Kildare Nationalist writeup about our upcoming trip to Disneyland Paris

As they prepare for their performance in Paris, they’re excited to have the talented Charlie Hughes assisting with directing the show. He has selected a beautiful Irish song for their finale.

“There is no better way to celebrate our Irish heritage than with a rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry’, and we are honoured to have local musician Kevin Morrin perform this iconic Irish song for us,” Athy Sing and Sign’s Maggie Owens explained. “Kevin also walked the parade with Athy Sing and Sign, and we were delighted to sign his song in ISL. We will be signing to Kevin’s recording of the ‘Fields of Athenry’, with which we will finish our show. It means so much to us to have this extra dimension of Athy with us.”

Our appearance on Nuacht Cula 4

Nuacht Culá 4 filmed our members talking about their excitement about our uncoming trip to Disneyland Paris.

The group will be performing on stage on March 25th

St Patrick's Day Athy 2024

We are delighted that one of our members, Jane Foley, was chosen as the junior Grand Marshal of the parade, for her outstanding achievements including winning the Garda Youth Award for her efforts in teaching ISL in her school and the local community.

For the parade, we decided to embrace the theme 'Happiness is… being Irish'.

ISL Festival Athy 2023

The theme of Sign Language Day 2023 was "A World Where Deaf People Can Sign Anywhere," and it was reflected in the successful events organised by Athy Sing and Sign club to celebrate Irish Sign Language, Deaf Community, and Deaf Culture.


On Friday night for Culture Night, Athy Sing and Sign hosted a ‘Vibrations and Visuals’ workshop with Kiara Geoghegan where people could have a sound bath and explore vibrations and then after that experience, they got to unleash their creativity by painting glass jars with Stained Glass Paint. It was a wonderful relaxing evening.

On Saturday we started the ISL Festival by cycling out on the Blueway with Kildare Sports Partnership (KSP). Special thanks to Majella Fennelly (KSP) for helping to organise the cycle and to Athy Triathlon Club for their support – Lily Bowden, Caroline Howe and Mary Cullen and to local community guarda Sean O Mahony. We cycled out on the blueway out to Dilly Dally and enjoyed a welcoming coffee and treats! Thank to Linda and Martin for their warm welcome as always. Great to see Linda signing in ISL with some members of the deaf community. At Dilly Dally we met a group of fine men from Naas cycling club and we were telling them about this special day celebrating ISL. They were really interested and they were great sport by participating in a Deaf Game called the ‘Elephant Game’ It was great fun!

In the afternoon we had the main part of the festival on the Green Area beside the courthouse and the river barrow. The afternoon was jammed packed with exciting activities – ‘The Gallery on the Green’. Special thanks to Athy Cathaoirleach Vera Louise Behan for launching our ISL Festival and our art exhibition called ‘Life Lights’.

The LIFE LIGHTS exhibition was created by one of our most creative committee member Linda Dobbyn. It aims to promote Deaf culture and clear communication via CODA figurines. The transparent chicken wire figures represent the overlooked CODA community. The exhibition's goal is to celebrate diversity and promote inclusion while challenging societal norms.


There was lots of exciting activities on the Gallery on the Green , all great fun for all the family – we had ‘Pottery with Jayne Foley –Sunshine Pottery’, Origami with Zuki and Mimi, Stained Glass Painting with Foleys family, Face painting with Johanne, Live Caricatures with Brendan O Rourke, ISL Taster with Athy Sing and Sign members, Hair Braiding with Caoimhe Owens and Pippa Casey, Juggling with Stephan McGinley, Maths activities and puzzles with Maths Week Ireland (Sheila and Eoin) , Chess with Athy Chess Club (Brendan Goggin and Andrew McCarthy, Hook a duck with Lily Bowden, Irish Sign Loco (Bingo), Showcasing our manifesto with Creative Place Elish Langton, Dancing with Danny O Keeffe,  Sign Along with Helen Newman, Michelle McNulty, Aoife Harrington and Aoife McLoughlin (Student from CDS Centre of Deaf Studies), Dragon Boating with Athy Dragon Boat Club,  Aerial Performance workshops.  The festival ended with a spectacular aerial performance by  Polina Shapkina, Julie O Connell Kent and Chloe Commins. Chloe is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) and it was fantastic to see ease of communication with the deaf community and seeing her use ISL in her performance. <3

This amazing day could not have been possible without the amazing support from  Athy Sing and Sign hardworking committee Linda Dobbyn, Mary Byrne and Breda Moore Flynn, the men – Freddy Earle, Ritchie Byrne, Darren Moore Flynn and Peadar Owens, Sean O Mahony and amazing team of volunteers from Athy Sing and Sign club! Special thanks to Mick O Rourke and Irish Courts for their support with electricity. Thanks to Jimmy Byrne and all the volunteers from civil defence.

