BERE ISLAND ARTS WEEK 

Children from St. Michael's National School, Bere Island proudly showing their work

On June 12th, St Michaels National School, Bere Island, had an unveiling of the new school mural which was done during Art Week with muralist, Deirdre Keohane.

Art Week, which was the inspiration of principal, Kathleen Twomey and teacher Deirdre Donohue was to involve the 22 children of the school in the process of creative writing and drawing and painting.

Three artists were invited to the school to help in this process, John O'Leary, the poet from Allihies, Bernadette Leach, a children's writer from Killumney and Deirdre Keohane, from Castletownbere.

O'Leary read from his manuscript, "The Scarecrow's Coat", a children's story which will be published at Christmas.  He then talked to the children about the process of writing a book.

Leach, read from her series of books, the "Anna Who ..." and from the "Venessa" collection,  published by 'Attic Press'.  She too shared with the children the process of writing and getting published.

Steven Sage, the Development Officer for the Bere Island Project Group who was a librarian for may years with the Kent Council, also visited and talked about the Art of Storytelling.  He took them to the Standing Stone, which is located smack in the centre of Bere Island and had them imagine life 3000 years ago

After,  the children paid a visit to the Castletownbere library, where librarian Dorothy Brophy explained the working system of the library and showed them the County Council Library  Service Website.

Finally for the last week, Deirdre Keohane was asked to come and work with the children to paint a Celtic mural on the entrance school walls.  The Irish mythological stories used were "Fionn and the Dragon," "The Brown Bull of Cooley," "The Children of Lir" and "The Salmon of Knowledge".  The mural was done in record time with hardly any mess!

The children are at the moment finishing off their own books which is based in Celtic times - they will be on display during the Beara Arts Festival.

The Beara Arts Festival is on from 22nd July to 7th August.  

Full details to follow on the new Beara Website.

Part of the School Wall