GALWAY:TWO PIG keepers quarrelled and turned each other into a succession of shapes – bird of prey, serpents, warriors and finally into maggots.
As culture night took off in Galway yesterday evening, the maggots had been swallowed by two cows, who had begat the two bulls central to the Táin Bó Cuailgne.
Accompanied by a plethora of pink pigs made from water bottles and milk cartons, the two bulls charged down Galway’s Shop Street to the river Corrib at the Spanish Arch. Some 30 members of the Earwig Arts Group from Tuam, including queen Meadbh herself, took no hostages as they played out the mythical events that led up to the epic battle. Inside the city museum, members of the Galway Early Music Group hosted a Renaissance dance workshop in costume. Upstairs, a series of events had been organised by Galway city council artist-in-residence Bernadette Divilly on the theme of “gratitude for water”.
Gratitude for a dry and balmy evening was the message on many lips, as hundreds of people participated in a diverse range of free events, including storytelling and readings in the Galway Arts Centre, and music with the Galway Boy Singers and Contempo Quarter in St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church.
“Ceol domhanda” or world music was on the programme in Conradh na Gaeilge, while over in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop, there were continuous readings by some 22 authors.