Announcing a year with the fairies in Creative Ardagh

100 years ago two English girls took pictures of fairies at the end of their garden. The Cottingley fairy photos sparked the imagination of millions of people from that day to this. For the remainder of 2017 Creative Ardagh will be celebrating this centenary. We have secret plans involving fairies of all sorts (especially of local ones). A number of themed events will be happening throughout the year. We have already delved into the Sidhe (Irish fairies) origins of St. Brigid and will be chasing down some leprechauns and fairies on March 18th, scary fairies might make an appearance around Halloween and we hope to add to our fairy trail during the year. We may even have some Midsummer fairy folk revealing themselves in June. Full details of our events calendar will be available soon. Watch out for this logo:

Lots of fun at St Brigid's Cross workshop

We had a lovely afternoon with a mix of old and young participating in our annual St. Brigid's Cross workshop on Saturday. Many a tale was told of Brigid the Goddess, half-sister of our Midir and Brigid the saint who reputedly walked two miles with hot coals dropping them in a field near the village where they instantly turned into a holy well. We will share more information here about her local connections soon. In the meantime listen out for us on the Joe Finnegan show on Wednesday morning. The local tradition of visiting the well after Mass on St. Brigid's Day, 1st February still continues, why not drop into us afterwards for tea?

St. Brigid's Cross workshop

St. Brigid's Day is by tradition on the 1st February, also known as Imbolc. Come along to our workshop on Saturday 28th to prepare. €5 per person. Tea/Coffee provided.
Brigid had strong connections with Ardagh as is evident in the naming of the local Catholic Church and the Holy Well in the locality. She is reputed to have been ordained a bishop by St. Mel in Ardagh and to have established her first convent in the area. We will have a brief discussion on her local connections and her story, links to celtic traditions and get our participants to try their hands at making a St. Brigid's Cross to bring home.
(This workshop can also be adapted for schools/groups at our usual group rates)

Science Week is next week!!

Exploring Colours with Creative Ardagh for Science Week, 13th to 20th November:
Explore the colour properties of light. Separate white light with prisms, explore colour shadows with red, green and blue lights before contrasting this with paint, mixing the different primaries (red, blue, yellow) to make all the rainbow colours and create rainbow spinners that reverse the light splitting process an appear white when spun.

This DPSM workshop is available for bookings from schools and groups Monday to Friday 14th to 18th November. €4 per person for groups of more than 10 or €5 per person for groups of less than 10. Family fun workshop 3pm to 5pm on Saturday 19th November. Watch out for us on RTE Player during the week.

Pay online option for Ardagh Fright Fest

We have now introduced PayPal buttons on most of our Ardagh Fright Fest events. Click on the tabs at ardaghfrightfest.blogspot.ie. If you avail of this option please also contact us to let us know the details of the event paid for and who will be attending so we can ensure to keep your space.

We have tried to keep it simple and hope it will be a useful option for those of you who wish to pay with credit or debit cards as well as your PayPal account.
Please also let us know if you have any problems, or just how you find using the buttons as this is all new to us.
Thanks in advance,
Annette and Ann.

Maths Week coming soon

We are looking forward  to welcoming several school groups for Maths Week from Monday 16th to Thursday 20th October. We still have some availability, €4 per person for groups of more than ten, €5 per person for groups of ten or less.

Will you be able to find some of these shapes around the building? We will also be seeing what shapes we find outside before having some fun creating patterns with tessellating shapes with printing and paper mosaics. This curriculum-linked workshop can be adapted to suit all ages.

We are also running a special family session on Saturday 15th at 3pm, €5 per person, tea/coffee included for adults.


If you can't make it along, why not try some tessellations for yourself with this tessellation creator and if you figure out what the hammer does, let us know!

Frightful Flash Fiction Competition

Creative Ardagh are delighted to present a Frightful Flash Fiction Competition in association with this year's Ardagh Fright Fest.

Get your creative juices flowing and send us in your scariest, spookiest or most twisted tales.
All genres welcome: gothic, fantasy, mythology, sci-fi, reality etc. The only rule is that you stick to a maximum of 300 words.
Full list of spooktacular prizes will be updated soon.

Entry fees: Adults €5 or €10 for three entries
12-18: €4 or €8 for three entries
Under 12 €2 or €4 for three entries.
Maximum words: 300

Send entries by email to: creativeardagh@gmail.com or by post to Ardagh Heritage and Creativity Centre, Ardagh, Co. Longford to reach us not later than
5pm on Monday 24th October
Incude your name, address and contact details on a separate sheet.
Fees can be paid online here or by cheque/money order made out to Ardagh Heritage and Creativity Centre.