This amazing weekend was funded and supported by Kildare County Council community grant and festival grant and Creative Ireland Bursary. We also got to launch the 7th edition of Athy Sing and Sign ISL booklet with caricatures of our members signing in ISL.
This beautifully illustrated booklet was created by artist and graphic designer Brendan O Rourke and it is free to download on Athy Sing and Sign website.

Thank you to all our local councillors for their continued support Vera Louise Behan, Aoife Breslin, Mark Wall, Mark Leigh Brian Dooley and to Patricia Berry from Athy Town Promoters.

Special thanks to everyone who helped to make our events super successful and to everyone who came and celebrate with us on the day. We hope enjoyed yourself and learned a sign or two!

Chairperson of Athy Sing and Sign club, Maggie Owens expressed gratitude to everyone who contributed to the success of their events. She was amazed to see a world in Athy where sign language is used by everyone, including the deaf, hard of hearing CODAs, and hearing individuals. Maggie feels proud of Athy Community for their support towards making Athy a Deaf friendly town in Ireland.

St Patrick's Day 2022

What a fantastic St.Patrick’s Day parade in Twenty Twenty Two!

We thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it! The crowd on the streets was just amazing! Thank you to everyone who has helped to make our float for the parade.

Firstly we would like to say a big thank you to Aiden Mchugh for personally making the pole for our flag mast, and for coming in and teaching our members Jake and Jane how to mast the flag and raise it. He also taught us the correct protocol in facing the flag and saluting it.

Keeping the theme ‘Community Coming Together’, we showcased flags from different countries highlighting one of our ISL classes, where we learned the signs for different European countries and we wanted to reflect in current times we are ‘united as one’.

Thank you to Richie Byrne and Freddie Earle for driving the jeep and trailer and for leading our float in the parade.

Thank you to Brendan O'Rourke our wonderful graphic designer who created our Athy Sing & Sign banner and to DataPrint for printing it.

Thank you to Frank Fanning a parent of one of our members Ciara, for joining us on the day and the capturing the magic of the day!

Many thanks to all other photographers who have shared beautiful photos with us Peadar Doogue, Larry Connell, Aisling Hyland Melanie Byrne and many more…It is very much appreciated.

A big congratulations to Patricia Berry and to all the volunteers for making St Patrick’s Day Parade a huge success.

Specials thanks to committee members; Linda Dobbyn, Breda Moore Flynn, Mary Byrne and Majella Conlan Harris for all your help and to all the parents for their support on the day.

Finally we would like to say a big thank you to all our members young and old for joining us on the day and making our float colourful and for signing absolutely beautifully, the Irish National Anthem in ISL. You have done us proud!

Visit to Trinity College & Leinster House (Dail Eireann)

After winning a prize in the 'Irish National Anthem in ISL' competition with Bishoptown Community School, we won a VIP trip to the Dáil

First stop - Heuston Station

Special thanks to train conductor Mark Wicks from Irish Rail for organising some gifts and a special treat for Ath Athy Sing Sign members. When we arrived, we were delighted to see a message on the billboard ‘Good Luck Today to Athy Sing and Sign’

Our members signed the Irish National Anthem in Irish Sign Language in the middle of Hueston Station. Thank you Mark Wicks and Derek Behan for organising the treats and the message.

 

Trinity College

We arrived at the Centre of Deaf Studies in Trinity College where Professor Dr John Bosco welcomed us and gave us the grand tour. We were so proud watching our members asking Dr John Bosco questions in Irish Sign Language. We felt very welcome at the centre of Deaf Studies. We also met the lovely Dr Lorraine Leeson, another Professor in Deaf Studies and Associate Vice Provost for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

We met two fourth year students, Vanessa Keating and Anna Gigilone, who acted as ISL interpreters, and our members got to ask them questions too. We wish those interpreters the very best of luck in their final year in Centre of Deaf Studies.

