Arts News

Early Music Festival is back in May THE Galway Early Music festival returns to the medieval streets of Galway again this year from May 17 to 20. Voted among the top six international festivals in Classical Music Magazine 2011, the Galway Early Music Festival celebrates its 17th year of historical music and dance in the heart of the city. Celebrating medieval, renaissance and baroque music, Galway Early Music Festival is a high quality internationally acclaimed event with a distinct Irish flavour. Every year top international and Irish performers deliver superb performances and early music lovers can anticipate an equally commendable line-up for 2012. This year's highlights include the Cois Cladaigh Chamber Choir performance to coincide with their 30th anniversary celebration; François Lazarevtich and Les Musiciens de St-Julien; The Harp Consort with Andrew Lawrence-King; Coracle, featuring the acclaimed Irish harpist Siobhán Armstrong, Barnaby Brown and Griogair Labhruidh. Ranging from the medieval roots of traditional music to the music of the baroque courts of France, the festival will open on Thursday May 17. There will be an array of free family events, from theatre to music and dance demonstrations. The Festival has also commissioned a special project using smart phone technology, which will bring the sounds and music of medieval Galway to life in venues where you might expect to hear them, via your mobile phone. GAHS lecture on Grand Jury finance THE financing of Grand Juries in Ireland is the subject of a lecture by Dr Aidan Kane on Monday 13 at the Harbour Hotel, Galway. It is run by the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society and all are welcome. Grand Juries were an important part of local government in Ireland up to the end of the 19th century, with a particularly important role in road building, and a particularly strong reputation for corruption. A unique set of annual county-level data, drawn from parliamentary papers, sheds new light on the revenues and expenditures of these bodies throughout the 1800s, and before.