A.M. Cousins.
Joe Brennan.
Wexford People
Today at 01:00
A variety of speakers and musicians, including local storytellers and Booker Prize nominated authors, will feature in a special evening of Christmas entertainment at the National Opera House on Wednesday, December 6. For the first time in its history, Sunday Miscellany Celebrates Christmas with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra is being performed outside of the capital for a concert which will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 during its seasonal schedule.
“Anyone familiar with the beloved RTÉ Radio 1 programme will know that it has built its own magical space for listeners to escape to on Sunday mornings with an evocative blend of new writing and complementary music,” said a spokesperson for the National Opera House. “This concert will bring the same magic to a live audience in Wexford for this evening of seasonal music and creative writing at its best.”
Amongst the contributors will be well-known, Wexford-based storyteller Joe Brennan. Joe has told stories throughout Ireland and internationally for over 20 years to audiences of all ages. His piece for the Wexford Sunday Miscellany concert is filled with Christmas nostalgia of his family home in Corish Park, in the late 70s/early 80s when George Bridges’ countdown heightened the anticipation of the arrival of Christmas. It is about the crib and the adventures it took him on to Carrick, Piercestown, Rosslare and Curracloe.
Another Wexford contributor on the night will be AM Cousins, who grew up in Kilmore and lives in Wexford town with her husband Brendan McCarry. She writes memoir and local history essays and is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany. She will perform The Trouble with Santa Claus as she recalls a time when she was a little girl with an aversion to strange, bearded men.
Although a native of Cahir, Co. Tipperary, Margaret Galvin has lived all of her adult life in Wexford. She has worked with the library service, as editor of Ireland’s Own, and in social care, and her essays and poems are well represented in literary journals. Margaret’s essay, A Gift from the Family is a humorous piece describing what went wrong when a random act of kindness was performed by a would-be Secret Santa.
Other contributors to the Wexford concert include Booker Prize nominee Claire Keegan, Paul Rouse, Joe Kearney and Antonia Gunko Karelina, with live music performances by baritone John Molloy, Piaras Ó Lorcáin, Gráinne Brookfield and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra with acclaimed conductor David Brophy. Two pieces with a particular local resonance will feature on the programme, Boolavogue and naturally, The Wexford Carol.
Tickets are €20 – €50 + Facility Fee and can be purchased online at www.nationaloperahouse.ie or by ringing the National Opera House box-office on 053 912 2144. Box office phone lines are open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday.