“I’ve been killed more ways than anybody else,” claims veteran actor Ian McElhinney, best known for his roles in Derry Girls (Granda Joe), Game of Thrones (Ser Barristan Selmy), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (General Dondonna), not to mention Superman's great great grandfather in Krypton.
With over 140 films, television shows and stage performances to his credit, Ian McElhinney was also nominated for Best Director for Stones in His Pockets, a play written by his wife, Marie Jones.
McElhinney will share highlights of his career in an interview with Sinéad Crowley, Arts and Media Correspondent with RTE News, at the 2022 Festival on Saturday 5 November.
Sinéad Crowley is also the author of The Belladonna Maze, One Bad Turn and other novels.
As previously announced Chanele McGuinness will open for the David Rooney Art/Music event on the Friday night of the Allingham Festival programme. Chanele understands the unique intrigue of darkness & isolation.
Instead of trying to fight the problems that may come along with living and working in a small coastal town in the northwest of Ireland, she has taken these challenges & used them to her advantage, further leaning into the dark & lonely subjects of her songs. The juxtaposition of sweet vocals paired with miniature ghost stories keeps the listener locked into McGuinness’ performances. Her music floats from the eerie storytelling side of Andy Shauf to the dulcet tones of Julia Jacklin. However, Chanele carves her own pocket in the singer-songwriter genre with her pure, haunting vocals & ominous song subjects alone.
Chanele has toured with songwriters Natalie Prass & Matthew E. White, playing sold out shows across Europe and the U.K. Her voice has been featured in various television advertisements including Galaxy Duet, Erste Bank and Pampers.
Chanele's current singles are just a small taste of what is to follow with her debut record. Don't miss Chanele with David Rooney and others on Friday November 4.
We are delighted to announce that a highlight of the Festival Friday Night will be an appearance by freelance illustrator/ animator and musician David Rooney. This event will also feature Ballyshannon's own Chanelle McGuiness (of whom, more shortly)
David has amassed over thirty years experience as a freelance illustrator. His concept driven scraperboard technique has won numerous awards over the years. As a contributor to The Irish Times and Hotpress his editorial work reflected the tumultuous changes in Irish society.
Work in the last decade has focused mainly on cultural projects - one hundred illustrations for the five part BBC series ‘The Story of Ireland’ was followed by The Titanic Experience Belfast, King John’s Castle Limerick, Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition Durham, the Stonehenge Interpretative Centre and Edinburgh Castle.
The ‘1916 - Portraits and Lives’ book, published by the Royal Irish Academy, received an IDI Design Award and the 40 original portraits were acquired by the State and exhibited in Kilmainham Gaol in 2016 as part of the 1916 Centenary Celebrations. The portraits subsequently toured the world as prints from Berlin to Buenos Aires before finally reaching Nelson Mandela’s old prison on Robben Island, Cape Town.
More recently he has created album covers and animated video work for Christy Moore and post-rock band God Is An Astronaut. Along with the ‘Ice Men’ series of stamps for An Post and a Bram Stoker’s Dracula coin for The Central Bank he has designed high end whiskey labels for brands like Midleton and Jameson.
The recording of David’s debut album ‘Bound Together’, with Declan O’Rourke as co-producer, took place in 2016. Together with jazz drummer Conor Guilfoyle, he put together some of the finest musicians in the country. 2021 saw the release of a new music project under the name Echotal produced by Torsten Kinsella (God Is An Astronaut) and featuring a host of music and film collaborators. The follow up Echotal EP is due in the autumn.
The Friday night event at the Allingham Arts Festival will feature artwork, animated/film music videos, live music performances interwoven with a talk by David himself about how it all comes together.
Hot on the heels of her nomination for the Booker prize, Claire Keegan is back in the “cultural competition” news. This time for the Oscars!
The wonderful movie, An Cailín Ciúin, based on her book, Foster, has been selected by the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) as Ireland’s entry for the 95th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.
We are delighted to announce that those who come to see Claire during the Allingham Arts Festival will have the opportunity to see this amazing film the following week when it is screened by our friends in the Ballyshannon Film Club on 9th Nov.
