Wexford nursing home receives top award
Now in its fifth year, this special partnership highlights and celebrates the vibrant creativity, artistic expression, and storytelling traditions flourishing within nursing homes and care settings across Ireland. Homes and day centres nationwide are planning events to showcase the wonderful creative work of their residents and members.
Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, said: "We are extremely proud to partner with Age & Opportunity in supporting National Arts in Nursing Homes Day. This important initiative reminds us of the deep creativity, storytelling and artistic expression that lives within our nursing homes. Across the country, residents and staff are embracing the day with enthusiasm, showcasing the vibrant communities that thrive within them."
Mr Daly also paid special tribute to Oakfield Nursing Home in Wexford, which has been awarded one of the National Arts in Nursing Homes Day Awards for 2025. Oakfield Nursing Home has collaborated with renowned community artist Rachel Uí Fhaoláin to develop a unique traditional song and folklore project focusing on St. Brigid and the local wells dedicated to Ireland's patroness saint.
Oakfield Nursing Home has been recognised for its special collaboration with community artist Rachel Uí Fhaoláin on a traditional song and folklore project centred on St. Brigid and the local wells dedicated to Ireland's patroness saint. Through a series of traditional song and folklore workshops, residents are working with Rachel to develop a new cultural collection of stories, songs, prayers and social history, culminating in a community participatory event on 16 May.
"Oakfield Nursing Home's collaboration with Rachel Uí Fhaoláin is a wonderful example of the creativity and cultural richness that nursing home residents contribute to wider community life," said Mr Daly. "Their work preserves vital traditions while giving residents an active, meaningful role in cultural storytelling and knowledge transfer across generations."
Dr Tara Byrne, Arts Programme Manager at Age & Opportunity, added:
"We are so delighted to congratulate Rachel Uí Fhaoláin and Oakfield Nursing Home on winning one of our National Arts in Nursing Homes Day awards for their special folklore project and event on 16th May. On the 30th anniversary of Bealtaine, and in our fifth year of running this important initiative with our partner Nursing Homes Ireland, we are confident that more residents of nursing homes like Oakfield are engaging in enjoyable arts activities that give both themselves and the staff of those settings a greater sense of purpose and meaning."
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Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Irish Times
I'm always telling Sorcha to tone down the southside when we come out to Bray but she never listens
I'm like, 'Bray?' And Sorcha's there, 'Yes, Ross – Bray!' I'm like, 'But why do we have to go to Bray?' sounding like a spoiled child – in other words, one of ours. She slows down as we're approaching the Loughlinstown roundabout. For a second or two, I consider opening the front passenger door and throwing myself out on to the road. But, at the vital moment, I make the fatal mistake of hesitating and suddenly we're through the thing and heading south at one hundred K's per hour. READ MORE Sorcha's like, 'We're going to see my friend, Claire–' I'm there, 'Claire from Bray of all places?' 'Yes, Ross, Claire from Bray of all places.' 'And will he be there?' – he being her husband, Garret, who I despise more than anyone else in the world and not just because he has zero interest in rugby. Sorcha goes, 'I've been promising for – oh my God – ages to pop out to see this new coffee shop of theirs.' I'm like, 'Another one? So what's the gimmick this time?' She goes, 'All the staff are ex-offenders.' I'm there, 'Did you just say all the staff are sex offenders?' ' Ex -offenders, Ross. All the staff are ex -offenders. And it's not a gimmick.' 'It's a definite gimmick.' 'Ross, they're offering an opportunity to people who – yeah, no – made mistakes in their lives and want to get back on the right road.' 'I'd say they're dirt cheap to hire as well.' 'That's a horrible thing to say. And can I just remind you that your actual father is an ex-offender?' 'It still sounds like you're saying sex offender. I think it must be your invisible braces.' You're not only serving coffee, you're serving hope — Sorcha Anyway, 10 minutes later, we're walking through the front door of what was, until very recently, Wheat Bray Love, but is now called Second Shot Roasters. 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'I mean, you're not only serving coffee,' Sorcha goes, 'you're serving hope,' and I'm thinking that's definitely a line she came up with in the cor. While this conversation is taking place, the woman making the coffee is just, like, glowering at Sorcha. I'm always telling her to maybe tone down the southside when we come out here but she never listens. At the top of her voice, she's like, 'So how's Scout getting on in Vancouver?' and you can see not only the staff but the customers looking over as if to say, 'Who the hell does this one think she is?' She goes, 'Claire's niece is working in Canada for the summer, Ross.' Claire's there, 'Yeah, no one's going to the States this year because of the whole, like, Trump thing? She's absolutely loving Canada.' Sorcha's like, 'Is it safe over there? I always say to Honor, if you ever find yourself in a strange place and you feel unsafe, just remember: FTL.' Claire goes, 'What's FTL?' 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'And what sentence did she get?' this – like she said – Nicola one goes. I'm like, '200 hours of community service,' ever the proud dad, 'which she completed.' Nicola's there, 'Well, I got six months in prison – for stealing three pairs of yoga pants.' Sorcha looks away. She doesn't want to hear what's coming next. 'Yes,' the woman goes, 'from a Lululemon.' Sorcha's there, 'Like I said, my daughter was actually attempting to save the planet. Claire, it was lovely to catch up with you. We're going to head off.' I'm there, 'Are we not even getting coffees?' Nicola goes, 'You sanctimonious southside–' Claire's like, 'Okay, that's a verbal warning.' But Nicola there, '–cow! And, by the way, your sunglasses are in your shirt pocket.'
