When Brazilian indie folk artist Jean Lone returned home after spending a year in Malahide, the area captured his heart so much that he decided to write and record a new song titled ‘Sweet Malahide’.
Based in Mossoró, Brazil, Jean’s new track blends warm acoustic textures with nostalgic storytelling, capturing the beauty and emotions tied to the place.

“The production, recording and mixing of the track were carried out in my home studio, and the cover of the single is a watercolour painting handmade by my partner, Bruna Medeiros, visually capturing the poetic essence of the song,” Jean explained.

To listen to Sweet Malahide please visit: https://onerpm.link/103214560540

The Fingal County Council Arts Office has announced that there are now a number of awards and residencies available for 2025, providing welcome support for professional artists across a range of career stages and disciplines.

To help artists prepare their submissions in advance, a new calendar has been produced which showcases the various organisations that Fingal has partnered with and provides a time stamp for the opening and closing dates for each award.

Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Brian McDonagh said: “Art cultivates a community’s sense of belonging and pride, which is why we want to support artists as much as possible so they can share their passion and creativity with the public. For over 20 years Fingal has been celebrating the amazing contribution of artists across the county, and we know that these awards and bursaries have really helped develop the careers of local talent in different disciplines.”

The awards and residencies include: The Performing Arts Forum; The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts; The Ardgillan Castle Studio Award; Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Age & Opportunity; The Graphic Studio Dublin Fine Art Print Residency; The Draíocht Studio Award and The MART Gallery and Studios Graduate Award.

Fingal County Council Arts Officer, Sarah O’Neil remarks: “This showcase detailing our upcoming awards and residencies is essential for professional artists, as it offers both space and time in order to expand and strengthen their practice. These awards also offer a nurturing environment allowing artists to connect with their peers, which is one of our strategic goals of the Fingal County Council Arts plan 2019-2025, ‘Connecting People and Ideas.”

To view the awards calendar go to: https://ow.ly/EW6B50VftuW. More information on each of these awards and residencies will become available on our website and online closer to the time of applications opening. To find out more about current and previous awards, please see: www.fingalarts.ie and www.fingal.ie/arts

Celebrating 20 years this month, experience TradFest everywhere you go, from the Mountains of South Dublin across Dublin City and to the castles and coastline of historic Fingal.

Now in its third year in Fingal the festival will return to the many unique and historic venues across the region: Malahide Castle, Swords Castle Chapel, The Millbank Theatre, Skerries Mill, Draíocht Theatre and the iconic Seamus Ennis Arts Centre, while increasing its musical footprint in additional new venues: The Lark, Ardgillan Castle, The Abbey Tavern and Donabate Community Centre.

Fingal Acts for 2025 include: Karen Casey - The Women we will rise, Jacqui Martin & Derek Hickey, Tara Breen, Eoghan ó’Ceannabhaín, Mike Hanrahan and Eleanor Shanley, Luka Bloom, Ines Khai, Molly O’Mahony, Paudie O’Connor & Aoife Ni Chaoimh, Emma Langford, Stockton’s Wing -Voices from Fingal Mick Hanly with Anto Drennan and Eoin O’Neill, The Henry Girls, Bernadette Nic Gabhann, Frank, O’Rourke & John Feely, Molly Donnery, Brídín, Sorcha Costello, Evelyn Kallansee & Declan Sinnott
There will also be a special celebration of the actor, local resident and TradFest patron Stephen Rea. The Oscar-nominated and multi award-winning actor has for long had a global reputation for his exceptional skills on both stage and screen.

Over four nights in The Lark Theatre, Balbriggan, TradFest will honour Stephen through words and music. Joining Stephen over the 4 nights will be poet Paul Muldoon and musicians Neil Martin, Louise Mulcahy, Matt Molloy, Maighread Ní Dhomnaill, Paddy Glackin and Derek Hickey.

