Writer Maura Gilligan, will join Sligo Central for The Word on Wednesday 26th of February 2025

In conversation with Dr Marion Dowd

Music with Anna Houston, Deirdre Correia and Ray Coen

Open Mic

Sligo Central Library will be hosting The Word on Wednesday 26 of February at 6:30pm.

Maura Gilligan is a writer and community art facilitator based in Strandhill, Sligo. Maura’s poetry and writing has been broadcast on RTE Radio and published in anthologies including Force 10 and The Cormorant.

In the Arts in Health setting, Maura has produced dozens of events with Sligo Arts Service incorporating spoken word, drama for radio, music and song and local history events, several of which were collaborations with other Sligo artists in the annual Bealtaine Festival, incorporating visual arts and short film.

She has been the recipient of two Sligo Arts Service residencies creating projects focussed on the older residents of Sligo.  With major contributions from photographer James Fraher and visual artist Catherine Fanning she wrote and produced the heritage book The Tide is Coming – a book of Coney Island in 2023.

Dr Marion Dowd is a Lecturer of Archaeology at ATU Sligo. She has published extensively on Irish cave archaeology; the relationship between archaeology and folklore; and Sligo’s Civil War.

Anna Houston is originally from Switzerland, Anna has been living in Sligo for over 30 years and is best known to Sligo audiences as Mandolin and Cello player and founding member of Sligo Folk Band “NoCrows”, with whom she has toured extensively in Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Germany, Denmark, Holland, France and Spain.

Anna has toured and recorded with many Artists including

Dervish, Declan O’Rourke, Mike Scott, Cathy Jordan, Kieran Quinn, Felip Carbonell, Steve Wickham and Sligo Baroque Orchestra.

She regularly performs with String Quartets as well as joining in local pub sessions and has written string arrangements for various bands and singer/songwriters.

She is also a music educator and teaches Cello, Music Theory and Ukulele at Sligo Academy of Music and for Music Generation Sligo.

She is first cellist with Sligo Baroque Orchestra, and Treasurer and co-organiser of the monthly concert series Informal Music Afternoons, a multi-genre music event which takes place in the Model, Sligo on the first Sunday of every month.

Deirdre Correia is a Dublin born singer songwriter, harpist and composer. In the summer of 1993, she moved to the Northwest and discovered her spiritual home in Co Sligo. Deirdre is formerly known to Sligo audiences from her music collaborations with her original band “ Cadenza “ and her Harp & Cello Duo work with cellist and composer, Anna Houston. After a long sabbatical from performing, recording and touring Deirdre embarked on a solo project which germinated during the first Covid lockdown in Spring 2020.

This new work entitled “ Hope & Feathers “ is a collection of original songs and music, all of which honour our human capacity for Hope.

On the strength of this work-in-progress Deirdre was one of the recipients of the Hawkswell Theatre’s short residency artist’s scheme for 2023 where her solo work came to fruition, live on stage, in front of a full house with a CD launch concert performance of “ Hope & Feathers “.

Deirdre has just finished recording her second solo album which she is currently putting the finishing touches on and she hopes to launch it with a live concert in Sligo before the end of 2025.

Ray Coen is a singer, guitarist and fiddler, probably best known to our audience as a member of Sligo Band “NoCrows” who have recorded 7 albums of mostly original music and toured all over Europe.

Apart from his work with NoCrows he regularly tours in a duo with Steve Wickham, has recorded and performed with numerous bands and solo artists, and released his own solo album “Out of Sight” in 2009.

Open Mic The Open Mic is limited to 5 participants, with a three-minute timeframe per performance. Names taken on the evening.

The event is free and unticketed with limited seating. The doors will close at 6:30pm.

The event will also be streamed on Facebook on the night: //www.facebook.com/SligoCountyLibrary/

The Word is a collaborative event between Sligo Central Library and the BA in Writing & Literature course at Sligo ATU.

There is no charge for this event.

sligolib@sligococo.ie

Tel: 0719111675