Irish Examiner
18-06-2025
- Irish Examiner
'There's great satisfaction in hearing your own tunes played': Jackie Daly turns 80
Jackie Daly, accordion legend, composer, Gradam Ceoil recipient, and renowned joke-teller, may already have the honour of putting the Lucrative into Sliabh Luachra, if only as one of his vast collection of puns. But as the Kanturk native celebrates his 80th birthday this weekend, now ranked among his proudest achievements is the title of the Man who put the Planxty into the Sliabh Luachra tradition. Steeped in the music of the Cork-Kerry border, whose tunes he first learned from fiddle master Pádraig O'Keeffe's past pupil Jim O'Keeffe, Daly has long made his own mark on the area's tradition as one of the finest purveyors of its polkas and slides, airs, reels, hornpipes, and jigs. In a career playing and recording with Dé Danann, Buttons & Bows, Arcady, and Patrick Street, and with duet partners including Séamus Creagh, Kevin Burke, Máire O'Keeffe, and Matt Cranitch, Daly's broader musical credentials on both accordion and concertina are impeccable. When public performances were curtailed during covid lockdown, his talents as a composer flourished and a trickle of new tunes became a torrent, culminating in the 2022 publication of The Jackie Daly Collection of 227 original works. Between the jigs and the reels are four planxties, reflective of the Irish harp melodies associated with Turlough O'Carolan, described by Daly as 'a little bit classical'. 'They never seemed to be part of the Sliabh Luachra tradition, so in my collection there's four of them and one of them is getting popular now – it's called Planxty Luachra,' he says. Among his musical accomplishments thus far, he adds: 'At the moment the one I'm most proud of is the planxty because it wasn't done before.' Considering the possibility that in another 80 years academics might pontificate on the origins of this Sliabh Luachra 'planxty tradition', he quips: 'I don't know if they will or not. We'll harp on that later. 'But I love the slides and polkas. There's three [self-composed] polkas - The Cat on the Half-Door, Pauline's Panache, and Joe Burke's – that have got popular now and a lot of people are playing them together. There's great satisfaction in hearing your own tunes played.' Beyond his new compositions, Daly has been helping to shape traditional music for decades through his arrangements, ornamentation, and reinterpretations of existing tunes, many becoming so well known that they are now themselves the standards. 'I should bring out another collection,' he says. 'There's lots of tunes that are not in the book because of the fact that I put extra parts to established tunes. They've become popularised as well, so in the future maybe I'll do something about that.' Already mulling the title of such a volume, he tells a tale of how a Sligo-Leitrim version of the tune The Bucks of Oranmore once earned the disapproval of musician John Kelly. 'Connie Connell was playing it in Dublin and John Kelly said to me 'what's that?'. He said 'Jackie, The Bucks should not be interfered with.' So I'm thinking of calling my book 'Jackie Daly and the ones he interfered with'.' All joking aside, in interpretations of tunes Daly respects the tradition and if he adds anything to the tune it's always in context, according to his long-time collaborator, fiddle player Matt Cranitch. 'On the recording that he did with Dé Danann on The Mist Covered Mountain, the set of reels The Cameronian and The Doon - and The Doon is a well-known Sliabh Luachra tune - every single note on that is a workshop in musical integrity,' says Cranitch. 'When an ornament is put in, they have incredible effect and meaning and this kind of thing doesn't happen by accident. It happens from his lifetime of music and the genius of the man himself.' Daly's lifetime in music is a world tour of festivals, concerts, and sessions from America to Japan, from Kanturk to his current home in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, and of friendships and acquaintances, famous names, and fond memories. In four 'fantastic' years from 1978 with Dé Danann 'we played a lot in America and bluegrass festivals where they'd never heard Irish traditional music before and it went down a bomb,' he recalls. He went on to perform at 'a big festival in Milwaukee, one in Chicago, in Boston, lots of them, and the Catskills I did 13 years on the trot. I've even done a few tours of Japan.' Of all his collaborations, however, Daly acknowledges accordion-fiddle duets are his 'favourite kind of music' as the instruments 'go so well together'. Influential in popularising C#D, rather than B/C accordion tuning, he says: 'I was the first person to start tuning my box 'dry', as they call it; not using an awful lot of tremolo on it, so it fits in better with the fiddle - and some people even find it hard to differentiate between the fiddle and the box with that kind of tuning.' Eavesdropper, his 1981 duet album with Kevin Burke, earned great critical acclaim and his eponymous 1977 album with Séamus Creagh is for many people one of the seminal recordings of Sliabh Luachra music. Though a native of Westmeath and a former showband electric guitarist, he and Daly were both into the same things – 'music and music and music' – and Creagh fell in love with the Sliabh Luachra style. Séamus Creagh and Jackie Daly provided one of the seminal recordings of Sliabh Luachra music. Picture: Domhnall Ó Mairtín Daly, a fitter by trade, had joined the Dutch merchant navy at 18. 