YARN Storytelling Festival
YARN Storytelling Festival 2023
Welcome to YARN Storytelling Festival 2023, brought to you by Mermaid Arts Centre. Full Programme HERE
Now celebrating our 14th year, YARN is a community based non-profit making festival that strives to bring the art-form of storytelling to as many people of all ages in the community as possible.
This year’s programme is once again brimming with some of Ireland’s finest storytellers and we are thrilled to welcome our international guest Monique Burg from France and have Storyteller and Bray local Philip Byrne as our 2023 Storyteller in Residence.
Thanks to the partnership and support of Wicklow Arts Office and Wicklow Libraries we are once again extending YARN right across the county.
With the kind support of Dlr Libraries, Liz Weir has been running a series of storytelling workshops in St. Kieran’s School for Travelling Children in Bray, harnessing the children’s storytelling skills and exploring their rich storytelling heritage.
Many thanks to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for helping us to bring an Irish language strand to this year’s festival. Máirín Mhic Lochlainn and Paddy O’Brien will be performing bilingually in Mermaid and as Gaeilge in some local Gaelscoileanna, connecting children of all ages to this ancient traditional art.
Below are details of the public events. Behind the scenes events are taking place in schools, community groups and nursing homes. Many thanks to all who support the festival and make this possible.
Our festival events are as follows:
Kicking us off on Saturday 11th November Cork storyteller Maria Gillen will be sharing stories for children in Bray Library on Eglinton Road at 11am. Admission is free. Following that, French storyteller Monique Burg will be in the Shoot Room at Killruddery House & Gardens at 2pm for more family tales. Again, admission is free. On Saturday evening, 11th November at 8pm we invite you join us for Southern Weave, upstairs in Bray Town Hall at 8pm. This is an evening of storytelling for adults featuring both Maria Gillen and Monique Burg and tickets cost €12 and €10 concession.
On Sunday 12th November we are welcoming Little Bray Writer’s Group at 2pm to Mermaid with readings from Inside Out. Admission is free, booking essential. At 7pm Brian White from Bray Cualann Historical Society will be sharing stories and photographs relating to earth, wind, fire and water in Bray. Tickets are €7/5.
Our YARN film is Tarrac, the story of Aoife, a workaholic based in Dublin, reluctantly returns home to Kerry to care for her father after his heart attack. Having left years previously after the death of her mother, the relationship between father and daughter is strained. The film is as Gaeilge with English subtitles.
On Tuesday 14th November at 8pm in Mermaid we are thrilled to bring together three storytelling greats for ‘Wisdom Fair’. Simone Schuemmelfeder (Germany/Ireland), Fiona Dowling (France/Ireland) and Senem Donatan Mohan (Turkey/Ireland) show us how, beyond their great power to entertain, stories can also help us with the business of living. Stories can deliver little gems of wisdom offering the listener a new way of looking at a situation. In ‘Wisdom Fair’, audience members propose life questions or dilemmas to a panel of three storytellers who will try to respond with a matching folktale. This is a one-of-a-kind storytelling event, for which we need your input! Give us some of your current life questions, moral dilemmas, existential conundrums, and the storytellers will look in their story repertoire for an appropriate tale. Tickets cost €12/10.
Japanese born storyteller Masako Carey comes to YARN on Wednesday 15th November at 8pm with ‘Ohanashi’. “Ohanashi お話し” means “Story” in Japanese, and in this premiere for YARN, Masako Carey invites her listeners to enter another world and explore Japanese culture. This event takes place in Mermaid Arts Centre and tickets are €12/10.
Over the last six months, Mr Sands Youth Theatre in Bray has been exploring the art of storytelling with storytellers Órla Mc Govern (Moth & Butterfly), Aron and Sorcha Hegarty (Candlelit Tales), and Llion Parry (Arad Goch Theatre Company, Aberystwyth). On Thursday 16th November we are delighted to welcome them on stage at Mermaid Arts Centre with ‘A Yarn of Sand’ to show us what they have learned. This talented team of young artists will share the stories that matter to them with you - folk tales, family myths, (mostly) true stories, and more. Tickets are €5.
