Southgate Playing Fields will once again play host to the annual Crawley Irish Festival on Sunday 29 August 2010. Celebrating its 15th year, the Festival is a fantastic day out for the whole family, and a chance to enjoy the very best of Celtic and Irish entertainment and culture. With over 6000 festival-goers expected at this year’s event, it’s not to be missed – so be sure to save the date!

What’s on offer?

Every year the festival offers a wonderful array of entertainment, music, sport and dance – and this year is no exception! Mayor of Crawley, Cllr Lee Burke will be joined by Sky Newscaster Enda Brady to open the show, which includes;

Live Music: The Dome stage will showcase some of the biggest Irish acts including Borrowed Time, Martin Ruddy, Sean Cannon of Dubliners fame, who will appear with his son Robert Cannon. Pat Nugent and Mustang and Kathy Durkin Meanwhile, the Traditional Stage welcomes some of the best traditional and folk acts from around the UK and Ireland including The London Lasses, Dun the Veil, Crannog, Celtic Crunch and Flying Toads .

Live Dance: Crawley is the proud home of two wonderful Irish Dancing Schools – The O’Brien School of Dancing and the Andromeda Edmonds School of Dancing. The Open Dance competition provides a great opportunity to showcase the very
best of young Irish dancing talent in the South East. And if you fancy yourself as the next Michael (or Stavros) Flatley, you can join in with the Ceili & Set dancing.

Live Sport: The 2010 Festival will play host to a GAA friendly, as popular North and South London teams battle it out in Gaelic Football and Hurling matches. The Main Bar will also offer live and televised GAA matches, so you won’t miss out on any of the
action!

All-Round Family Fun: A dedicated children’s area, run by staff from Waterlea Adventure Playground will keep the kids amused for hours! Storytelling, face- painting, magic shows and fairground rides will provide all-round family fun!

Affordable family fun: The organizers are committed to keeping admission prices low, offering a great value day out for the whole family. Admission costs just £5 for Adults and £2 for concessions including senior citizens and NUS card holders. Under-16’s accompanied by an adult get in for just £1.

Save the date!

The festival is a fantastic day out for the whole family – and with a licensed bar on site and a wide selection of food and refreshment stalls, it’s an ideal bank holiday treat! So come and join the fun at the Crawley Irish Festival on Sunday 29 August, from 12 noon at Southgate Playing Fields in Crawley.

How to find us

Map: http://www.celtic-irish.co.uk/festival/directions/

SatNav Postcode: RH10 6HG

By train: Southgate Playing Fields is a ten minute walk from Crawley Train Station

Want to help out?

The Celtic & Irish Cultural Society is a small group of committed volunteers who work together to organize and run the Festival. If you’re an enthusiastic team player, and you’d like to help out at this high profile cultural event, please get in touch. From event promotion to set up, fundraising to stewarding, we’ll find a role that suits you! Contact us here http://www.celtic-irish.co.uk/contact/ or call John Nolan on 01293 513189 for more information.

***ENDS***

Notes to the Editor

1. The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society (CICS) is a community organisation run entirely by volunteers. New volunteers are always welcome.
2. CICS organises a number of major events in Crawley, including the Crawley Fleadh, the St Patrick’s Day Parade and the annual Crawley Irish Festival, to celebrate Celtic and Irish culture in the South East of England. CICS also organises a number of cultural and educational activities including Irish Language classes and musical and dance workshops.
3. Photos from the 2008 and 2009 Crawley Irish Festivals can be downloaded from the following links. Please credit the Photographer, Tracey Herald, for any photos used.
   1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heraldphotography/sets/72157622197713900/
   2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heraldphotography/sets/72157622037451260/
4. The work of the CICS is supported by the Irish Government through the DION fund, which is designed to promote the continued contribution of Irish people in Britain to British society. CICS is also delighted to receive funding and support from Crawley Borough Council, West Sussex County Council and a number of local businesses.
5. Further details about the Society’s work are available from http://www.celtic-irish.co.uk or by calling John Nolan on 01293 513189

To find out more, get directions and more visit http://www.celtic-irish.co.uk/festival

O'Brien School

Twenty-five dancers from Crawley’s O’Brien School of Irish Dance School entered Dance Challenge 2010, a national competition – they danced their way through to last Saturday’s UK Final with their ‘Spooked’ routine -and won.

Around one hundred teams entered …. the qualifying rounds cut it down to the 25 that competed in the final at Cadogan Hall in London on Saturday.

‘Spooked,’ choreographed by teacher Colleen O’Brien, made its debut at the “Forward Motion – A Day of Dance” show at The Hawth earlier this year and featured at the theatre again in the “Curtain Call” show a couple of weeks ago.