'I was also in Denmark in the late '60s and unfortunately I had a bad experience,' he says. 'I met my wife in Denmark when I was doing a training course and we got married but she passed away a year after. And that's when I packed up my work as a fitter and sold my house in Little Island. 'I started busking on the street and shortly after that I met Séamus Creagh and we took off together, which was great.' Regular fixtures together at The Gables and The Phoenix in Cork, Daly also recalls other gigs in far-flung corners. 'Lovely weekends when we'd play in Dingle on Saturday nights and Sundays we'd do Sherkin Island.' Creagh had taken on the job as the local postman on the Co Cork island. Though profoundly affected by the loss of his wife, her death also 'made me see that you should be doing the things that you love - and I loved music since I was a child', says Daly. Still doing what he loves, between gigs with Cranitch in Beara, Kenmare, and Ballydehob, Daly was back in Miltown Malbay last week, where he plays Friday sessions with fiddle player Eileen O'Brien. In Kerry, what Cranitch terms Daly's 'fiddle sensibility' derived from his early O'Keeffe influences, ensures 'when World Fiddle Day happens in Scartaglin every year he has a position of honour among all the fiddle players in the sense that he's considered to be part of that tradition'. This year, that connection was celebrated in Scartaglin with a tribute to Daly in advance of his 80th birthday this Sunday, his tunes taking centre stage with a new generation. 'They had a concert in my honour,' he says. 'All the musicians went up - a lot of them were young people - and played tunes of mine. It was beautiful to sit there and listen to them.' Jackie Daly is joined by Matt Cranitch, Eileen O'Brien, and Paul de Grae at the Gleneagle, Killarney, on June 27; support by Teorainn. See: Jackie Daly is joined by Matt Cranitch (left), Eileen O'Brien, and Paul de Grae at the Gleneagle, Killarney, on June 27 Jackie Daly: Question of Taste Current reading? My Oedipus Complex by Frank O'Connor. I love his writing. He was a very intelligent man and had a beautiful way of expressing himself. I read an awful lot and I go to the library every week. Current hobbies? I do crosswords all the time. I had a brain haemorrhage about 30 years ago and I was told that if you keep your mind busy, that's good. I do Sudoku as well. I had three aneurysms but I think my memory has improved slightly over the years and I still have the names of all the tunes. Current listening? I listen to any music that I consider to be good, but pop music I hate. The Beatles were good. Myself and Alec Finn took Hey Jude and made a hornpipe out of it and Alec got a letter from McCartney saying it was the best version of it that he came across. It's beautiful as a hornpipe – it's so melodic. What's important in your life right now? The news these days is bad. But I love going for walks and I do meditation. I love meeting people, talking to people - and yes, telling jokes.
Irish Independent
14-06-2025
- Irish Independent
BBC Radio Two presenter Vernon Kay congratulates wife Tess Daly on MBE
The 56-year-old has been recognised alongside her Strictly co-host Claudia Winkleman in the King's Birthday Honours for her services to broadcasting. Kay, who has two children with Daly who he married in 2003, also praised Winkleman and the Strictly team for 'consistently producing the best show every year'. 'All the hard work and huge effort you put into everything you do has been recognised by the King. 'Being on Strictly from the start when our babies weren't even born just proves how well you've done. Now they're almost 21 and 16 and we've all enjoyed this journey together!! 'Also, bravo everyone at @bbcstrictly and @claudiawinkle for consistently producing the best show every year!! Time to pop a cork me thinks…' Daly began working as a model and first appeared on screens in 1999 when she hosted The Big Breakfast's Find Me A Model competition on Channel 4. She reached new levels of fame as co-host of the BBC One Saturday night dancing competition Strictly Come Dancing, which she presented alongside the late Sir Bruce Forsyth until 2014, three years before his death at the age of 89. Traitors presenter Winkleman joined Daly as Strictly co-host, with the pair picking up the best entertainment award at the 2024 Bafta TV ceremony. On being made MBE, Daly told the PA News Agency: 'I cried when I opened the letter, because I just I couldn't believe it. 'It feels like the most wonderful honour, because when you work as a broadcaster, you're part of people's viewing habits. ADVERTISEMENT 'Broadcasting is without a doubt a collective effort. I've been really fortunate to work with some of the very best production teams that there are in the business. And so my biggest thanks is to them, because you're only as good as your team.' The broadcaster also presented the ITV makeover show, Home On Their Own in 2003, replacing Ulrika Jonsson, and in 2011 fronted the BBC Two documentary TV Greats: Our Favourites From The North where she took a look at Manchester's broadcasting past as BBC North bid farewell to its studios in the city to move to Salford. Across her career she has interviewed stars including Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, rock band No Doubt and US musician Lenny Kravitz.