YARN Storytelling Festival is thrilled to welcome Thomas McCarthy to the stage at Mermaid for the first time on Friday 17th November at 8pm. Irish Traveller, Singer and Storyteller Thomas McCarthy is passionate about his heritage and keeping stories of his ancestors alive. Join him as he shares both songs and stories he has learned from his family which have been passed down through the generations. Thomas comes from Birr in County Offaly in Ireland. His family are the McCarthys who settled there generations ago. Thomas comes from a long line of old traditional singers and musicians who kept the tradition of singing strong. He was named Traditional Singer of the Year in the Gradam Ceoil Awards 2019. Tickets are €12/10.
Saturday 18th November is a busy YARN events day – starting off with family tales in Ballywaltrim library at 11am with Senem Donatan Mohan. Admission free. At 2pm Galway based Moth & Butterfly tellers will be sharing family stories in the Shoot Room at Killruddery Farm Market. Again, admission is free. At 3pm Mermaid’s Storyteller in Residence Philip Byrne will be hosting Tea & Tales for adults in Ballywaltrim library. Admission free. Storyteller Liz Weir and the children from St. Kieran’s NS will be in Mermaid at 3pm also with Tales Along the Road – showcasing their learnings from a series of workshops harnessing their natural storytelling skills. Admission is free, booking essential.
Colum Sands and Anne Harper will be performing ‘Knowing the Ground on Which We Stand’ on Saturday 18th November at 8pm in Mermaid Arts Centre. Armed with guitar, harp, clarinets and whistle, singer-songwriter Colum Sands and classical musician Anne Harper share stories, songs and tunes inspired by the language that connects us to the places where we live. On Sunday 19th November at 11am both Colum and Anne will he facilitated a workshop on the healing potential of music and stories. Tickets are €15.
Mermaid Arts Centre is delighted welcome Máirín Mhic Lochlainn and Paddy O’Brien with ‘Scéal I mBarr Bata/ A Tall Story’ on Sunday 19th November at 2pm in Mermaid. Stories will be performed bilingually. Máirín and Paddy will spend the following days telling as Gaeilge to hundreds of primary school pupils.
The YARN Story Circle has been taking place monthly all year. As part of the festival, with the kind support of The Harbour Bar, we are coming together for the YARN Story Circle Story Swap on Sunday 19th November at 3.30pm upstairs in the Harbour Bar. This event is donation based in aid of the lifeboats (RNLI Wicklow). All welcome. Our Bean an Tí (MC) for the Story Swap is the very talented Órla Mc Govern.
With the kind support of Wicklow Arts Office we are taking our stories into West Wicklow. Colum Sands, Jack Lynch and Eimear Burke will be performing ‘After Autumn Almanac’ on Wednesday 22nd November in the Glenmalure Lodge at 8pm and on Thursday 23rd November at 8pm in Lynham’s of Laragh. Both events are free of charge and commence at 8pm.
Mermaid Arts Centre is thrilled to have partnered with Wicklow Arts Office and Wicklow Libraries to bring YARN storytelling events to libraries across County Wicklow: Bray Library - Eglinton Road, Bray - Sat 11th Nov at 11am-12pm - Storyteller Maria Gillen (Family Storytelling ages 5+). Baltinglass Library - Tuesday 14th November at 6.30pm-7.30pm - Storyteller Jack Lynch (Tales for adults 14+). Tinahely Library - Tuesday 14th November at 6.30-7.30pm-Storyteller Joe Brennan. Enniskerry Library - Wednesday 15th November at 6.30pm-7.30pm - Storyteller Nuala Hayes (Family Storytelling ages 5+). Ballywaltrim Library, Bray - Saturday 18th November at 11am-12pm - Storyteller Senem Donatan Mohan (Family Storytelling ages 5+). Greystones Library - Tuesday 21 November at 6.30pm-7.30pm - Storyteller Simone Schuemmelfeder (Family Storytelling ages 5+). Rathdrum Library - Wednesday 22 November at 6.30pm - 7.30pm - Storyteller tbc. Wicklow Town Library - Thursday 23 November at 6.30pm-7.30pm - Storyteller tbc. Admission to all library YARN events is free of charge.
Come and join us and let a story weave its magic on you! Looking forward to meeting you all along the story road. Let the magic begin!
Full Programme HERE
Join us for our monthly story circle - Follow the link below to find out more: