Ballinasloe Community Arts Group

In January 2002 a series of public meeting were held in Ballinasloe to address the poor state of the Arts in the town.

What emerged from these meetings was the range of highly talented, highly motivated individuals working very successfully in various branches of the arts but nonetheless working in isolation.

A plan was therefore set in motion to harness these resources and the Ballinasloe Community Arts Group was born.

Phase one complete but what now?
The logical and unanimous answer was an Arts Festival to showcase these local talents.

We had the will but what about the way?
A meeting was organised with the Galway County Council Arts Office who actively embraced the project and provided a solution.

The Floating Theatre Company on its third visit to the town was to be the focal point of a week long series of events, in-keeping with the marine theme An tSuca Fiáin a derivative of the Wild Suck became a reality.

The festival ran from Monday the 8th of July to Sunday 14th July 2002.

The Floating Theatre hosted a week long series of workshops culminating in a public performance on the Sunday afternoon.

The marina provided the backdrop to Thursday evenings opening pageant after a parade made its way through the town streets.

The pageant was the highlight of the festival in terms of colour and crowd participation.

However the festivities were not just confined to the marina.

The Library, the Town Hall, the Ballinasloe Enterprise Centre, the Bank of Ireland, Gullanes Hotel and Crumbs & Cream hosted a variety of events.

These included Art Exhibitions, Poetry Readings, Storytelling and a diverse range of workshops including Circus Skills, Art, Film-making even Belly Dancing.

The festival spilt onto the town streets in the form of Street Theatre, Juggling, Samba and Face Painting.

There were also a wide range of music and live performances on show during the week but the highlight, undoubtedly was the appearance of the acclaimed comedian Tommy Tiernan in the Town Hall on the Saturday night.

Committee Members

Chairperson	Noreen Ronaldson
Treasurer	Micheál Breathnach
Secretary	Kevin Leahy
PRO	Michelle Ronaldson
Artistic Director	Brendan Grealy
IT	Damian Killeen
Safety Officer	Kevin Leahy

Group Members

Carol Cox, Grellan Ganly, Joyce Little, Danielle Allison, Sinéad Killeen, Patricia Ronaldson, Miriam Grealy