Athlone Castle hosts free events in celebration of Cruinniú na nÓg

Athlone Castle in association with Creative Ireland and Westmeath County Council, will host a programme of free events for this year’s National Cruinniú na nÓg celebrations on Saturday, June 12.

Cruinniú na nÓg is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme’s Creative Youth Plan to enable the creative potential of children and young people

The castle programme includes a fun, exciting and entertaining live zoom storytelling performance with artists, Paul Timoney and Kyle Riley as well as a live broadcast of the virtual ceremony announcing the winners of the Castle’s Creative Writing Competition.

Athlone Castle will bring the fun and engagement of a free live storytelling performance, ‘Shenanigans on the Shannon’, into the comfort of your living room with the power of Zoom.

As part of National Cruinniú na nÓg, children are invited to join in the fun of wild and wacky tales about the castle and surrounding area.

In ‘Shenanigans on the Shannon’, Paul and Kyle will fill the castle with music, mischief, and stories. They will get all the participants moving with original children’s music and lively sing along songs.

Children will get to interact with fellow audience members, cobble together some art on the spot, polish their acting skills and become a part of the show. This performance is suitable for the whole family and perfect for 5–11-year-olds. It’s completely free but booking is essential as places are limited! There are two time slots available at 10am and 11.30am.

See www.athlonecastle.ie/events for further information or check out Athlone Castle on Instagram or Facebook. Booking will be on a first come first served basis so please email info@athlonecastle.ie in advance to secure your place.

The highlight of the castle’s Cruinniú na nÓg events will be the live streaming of a virtual ceremony on Saturday, June 12, during which the winners of the Athlone Castle’s Creative Writing Competition will be announced, and the ‘Olaf and Hugh’s Adventures at Athlone Castle’ publication will be officially launched online by the John Broderick’s Writer in Residence, Keith Payne and Caroline Coyle, of Poetry in the Park. All the finalists will be invited to read their works during the opening.

The creative writing competition was a huge success and many brilliant and exciting stories were submitted by local children. The quality of the entries was extremely high and the selection panel had a very difficult task shortlisting and selecting the winners in each category. The winning and highly commended shortlisted entries will all feature in the publication.

The live broadcast of the creative writing awards ceremony will be available to view on Athlone Castle’s Facebook page from 5pm on Saturday.

All the Athlone Castle Cruinniú na nÓg events are supported by Creative Ireland and Westmeath County Council.

See www.athlonecastle.ie/events for further information or checkout Athlone Castle on Instagram or Facebook.