Culture Night in Athy 2023

Culture Night has come and gone. There were twelve events held in Athy giving us all the opportunity to learn how a diverse range of cultural activities can expand our understanding and appreciation of the arts. Last year I questioned why all the events local, regional and national had to occur on the one night rather than being spread over an entire week. It was again very difficult to attend all the local events and impossible to reach on events held outside the town. A culture week would make more sense and encourage greater public involvement in the various arts. I was sorry to miss local artist Cathy Callan’s painting event in the Irish Wheelchair Association premises at St. Vincent’s Hospital. Cathy is a very talented artist whose work I have admired for some time. My first visit on Culture Night was to Clancy’s bar in Leinster Street to view John Coffey’s photographs of renowned Irish folk musicians. It was wonderful to see that he had captured on film a fine portrait of the late Liam O’Flynn, Ireland’s greatest uilleann piper. It was significant that both of Athy’s current master pipers, Brian Hughes and Joe Byrne, also featured amongst the renowned Irish folk musicians of today. Memories were stirred as I looked at the photograph of the late Anthony O’Byrne, the Donegal man who was one of the founders of the weekly Clancy traditional music sessions and after whom the Tony O’Byrne GAA Park in Ballyadams is named. The town library was the venue for the unique, “The Prado on the Barrow” exhibition featuring the work of some members of Athy’s photographic club. The club borrowed an idea from the main Spanish National Art Museum in Madrid which during the covid lockdown encouraged Spanish families to recreate in real life some of the classic paintings in their collection and to share photographs of their recreations on the internet. The Athy club members were asked to repeat that exercise and twelve of their photographs were chosen for the exhibition. The paintings recreated included works by El Greco, William Leech, Leonardo de Vinci, Van Gogh and several other great masters. “The Prado on the Barrow” was a fascinating exhibition combining fine photography, exceptional costume arrangement and design. Unfortunately, it was limited in terms of exhibition time as it was followed at 6 o’clock by the celebration in song and story of the Johnny Cash visit to Athy sixty years ago. The Arts Centre which has taken on an exciting life post covid was my next port of call. Two events were based in the Arts Centre, the earliest being the exhibition of Athy photographs by the travelling photographer Frank Goggin. He captured on film over 800 local persons on the streets of Athy in 1948 and 1949. The photographs are of a time and a people long past but present family members of those photographed can revisit long forgotten memories as they view friends, family and relations whose images were captured over 70 years ago. The exhibition had been opened in the town Library on the day before Culture Night and transferred to the Arts Centre where it will remain open each day except Sunday from 2.00 – 5.00pm for two weeks. The Arts Centre was also the venue for a production centred on the songs of Burt Bacharach. “Anyone who had a Heart” was a joyful musical tribute to the legendary American songwriter who gave us such timeless songs as “What the World needs now” and “Raindrops keeping falling on my head” amongst many many more. The Arts Centre in Woodstock Street is an excellent music venue and Athy Musical and Dramatic Society with David Walsh as Director and Carmel Day as Musical Director gave the audience on Culture Night, and three other nights as well, a first class show. I could not get around to the six other events but the large number of cultural events on the one night in Athy was a wonderful indication of a culture awareness which augurs well for the future. As Horace the Roman poet once wrote “no one is so far unreclaimed that he cannot become civilised, if only he will lend a patient ear to culture”.