Tipperary town is all geared up for annual arts festival

The multidisciplinary Clonmel Junction Arts Festival lights up the town of Clonmel from June 28th until July 7th. As always, they present creative work with a strong link to place, that are unique to the festival.

The opening concerts, celebrating the work of Clonmel’s own Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, are a case in point. Darragh Morgan, Fidelio Trio violinist, worked closely with Mícheál for many years and their programme brings together the music of Carolan, one of Mícheál's key inspirations, with Mícheál's own works for piano trio and solo piano, in their arrangements created for the trio, and closing with the music of Irene and Linda Buckley who continue his legacy. Reflections, Revisited is the festival’s opening concert on Friday, June 28th in Clonmel’s beautiful Friary.

Mel Mercier will bring together a wonderful cohort of former UCC students, from the 1980s and 1990s, that were part of Mícheál’s ‘community of sound’ from that era. The concert features music from Mícheál’s diverse projects during this ground-breaking period of creativity in teaching and music-making at UCC. Performers include Bobby Gardiner, Colm Murphy, Mary Mitchell-Ingoldsby, Niall Vallely and the re-formed Rectory Céilí Band.

Clonmel Junction Festival are extremely proud to have supported regional theatre-making over the past 7 years, with at least one original Tipperary-made theatre piece in each festival since 2018. This conscious move away from being a receiving festival to a producing one has had a profound impact on theatre-making in the county, and in this endeavour, Junction works in partnership with Source Arts Centre. the 2024 offering is The Hills of Love by exciting young talent, Áine Ryan. Having wowed local and international audiences with Kitty in the Lane in 2023, and co-writing From Out The Land with director Jack Reardon, our spectacular 2023 Decade of Centenaries production last September, Áine returns with The Hills of Love showing the versatility in this talented writer’s repertoire from Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd July at the White Memorial Theatre.

Finally, the decades-long commitment to programming original live and local music is showcased in the festival finale, Home Coming where Royseven, led by Clonmel’s Paul Walsh, back in the studio working on their eagerly-anticipated third album, will headline a concert supported by MDR, led by Kaitlyn O’Regan, a festival stalwart since her early years, who remembers seeing Royseven as a child during Junction, and opened by Garage Inc. a teenage band who attend Paul’s alma mater High School. Clonmel Junction Arts Festival are leaning into the live music in a school vibe with the décor for Home Coming ’24 referencing 80s and 90s high school prom movies – dress in theme if you wish! It closes the festival on Sunday, 7th July, at CTI on the Mall in Clonmel