Heritage week in westmeath libraries
The aim of Heritage Week, which runs this year till August 22 30, is to build awareness and education about our heritage.
Many of the events during the week are free and the programme highlights the abundance of great work being carried out to preserve and promote our natural, built and cultural heritage.
Westmeath Library Service has long recognised that our county is rich in creativity and has tried to celebrate this through our promotion of literature by readings, book-launches and author visits, and through our promotion of the visual arts through the purchase of important works by local artists and by the holding of occasional art exhibitions in our branch libraries.
This year Westmeath Library Service decided to build on its ‘Spark of Genius’ initiative, which was first run in 2013.
This year we have again chosen to honour a cross-section of 12 individuals who have made their contribution to the cultural heritage of the county and the wider cultural heritage of Ireland.
We have produced attractive full-colour posters, complete with images and brief biographies, which will be displayed in A3 or A4 format in all branch libraries. They will also become a resource on the library website joining the posters which were produced in 2013 and 2014.
This year’s exhibition celebrates the life and works of people as diverse as: the Fenian poet John Keegan Casey, who was born near Rathconrath, and the late lamented modern Irish poet and novelist Dermot Healy, who was born in Finea.
One of the most colourful characters included is Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, musician and composer, who become a legendary figure in music circles in the US and who learned his music from an army bandmaster in Athlone.
The late Padraic O’Farrell, who lived in Mullingar for many years, was one of our most prolific and versatile authors; Kenneth Essex Edgeworth was an astronomer who was born in Streete and modern space exploration is confirming many things which he wrote about in the 1930s.
Harry Rice spent his retirement in Coosan, and wrote ‘Thanks for the Memory’; he was a great advocate for the inland waterways of Ireland and he is included, as is Robert Dowdall, author and adventurer, who was the first blind Irishman to reach the peak of Kilimanjaro.
Other poets included are John Ennis, a native of Coralstown, and Breda Sullivan (nee Ducke), who was born in Athlone and lives in Streete.
Manchán Magan, television presenter and journalist, lives and works in north Westmeath; the artist Mary Clifford is included for her contribution to the visual arts; the actor and film-script writer/ producer Terry McMahon, who produced the highly acclaimed film ‘Patrick’s Day’ is a native of Mullingar.
Terry, in writing to our acting county librarian, had this to say about libraries (and in particular Mullingar Library) – it is “a place with passports to worlds beyond shadow”… ”libraries are my cathedrals, always have been, always will be”.
Apart from the ‘Spark of Genius’ exhibition Mullingar Library will also be hosting an exhibition on Mullingar and the Railway; Moate Library is hosting an exhibition on ‘Moate’s Industrial Past’ and in Castlepollard Library there will be an exhibition on ‘The Changing Face of Castlepollard 1900-2000’.
In all cases the Heritage Week exhibitions will be open during the normal open hours of the Library.
To find out more about Westmeath Libraries and ‘A Spark of Genius’ visit www.westmeathcoco.ie/library for details of opening hours or call 090 6481888.