Building upon the diversity of arts and culture already catered for at the festival, the Connemara Mussel Festival has launched a poetry competition in which the mussel will be celebrated in verse.
The competition was the brainchild of John Coyle of Renvyle House who suggested at the festival launch in March of this year that there were not many poems about the humble mussel and to rectify that situation he would be delighted to sponsor a competition to be run by the Connemara Mussel Festival.
The competition was launched at Renvyle House Hotel on November 18 by poet and Professor of Literature at Vassar University, New York, Eamonn Grennan, who will also judge the entries.
Committee member Marian Herriott said that they were delighted to be running the competition because while the main focus of the festival is mussels and other seafood, the competition will help to highlight the large number of cultural and artistic events held during the festival weekend – which as always will be held on the May Bank Holiday weekend (29th April to 1st May 2016 ).
The generous sponsored prize fund of €350 will be divided between first place (€250 ) and second place (€100 ). Full details and rules of the competition are available on www.connemaramusselfestival.com
On the same evening the presentation of a cheque to the RNLI also took place. The RNLI were the Connemara Mussel Festival’s charity partners for 2015 and a portion of the proceeds of the Mega Raffle were earmarked for the charity. A cheque for €300 was presented to RNLI Clifden representatives Robert King, station mechanic and Sinead O’Sullivan, crew member and navigator.
The Festival Committee would also like to thank everybody who supported the festival in 2015 and who helped to make it the success it was.