TradFest in Fingal will also celebrate the life of Barney McKenna, original member of the Irish band The Dubliners and Fingal resident across two days and nights in The Abbey Tavern, Howth in January 2025.
Mike Hanrahan and Stockton’s Wing will give a special concert in Donabate Community Centre where they will be joined on stage by the voices of Fingal Choir In line with its audience development objectives, TradFest also will deliver an expanded community programme later this year which will outline a series of new exciting, free community-led events in Fingal.

Whether you’re a fan of live music, or just looking for a night of Irish culture and craic, TradFest is where you want to be in January 2025.

Lions Clubs of Ireland have recently launched a partnership with Childhood Cancer Ireland who support hundreds of families affected by childhood cancer. All funds raised will be used to ease the burden of treatment and help to provide emotional and practical support for families and survivors. Many local and internationally

well-known artists are exhibiting, all generously giving a percentage of their sales to the charity. A range of amazing paintings are on offer. Raffle tickets for €10 will be on sale during the exhibition for paintings by Alan Kenny and Jean Lowndes.

The Exhibition takes place on Sat 18th Oct and Sun 19th Oct from 12-6pm each day in the Malahide Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (K36TD90)

Free Entry. All are welcome. Further info contact: malahidelionsart@gmail.com and see ‘Malahide Lions Art’ on Facebook and www.malahidelions.com

Malahide Musical & Dramatic Society are delighted to announce the return of Pub Theatre!

Join them on October 18th and 19th, in St Sylvester’s GAA club for a night of guaranteed entertainment!

Tickets are €10 on the door. Doors at 7.30pm for an 8pm start!

For more information email malahidemusicalsociety@gmail.com

Fingal County Council is delighted to announce a fantastic new traditional music series “TradFest - the Fingal Sessions”, which is set to air on RTÉ for six weeks which began (Friday 23rd February). It will showcase the spectacular Malahide Castle venue in Fingal. The series was filmed during TradFest 2023 and has already showcased Fingal to an international audience in the United States.The series where you can take a journey through the sounds and stories of Ireland, can be viewed on the primetime RTÉ1 slot of 8.30pm on Friday evenings, and will be available on the RTE Player. Hosted by Fiachna Ó Braonáin and featuring legendary guests Judy Collins, Moya Brennan from Clannad, Eddi Reader, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh from Altan, Ralph McTell, Gemma Hayes, Liam Ó Maonlaí from Hothouse Flowers, Actor Stephen Rea reading the words of Seamus Heaney, Cathy Jordan from Dervish, De Danann founder Frankie Gavin, Niamh Regan and many more come there is certainly a treat in store for traditional music fans with this series. The series was filmed as part of TradFest 2023 when the Ireland’s largest traditional and folk music festival expanded to Fingal for the first time. The TradFest Fingal programme was expanded greatly in 2024 with many sold out events in our historic sites and picturesque locations in the Fingal region as we celebrated and experienced extraordinary live Irish music and culture as well as the new FingalFringe. The pinnacle of the festival was the premiere of “Ocean Child” a newly commissioned musical narrative, composed by Neil Martin based on the tragic tale of the RMS Tayleur and featuring Stephen Rea, Neil and his West Ocean String Quartet, and Louise and Michelle Mulcahy. The wonderful Mulcahy sisters and acclaimed actor Stephen Rea will also feature in the Fingal Sessions series.

The musical narrative of ‘OCEAN CHILD’, is composed by Neil Martin, and is wrought from the tragic sinking of the RMS Tayleur off Lambay Island on January 21st, 1854. This is the world premiere of this newly commissioned work and it will be performed in St Patrick’s Church Donabate for the very first time ever on Sunday 28th January 2024. In this suite, a spoken narrative, drawn from contemporaneous newspaper reports and witness accounts, marries with an original score embracing string quartet, uilleann pipes, harp, flute and concertina. The performers include the world-famous actor Stephen Rea, The West Ocean String Quartet, Louise and Michelle Mulcahy. It was Commissioned by Templebar Trad Fest and made possible through the generosity of Fingal County Council. Remember the time and date: The Concert is at 6pm on the Sunday January 28th in St Patrick’s Church Donabate, tickets on sale Thursday November 16th on tradfest.com