It’s a combination of traditional Irish dance steps in a fantasy world of ghosts and zombies …. in a very unusual routine – some of it under ultra violet lighting.

Most of the other teams in Dance Challenge were street dance/hip hop artists – it was good to see Irish dancers come out on top!!

Calling all ladies interested in playing Gaelic Football. Hannah Jones has just arrived into the area from Cavan and is passionate about playing football.

She is out to reform Crawley Gaels GAA club.

Check out her letter below…

RETURN OF THE CRAWLEY GAELS!

Just a quick introduction.

My name is Hannah Jones and I previously lived in Ireland for 7 years before moving back to England 3 years ago. I played Gaelic Football there constantly for 7 years and am looking to put together a ladies team for Crawley to train and compete against other teams across England.

We have the great support of the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society and Emerald Club in Crawley to get the Crawley Gaels up and running again. So anyone that would be interested in signing up to make this team or just to get fit or even help out in anyway feel free to contact me either by email (MrsJones_x@hotmail.com) or phone (07792258928)

All of your support would be greatly appreciated and we will hopefully see the Crawley Gaels ladies team in the near future and be as successful as the last team!!! So ladies Hurry Up and get in touch and lets get this team going again.

Thanks,
Hannah Jones

Some come on ladies…
Let’s not let the grass grown under your feet. Go on, make contact and sign up. We’ve already got a fantastic playing surface at Southgate Playing Fields. And the goal posts are also there. Let’s put Crawley back on the GAA map.

We’ve just heard about the fantastic success of a Crawley Irish dancing school.

Last weekend was the CRDM All Ireland Championships. Held in Dublin’s National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, over 500 dancers from all over the world took part.

The Andromeda Edmunds School of Irish Dancing from Crawley sent 20 dancers and brought home 16 trophies! The weekend ended with the prestigious Showdance Championships. The Edmunds School beat the reigning champions, the European champions and the world champions to win the title of 2009 CRDM All Ireland Showdance Champions the very first time they entered!

The School now need sponsors so they can send as many dancers as possible to the World Championships in Poland next April. The teacher, Andromeda, can be contacted at: andromedaedmunds@yahoo.co.uk

Congratulations to everyone involved

The Edmunds school will be performing at the Crawley Irish Festival on 30th August. Why not look in on their dance displays and see the dancers that beat the European and World champions.

The Sunday Times today revealed that RTÉ have shelved their plans to launch a new television channel for the substantial Irish community in Britain.

The Communications Minister, Eamon Ryan, announced earlier this year that the channel would launch to the 850,000 Irish in the UK by Saint Patrick’s Day 2009. During the summer, it appeared that the launch was well under way as RTÉ recruited for senior staff but now appears that RTÉ do not have the funds to continue with launch plans.

John Nolan, Chairman of the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society was asked to comment on the revelations by Sunday Times journalist, Mark Tighe. The Chairman responded to the news with disappointment:

This is really disheartening, especially for the older generation. The government has bragged about providing this service and it is long overdue, so there should be no excuses.

The full article can be viewed at the TimesOnline.

At its 13^th Annual Dinner Dance at the Crowne Plaza Gatwick recently, The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society (CICS) were pleased to announce that Larry Owens, one of Crawley’s very popular characters, was the Crawley Irish Person of the Year for 2008.

In front of a packed audience including His Worship, The Mayor of Crawley, Cllr Dr Howard Bloom and His Excellency, the Ambassador of Ireland Mr David Cooney, Chairman of The Emerald Club Bob Martin took great delight in announcing that Larry was this year’s recipient and went on to explain:

This award has been established by the Celtic & Irish Cultural Society to recognize one of our friends who has made a major contribution to Crawley over the years. The ‘Person of the Year’ award is bestowed on individuals who through their talent, resources and their actions will have made a significant impact on life in their adopted town of Crawley through their leadership and support.

Larry Owens is one of those people. He has spent the last 57 or so years in England. He met and married his wife Jean who comes from Southampton, and settled in Crawley to raise their family.

In his professional life, Larry had a very successful career in the Building industry employing young men who came over to Crawley looking for work, I believe from what I heard he was a tough but fair man to work for, a no nonsense type of employer.

Larry also has extended his leadership skills to the community, serving on committees such as the ex Post Office Club now Emerald Club and the Festival committee laying a foundation for the now very successful Celtic & Irish Cultural Society.”

