Celebrate Bealtaine in Leitrim this month

Bealtaine is a month long festival celebrated a cross Ireland with a number of events and activities.
Every county is taking part and there are wonderful events happening, including online screenings, writing courses, drawing classes and discussions. For the full calendar of events visit www.bealtaine.ie.

In Leitrim, Ballinamore Library and The Dock are holding special events.
Ballinamore Library are hosting a special event on Tuesday, May 9 at 7.30pm. Carrie Creamer will give an interesting presentation entitled ‘Ellie’s Shoes’, which is about her grand aunt, Ellie Creamer from Bawnboy, Co Cavan.

Carrie will take you on a journey through time and follow the footsteps of Ellie, by weaving together moments from the past, local people and customs in the community. She will also explore the area of Bawnboy, the rituals of care, and individual members of the local community.

Through film, presentation, and artworks, Carrie will share stories that depict instincts of care through the lens of rural women in Ireland.
These stories are told through various mediums such as drawing, sewing, storytelling, written and visual art, and video.
This presentation aims to shine a light on their invaluable contributions and give voice to the often-unheard stories of rural women in Ireland. Overall, this presentation is a celebration of the unique culture and heritage of Bawnboy and the surrounding area, as seen through the eyes of Ellie Creamer.

Carrie Creamer's work is deeply rooted in personal and collective history, and she believes in the power of storytelling to bring hidden or unspoken aspects of our lives to the forefront.
Her interest in exploring perceptions of loss suggests a desire to give voice to those who may have been silenced or marginalised. She uses various mediums to weave together narratives from the past and present, creating a visual and textual tapestry that invites viewers to engage with complex and layered stories.

Carrie's work is driven by a deep curiosity about the world, a desire to uncover hidden truths, and a commitment to honouring the voices and experiences of others.
In Carrick-on-Shannon listen as writers Alice Kinsella and Carmel McMahon read from their new memoirs in The Dock.
As part of Bealtaine Festival’s new regional programme, Digging, The Dock with host readings from writers Alice Kinsella and Carmel McMahon at 3pm on Saturday, May 13.

Both writers will be reading from their new memoirs that deal with family, memory, and loss, weaving personal and political as they ask us how our personal pasts and futures are intertwined with that of our country.
A map of motherhood, Alice Kinsella’s Milk: On Motherhood and Madness is at once a gentle and meditative story of one woman’s experience of new motherhood.

Alice Kinsella is a young mother, giving birth to her son in her mid-twenties, adrift in a new town and navigating her newly accompanied life.
A powerful and yet delicate mix of the personal and political, Milk is an unflinching and unique memoir that looks at the experience of motherhood against the backdrop of a seemingly changed Ireland.

Alice Kinsella is a graduate of English Literature and Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin. Alice Kinsella has published a poetry pamphlet Sexy Fruit and was a Poetry Book Society Spring 2019 Selection. Milk is her debut book of prose.

Carmel McMahon’s book In Ordinary Time: Fragments of a Family History pulls on her own experience of leaving Ireland for America with a wave of other Irish immigrants in the 90’s. Carrying only 500 dollars and two suitcases she arrived in New York aged twenty in 1993. It took years and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction to unpick the intricate traumas of her past and present.
Candid yet lyrical, In Ordinary Time deals with how trauma reverberates through time and through individual lives.
In this dazzling memoir, McMahon sketches the evolution of a consciousness – from her conservative 1970s upbringing to the much-changed Ireland of today.

Carmel McMahon has been published in the Irish Times and shortlisted for the Hennessy Literary Award. In Ordinary Time is her first book.
Admission is €8. The event takes place on Saturday, May 13 at 3pm. Tickets are available at www.thedock.ie or by calling (071) 965 0828.