that children lead and we hope they will be enjoyed by many young people for years to come.”

Whilst this collection is specifically for use by Tusla service users, all titles are also available through the public  library network.

For more information on this initiative please contact kmccague@monaghancoco.ie.

Arcade Game Design Online Coding Club coming soon….

makecode example screen shot

Monaghan County Libraries and Europe Direct Clones are launching a new Arcade Game Design and Coding Club. This will support students’ introduction to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths whilst having loads of fun learning how to build arcade games through the use of Microsoft Coding applications such as Microsoft Arcade and Minecraft. Students will understand how computer games are created through the use of different coding languages. Students will experiment with coding languages and use their own imagination to build creative games.
Classes will take place Online on Tuesday evenings for ages 7-9 and Thursday evenings for ages 10-14

To register your interest please email libraryactivities@monaghancoco.ie

This initiative is funded by EU Direct Clones to celebrate European Year of Youth

#DigitalDecade #EYY2022