A boost of fun and creativity this October

This has been a tough year. We could all do with a boost of fun and creativity to lift our spirits as the winter draws in and Covid-19 continues to haunt the world.

To help us through October, Age & Opportunity, the national organisation working to improve the quality of life of people aged 50 to 100+, have just announced a wonderful creative programme for people to enjoy online in their homes – Bealtaine At Home: October.

Bealtaine At Home: October offers a selection of online events which span from celebrating titans of literature, such as Seamus Heaney and Anne Enright, to discussing a thorny issue for many, the onset of middle age, to hearing from some mad, bad and dangerous women, to welcoming in new communities through Tar Isteach, to creating Love Letters through movement.

The events run from Tuesday next, October 2, and continue until Saturday, October 31. The full list of events is available on the Bealtaine Festival website – http://bealtaine.ie.

One of the main events is Mad, Bad and Dangerous, a series of interviews between influential Irish women over 70. These women have been blazing trails for 50 years. They were moving mountains long before hashtags. Parts one and two of the series were broadcast on RTÉ Culture and parts three and four will be broadcast live on YouTube on October 20 and 22 at 7 p.m. as part of Bealtaine At Home.

Elsewhere, the Bealtaine Discussion: No-one Expects the Middle Ages – chaired by Irish Times columnist and writer Hilary Fannin with the help of artist John Byrne, marketing and advertising guru Pearse McCaughey, and director of the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing, St. James’s Hospital/TCD, Professor Rose Anne Kenny – will take a look at this pivotal time between ‘youth’ and ‘older age’.

Meanwhile, in Starting Out and Keeping Going, in conjunction with the International Literature Festival Dublin, Anne Enright will look back on her 25 years as a writer with younger writer Ruth Gilligan, whose most recent novel The Butchers was published in March this year.

There are limited numbers for some of the events so sign up in advance to secure a space at http://bealtaine.ie.

The Bealtaine Festival is a celebration of the arts and creativity as we age, and this online edition honours the creative spirit of the festival.

*Pictured above, poet Seamus Heaney will be celebrated during Bealtaine At Home: October. Photo: John Minihan & UCC