Dr John Bosco has also organised tickets for us to the Book of Kells. We really enjoyed seeing this beautifully illustrated medieval book.

Thank you so much Dr John Bosco for everything.

 

Leinster House (Dail Eireann)

We visited the Dail where we participated in their very first ISL tour. Senator Mark Daly who is also the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann, welcomed us and personally guided us to the Dail and the Senead, where he talked about the long process of getting Irish Sign Language recognised as Ireland’s third official language, and also how the Dail works.

We performed the Irish National Anthem in ISL in front of the columns outside, which displayed posters celebrating the 100 years anniversary of the Seanad. We were then treated to a delicious lunch in the Oireachtas Restaurant. We were delighted to have lunch with Senator Mark Daly, two ISL interpreters, Caroline O Leary and Ciara Grant, and we were joined by the lovely Senator Fiona O Loughlin. We were also delighted to meet Senator Mark Wall.

We had such an amazing day at the Dáil & we would like to thank everyone there for making all of us feel very very welcome!

National Anthem in ISL Competition

Denise Dowling from Bishopland Community School organised a National competition for primary schools to learn to sign the Irish National Anthem in ISL. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to learn the Irish National Anthem and to practice our ISL Skills.

Fifteen members from our Junior class entered the competition representing their own national primary school and the judges (5 independent judges) have commented that members of Athy Sing and Sign club really stood out with their ISL skills.

Caoimhe Owens representing Gaelscoil Athí won the individual entry. We are very proud of her and of all our members. They are all winners! They all submitted their entries signing the FULL Irish National Anthem into ISL

We would like to thank Denise Dowling from Bishopland Community School for giving us this opportunity.

Caoimhe has won a VIP trip to Leinster House for all her class. We are so looking forward to this day trip for all the Junior members when things get back to normal.

All of the submitted videos were compiled together and shown on RTE News2Day.

On screen as the presenter is talking about this competition you see 3 girls - they are three girls from Athy Sing and Sign Club!! They were absolutely chuffed!! You will also get to see all 15 members in the video too.

Special thanks to Isobel Brady from Shooting Stars Athy for compiling this video of our Athy Sing & Sign members signing the Irish National Anthem in ISL.

Is Mise Eire Exhibition Athy 2020

In Emily Square Athy, as part of our ISL Festival 2020, Athy sing and sign Club unveiled an exhibit of mannequins, representing strong, independent and inspirational women. This was in keeping with the theme of our festival this year, with our ISL booklet also featuring pages dedicated to women we admire.

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Labelled PROUD, EMPOWERED, INSPIRED, INSPIRING, WOMAN & IS MISE ÉIRE, the mannequins were intended to each convey a different characteristic of women.

The figurines were painted by a talented Athy artist, Sean Prendergast. He painted Daisy Flowers onto the mannequins to represent women from the moment they are born – Innocence and purity, to blossoming through to motherhood.

Special thanks to Kildare County Council and CreativeIrl for funding this project

The unveiling on the night was followed by a light show in the square.

Photos by Frank Fanning

Photos by Peadar Doogue


We were delighted when The Clanard Court, Athy agreed to host the 'Is Mise Éire' art exhibition until the end of November.

Culture Night 2020

As part of our ISL Festival 2020, Athy Sing & Sign commissioned a mural in the town, facing Crom a Boo Bridge close to the banks of the river Barrow. The mural, a ballerina wearing boxing gloves, is by acclaimed street artist Solas, a.k.a. Derek O’Sullivan and is intended to represent a balance of strength and beauty.

Locals were invited to post photos of themselves copying the pose, and to submit ideas to name the ballerina. The winning name chosen was “ISLA” (An acronym of Irish Sign Language Athy).

For Culture Night 2020, Athy Sing & Sign Club commissioned a short film in which our members signed to the song (Something Inside) So Strong by Labbi Siffre. The film was produced by Mikey Aldridge.

Filming …

Mural "The Boxing Ballerina"

Athy Sing and Sign Club with the support of Kildare Co Council and Creative Ireland commissioned this eye-catching mural of a ballerina wearing boxing gloves!. The mural is on the side of the building to the right (Anne’s Flowers and Gifts) just after you cross the bridge in Athy, heading in the direction of Dublin.

Article from Kildare Nationalist

Photos below from Frank Fanning