There are a wide range of free events at your local library to celebrate the annual Bealtaine Festival in May. While the festival is aimed primarily at older people, all events are open to everyone.
‘People and Places: Local Studies in the Library’ with local history librarian Ivor Hamrock will take place in Castlebar Library on Monday May 11 at 2pm. On Wednesday May 13 in Achill Library at 11.30am, there will be a talk with archivist Brigid Clesham on ‘The Irish Tourist Association Survey — Achill a tourist destination in the 1940s’. ‘Down Memory Lane: Favourite poems and memories from school’ with author Thomas F Walsh will be recited in Ballinrobe Library on Monday May 25 at 11am, and in Westport Library on Tuesday May 19 at 3pm. ‘Tracing Your Family Tree’ with Ger Delaney of the Mayo Family History Centre, Ballinrobe, will take place in Ballina Library on Thursday May 14 at 8pm. ‘Healthy eating on a budget for the over 55s’, facilitated by Helen Garry and Breege Needham, Home Management Advisory Service, HSE West, Castlebar, will take place in Ballyhaunis Library on Thursday May 14 at 6.30pm. The author of The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian, Pat Walsh, will give a talk in Ballinrobe Library on Friday May 15 at 8pm. In Westport Library on Thursday May 14 at 7pm, historian Sinéad McCoole will speak on the role of women from 1916-1923.
Computer classes for older people will take place in Ballina Library on Monday May 11; Claremorris Library, Monday May 11; Castlebar Library on Monday May 18; and Charlestown Library, May 28. The classes are free.
