FEBRUARY 2006

Castleforward Partisan Artisans prepare for St. Patrick's Day

The Castleforward Partisan Artisans are a pageantry, performance and mummers group for the South West Inishowen area. They have been based in Newtown for the last nine months, and have announced that they are to take part in this years parade in the St. Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin.

As part of the development of the group, and through the relationship of Jim Hughes (artistic director) with the Dublin Festival, the group has received a commission to create a large scale pageant for the 2006 Festival parade. The theme of this year's parade is 'Wishful Thinking' and the interpretation of the theme by the Partisan Artisans is a piece entitled 'The Hair of the Dog that Bit Ye'. "This piece offers a comic look at what could be best described as the quirkier aspects of superstition. It focuses on the performance style and traditions of the Mummers, Wren Boys, Rhymers and Druids, portraying a range of cures and implausible beliefs presented through music, dance visual centrepieces and street theatre together." said Jim Hughes,

The group are appealing to volunteers to attend their workshop at Naomh Colmcille GAA club, Newtown, on 11th February from 10am - 5pm. Anyone can attend at any time during the day. "Definitely, we need volunteers for St. Patrick's Day - any street volunteers, storytellers, dancers or musicians. You can look at the St. Patrick's Day festival in a couple of ways, busing down doing the parade and busing up the same night, or a big day out with half a million people watching you with wall to wall applause." Jim is looking to recruit people from the South West of the peninsula (Newton, Manor, Killea, Burt, Burnfoot, St. Johnston and Carrigans) so they have the manpower to realise their vision and make a lasting impression at their first Dublin Parade.

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