Larry was presented with a crystal vase by Ambassador of Ireland Mr David Cooney. In accepting the award he declined to make a speech but afterwards said in a very unassuming way he was glad to be able to help out and felt he had done no more than the next man. All he wanted was to make Crawley a better place to live in and work in

The Dinner Dance, which helps to raise funds for the Crawley Irish Festival, was also honoured to welcome The Ambassador of Ireland Mr David Cooney who congratulated the CICS on the work they did and proposed a toast to Ireland. The Mayor Cllr Howard Bloom in proposing a toast to the CICS said he was looking forward to the St Patrick’s Parade in March. The Edmunds School of Irish Dancing provided post meal entertainment and music was provided byTheresa Rodgers and Wildflowers.

London’s Ladies GAA Gaelic Footballers will be one of the highlights of the 2008 Crawley Irish Festival as they limber up for their All-Ireland Semi-Final in Dublin against Wicklow.

London has never won the Brendan Martin Cup and will be hoping that 2008 will be their lucky year after successes with the junior squad in 2007.

London ladies Gaelic Football has been the success story of Gaelic games here in the last two years, in 2007 they came from nowhere and reach the All Ireland Junior Championship final, played in front of an audience of 26,000 people and a TV audience of 210,000 viewers, although London lost that final by a goal, they had tremendous games along the way, opening with a draw at Ruislip with Derry 1-11 each, in one of the finest games of football seen there for many a long day, they then travelled to Belfast to take on Antrim and were ten points behind after ten minutes, the girls staged and amazing comeback, to lead by a point at half time and eventually win the game by ten points.

Next up was the semi final were they met a strong Carlow side in Dublin, just holding their own in a tight first half, they hit two goals after half time, to lead by eight points approaching the last quarter, however this time Carlow fought back and a penalty gave them a draw on the stroke of full time, extra time and London won to reach the final by two points. This year London entered the National league reaching the quarter final, winning three of their five games.

The 2008 All-Ireland Championship opened with an away tie in Derry and after a good first half London were beaten, but their determination turned the whole season around when they beat a very strong Louth team in Ruislip on a scoreline of 2-10 to 1-07 to qualify for the All Ireland Semi Final against Wicklow on August 30th in Dublin.

Larry O’Leary, chairperson of the Women’s County Board commented:

London ladies are delighted with the encouragement the organisers of the Crawley Festival have given them and are delighted to play an exhibition match at the festival.”

The ladies team will play an exhibition match at this Sunday’s Crawley Irish Festival. Wish them the best of luck and enjoy the spectacle.

The Crawley Irish Festival has been awarded National Lottery Funding for the 2008 Crawley Irish Festival.

This year’s festival is the first time the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society has received funding from the National Lottery’s community fund and will allow additional entertainment and progress on the professionalisation of our events.

AWARDS FOR ALL now joins a number of other funding partners that began funding the event this year including the Crawley Town Centre Partnership, the Gatwick Airport Community Trust, West Sussex County Council and Crawley Borough Borough.

To find out more details on our funding partners, corporate and stage sponsors can be found at http://www.celtic-irish.co.uk/festival/sponsors.

The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society are looking for stallholders selling Irish goods to take part in the Crawley Irish Festival on Sunday 24^th August on Southgate playing fields in Crawley.

If you specialise in Irish cuisine or Celtic crafts, this is a great opportunity to promote your business and sell your wares in a lively and fun family atmosphere.  So whether you’re a butcher, baker, candlestick maker or something altogether more unusual, come and join us and enjoy the craic!

The Festival, now in its thirteenth year attracts around 6000 people and features live performances of popular and traditional music on two stages, a number of creative workshops and a variety of sporting activities including demonstrations and games. Craft stalls and shops selling traditional Irish produce and arts and crafts goods are also an important part of the programme.

Organisers are keen to develop the Festival and would like to expand the range of stalls at this year’s event and are keen to hear from anyone interested in taking part.

The cost of a 10 foot x 20 foot stall costs just £40 for the whole day. There are also concessions available for hot food sales.

You can also find further details on our website: http://www.celtic-irish.co.uk/crawley-irish-festival-2008

A new channel aimed at Irish people living in Britain has been named RTÉ International. Public service broadcaster RTÉ is recruiting for positions including channel manager, according to the Irish Post.

The service may now launch before the previous target date of St Patrick’s Day next year. The newspaper said RTÉ International would be a combination of RTÉ One and RTÉ Two with some programmes from TG4.

Several RTÉ news bulletins will be carried live. The channel, previously known as Diaspora TV, is expected to be broadcast free-to-air on digital satellite.

RTE International will be a hybrid of RTÉ One and RTÉ Two with selected programming being drawn from the Gaelic-language channel TG4. The main One, Six-One and Nine O’clock news bulletins will be screened live. The broadcaster is currently advertising for senior staff.

The launch of such a channel was mandated in the Irish Communications Act of 2007.

Ireland’s communications minister Eamon Ryan said it would “provide the Irish abroad with a valuable link to home”.

From Digital Spy >