Marie Cullen is not only my wife, life partner, best friend, but a great interpreter of the Irish landscape. Definitely have a good look at her work. (sorry, her site is in the process of a total rehabilitation, it’ll be live soon)
Working Artist Studios is a wonderful place, resource, inspiration in Skibbereen. It is a gallery of new and exciting Art; artist’s workshops that are open to the public; a location for classes & courses; and and Cultural Centre, “Outer Space”, where poetry readings, music gigs and writing and art workshops take place. Visit the site – both virtual and actual! The site is undergoing full-scale reconstruction at the moment! And you can visit/join our Facebook page.
Another of my favourite artists is sculptor and childrens’ author, Dubhaltach Ó Colmáin (yes, he’s my son!) Have a look at his wonderful work on his new site.
Good Dead Me are the hardest-working and -rocking band in Ireland! They also moonlight as backing band with the wonderful Laura J Devlin, adopting the epithet, The Tree Sleepers. Great songs, great music, great arrangements and dynamics, make sure you get to see them, hear and buy their records! You owe it to yourself!
One of the best and most innovative sculptors working in Ireland is Holger Lönze. You’ll have seen some of his public commissions, particularly if you travel in Northern Ireland. His work is beautiful. He is fascinated by ancient traditional methods of working, whether it is casting bronze using Bronze Age techniques or building traditional, vernacular boats. Together we offer curach and naomhóg buiding courses through the medium of the Irish language. Le chéile, ofrálaimid cúrsaí tógála na gcurach canbhais – trí mheán na Gaeilge.
Chuireas Gaeilge ar a shuíomh ghréasáin iontach anuraidh dó. Recently, I translated his wonderful website into Gaeilge.
Locally-based poet, James Harpur is one of the best writers of poetry in Ireland today. His readings are a delight.
Multi-media artist, Tomasz Madajczak, also runs photography classes in WAS
Kenny Dread is not only one of the best song-writers and guitar players to come out of the Windy City, but is also a whizz on website design (thanks for the help, Kenny!) He’s based on The Sheep’s Head these days.
The Time Traveller’s Bookshop in Skibbereen is the best bookshop in Ireland! The only problem with is getting out within two hours of entering! It’s got all the books you could ever want, music, records (yes! vinyl!) cds, masses of poetry and a beautiful gallery.
Clodagh Simonds is one of Ireland’s musical treasures. She’s been writing, performing, recording & playing since her early teens and has played with a veritable Who’s Who of musical greats, Irish and international. (Oh, and with me too!!) She was in the now-cult 70’s Irish Folk band, Mellow Candle and is currently recording and performing with the transcendent Fovea Hex.
Susan Weinreich is a painter and portrait artist from New York. Have a look at her very interesting work.
Southword Journal: Founded in 1993, the Munster Literature Centre (Ionad Litríochta an Deiscirt) is a non-profit arts organisation dedicated to the promotion and celebration of literature, especially that of Munster. They’ve always been a great support to me and to other poets and writers. I’d strongly recommend subscribing to their bi-annual journal.
Catherine Cunningham is a West-Cork-based singer, guitarist and songwriter of excellent songs: sad, funny, angry, boppy, political, you name it! She’s one of the wittiest, cleverest songwriters I know.
Mark Moriyama made some the videos here on the site, he’s a joy to work with and extremely professional and talented.