(Q) What were you like as a kid?
(A) As a kid I was very lucky that my parents let me try many things. I was always trying something new, whether it was guitar, drums, piano, singing or dancing. I played the fiddle from a young age and played in the local Irish centre in Liverpool. We would compete every year in the fleadhs and travel to Ireland. As I got a little bit older, I decided I wanted to play guitar and have done so ever since the age of 10. My brother Nathan was a huge influence on me growing up. When he started gigging, I was always with him, this is how I first became interested in performing - the rest is history.
(Q) Are you looking forward to starring in the new Beauty and The Beast Panto at The Lark
Balbriggan throughout December?
(A) I can’t wait to be playing the Beast in The Lark’s first ever pantomime. It’s such an honour for me to be included in the cast for this production in such an amazing, brand new, state of the art venue. I love the story and grew up watching Beauty and the Beast, I’m very happy to be doing my first production of this amazing story.
(Q) What’s your favourite thing to do in your spare time?
(A) In my spare time when I’m not in the studio, performing or song writing, I love chilling with Lenny my dog and travelling around with him. I try to get back to Liverpool every chance I can get to see friends and family and often take Lenny with me.
(Q) What’s your favourite food?
(A) Favourite food has to be a Christmas dinner! Can’t be beaten!
(Q) What’s one of your happiest memories?
(A) One of my happiest memories has to be winning Dancing with the Stars in 2018. This was a huge achievement for me as I’d only moved over to Ireland in 2017 and it was a huge boost for everything in my career. Another huge achievement for me was playing a headline show in Dublin’s Vicar Street.
(Q) What’s your favourite film and why?
(A) Favourite films are the Harry Potter movies and my favourite one is probably Goblet of Fire. I watch all of the films at least once, every year.
(Q) If you had to swap places with anyone for one day, who would it be and why?
(A) Completely random, but I would swap places with someone out of the Liverpool football team, probably Trent Alexander Arnold. Always been a big Liverpool supporter and would love to see what life is like on match day.
(Q) You can invite four people (dead or alive) to your dinner party, who would they be and why?
(A) Paul McCartney, John Lennon - both grew up around the corner from me and I would love to hear stories about their life growing up. Juergen Klopp - would love to chat to him about Liverpool and football in general. Peter Kay - loved watching his DVDs growing up. He’s one of my favourite comedians and I imagine he’d be great craic at a dinner party.
(Q) What else is happening in Jake Carter’s world in the coming months?
(A) I have a brand-new single coming out called Milk &; Honey which I can’t wait to release. I also have a 5 track EP which I’ll be releasing at the start of next year. I am also announcing some brand-new live shows with my band in the coming weeks including a Dublin date which I can’t for!

Peninsula Art would like to say a big Thank you for the support and positive feedback received for our exhibition at the Hand on 26th & 27th August. It was most encouraging and heartening to see so many people viewing and enjoying our Art, and an even bigger thank you to those who purchased! We would also like to thank those in Fingal County Council who looked after us up to and over the two days - Rafe Cossigan, Senior Community Officer for Fingal County Council, Dean Mulligan, Fingal Councillor,, Corina Johnston, Local Labour Representative, and Duncan Smith, Labour TD, and last but not least Ùisce Eireann for use of their railings.

Donabate Village Open Air Art Exhibition is happening in August! Come take a walk down our open air Art Gallery on Uisce Eireann’s railings at The Hand from 11am to 5pm, Saturday & Sunday. If you are interested in showing your work, there are a few places available. Make contact with Peninsula Art Group by email to mareseart@eircom.net.

Many thanks for the help, advice and support from Corina Johnston, Labour Party local Area Representative. Duncan Smith, TD, Labour Party. Rafe Costigan, Senior Community Officer, Fingal County Council and Cllr Dean Mulligan,Independent4Change.