Bríd Cranitch is retiring from her 17-year tenure at the helm of the thriving cultural centre in Baile Mhúirne, writes Pet O’Connell

Kathleen Dineen’s musical education combined the traditions of her Co Cork parents, the wide knowledge of the nuns in her school and the expertise of Aloys Fleischmann, writes Pet O’Connell.

Des O’Driscoll picks the best events taking place this week

Catch up on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com this morning.

Des O’Driscoll shares the latest news from the world of entertainment.

I’ve always been excited by musical sounds. My earliest memory is playing a little toy piano with the black keys painted on.

Brian Morrissey is from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and has been living in Cork since 2008. He is the creator/producer of Pulses of Tradition, which features Irish traditional music, song and dance, which runs in Triskel Christchurch in Cork from June to September.

After 30 years in UCC, Mel Mercier has now taken up a post in University of Limerick, writes Colette Sheridan

Artist and designer Robert Ballagh is set to address a conference exploring The Arts and the 1916 Rising.

BECKY UNTHANK is having an interesting summer. A month ago, she and her band The Unthanks opened Glastonbury festival in Somerset. They were the first act to play the event’s iconic Pyramid Stage.

This year’s Ireland Folk Fest will be held in the tourist town of Killarney in Co Kerry from 24th to 26th of July.

JOHN P Quinlan is from Macroom, and founded the Vangard Gallery in Cork in 1991. He is in the midst of a nine-month stint as guest curator at Triskel in Cork.

Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons will be among the presenters at the Gradam Ceoil TG4 Traditional Irish Music Awards which will take place at Cork Opera House next Sunday.

There will be a lot of fanfare over the coming weeks to mark Gay Byrne’s 80th birthday, which falls in early August, as there has just been plaudits for Bill O’Herlihy, as he stepped away from the anchor seat of RTÉ’s sports department, having steered us through 10 World Cups and 10 Olympic Games on TV. And rightly so.

Aisling Bea is a performer in the old vaudeville tradition, a Lucille Ball for modern times — she writes, she acts and she does stand-up.

One of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, will perform for one night, October 3, at The University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, in the US, in commemoration of the works of Cork-born Captain Francis O’Neill.

As Philip King takes to the stage with Scullion at a musical celebration hosted by UCC, he tells Ed Power how his studies there helped shape him as an artist

For the past five years, University College Cork’s FUAIM concerts and seminars have celebrated the diversity of Irish music and its interconnectedness with further flung forms.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Irish World Academy have joined forces to create a new two-year full-time course at the University of Limerick in classical strings performance.

Chance has been significant in the careers of singers Owen and Moley Ó Súilleabháin, but the sons of composer and musicologist, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and Dr Nóirín Ní Riain, have had the musical schooling to take advantage of these moments.

Limerick is to enjoy an annual international arts festival to coincide with its designation as National City of Culture 2014.

What I do: Teacher, musician, and creator & producer of Pulses of Tradition.

IRELAND marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks with a simple yet moving ceremony hosted by the US embassy in Dublin.

A MEDIEVAL ‘inn trail’ and a Walled Towns evening will take place in Clonmel as part of heritage week.

TWENTY years of peace building have come to fruition with the queen’s visit, said former President Mary Robinson.

Heartbroken Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte was profoundly moved today during an emotional gathering with the Dalai Lama, he revealed.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen clearly enjoyed the craic provided by The Chieftains yesterday when he opened the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.

A YOUNG man has reaped a reward for foregoing an acting career to take on an engineering degree.

The cream of Irish singing talent, as well as Munster rugby, features on a new CD aimed at raising funds for a young rugby player.

THE family of a legendary composer who taught music at University College Cork (UCC) over five decades has asked An Post to issue a stamp to commemorate the centenary of his birth.

The Irish Film Institute and RTÉ are to be congratulated for helping to restore Irish Destiny (€19.95), a fictionalised film set in the War of Independence and launched at the 10th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1926.

CULTURE Ireland yesterday announced €1 million in funding for groups promoting Irish arts and culture abroad.

THE six-day St Patrick’s Day Festival began in Dublin yesterday with what is hoped to be an annual event: a talking shop in Dublin Castle about what it means to be Irish.

THE Government has gone back to the drawing board on a proposed €44m performance arts academy after four years of planning.