The Search for God in Contemporary Art: What have Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko and Sean Scully got in common?

Paddy Moran - Paddy Moran is an eclectic collector of small things from textiles to works of art. His specialist area of study is religious art and is a past president of Art and Spirituality Ireland.

• 📅Thursday, October 5, 2023
• 🕥10:30 - 12:30
• 🏟Bray Golf Club(map)

Theme: I just don’t get all this modern stuff - my grandchildren could paint better than that!

Title of talk : What have Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko and Sean Scully got in common?

Visit to Eurofound - The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Loughlinstown

• 📅Thursday, October 12, 2023
• 🕥10:30 - 12:15

If you would like to attend please send an email to info@thebrayheadsu3a.ie with Eurofound in the Subject heading by Sunday, 1st October.

There is no fee involved.

Quite a number of us are aware that there is an EU institution based not far from us in Loughlinstown but not many are aware of what that institution, which is known as Eurofound, does. Its full title - The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions - sheds some light on the mandate and role of the Foundation but what do they actually do and achieve, and why is it important? If you would like to find out, please join us on this visit and meet the Director and other members of the staff there for presentations on the Foundation's work and some light refreshments.

Please see the full programme for this visit in the email sent to members on 19th September 2023.

The Foundation can be reached quite easily by buses 145 and 155 from Bray, followed by quite a short walk, but parking is also available there.

Map and further transport options can be found on https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/about-eurofound/who-we-are/map-and-transport-information

Or go to the eurofound.europa.eu website and at the bottom of the page on the left under Quick Links you will find the link: Map – how to get to Eurofound

Statues of Dublin

Neal Doherty

• 📅Thursday, November 2, 2023
• 🕥10:30 - 12:30
• 🏟Bray Golf Club(map)
• 🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86mebgAQRL8&feature=youtube

Dublin-born and -educated Neal Doherty will be with our Bray Heads U3A group on 2 November to share with us his extensive knowledge and love of the city, its statues and the stories behind them.

Having retired from his first career managing the Nestlé company's chilled food business in Ireland, he launched himself into a second career as a historian and tourist guide in the city (and beyond), extensively researching its history, heritage and inhabitants. Out of this came his lovely first book - The Complete Guide to the Statues and Sculptures of Dublin (Orpen Press, 2015), covering 250 such works, and which featured on RTE's Nationwide (see YouTube ink below) and on The Irish Times best seller list. Then came a second successful book - The Complete Guide to the Streets of Dublin (Orpen Press, 2016), which is very popular with locals and visitors alike. So it is clear that Neal knows more than a thing or two about the statues of our capital city - many of which we pass by frequently without any idea about who and what they represent. Perhaps after hearing about some of them in Neal's engaging style, we may find ourselves taking greater notice of these works and the people and stories behind them.

Neal now lives in Co. Mayo and works as a freelance guide in French and English for private clients (www.AlchemyTours.ie).He is currently working on a guide book for the Mullet Peninsula in Co. Mayo. He is a keen sailor, hill-walker and member of Engineers Toastmasters club for public speaking. He travels to Nice each year for up to two months to work as a volunteer in the Banque Alimentaire, a food bank for the poor.

Guided tour of 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin on Thursday, 9th November at 11.30 and 12.00. Both tours FULLY BOOKED

• 📅Thursday, November 9, 2023
• 🕥11:30 - 12:45

Guided tour of 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin on Thursday, 9th November

Group 1 at 11.30

Group 2 at 12.00

Each tour limited to 20 people BOTH TOURS ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED

How to get there: DART to Connolly Station, Red Line Luas to Jervis St stop, 15 minute walk to Henrietta Street.

Alternatively, LUAS from Carrickmines to Broadstone and walk through King's Inns to Henrietta Street, 5 minute walk. Thanks to Joan Campbell for this suggestion.

Fee: €10 per person to be paid in cash on the day.

Duration of tour: 75 minutes approx.

Maximum group number: 20 people

Access in the house is by stairs or lift.

The museum at 14 Henrietta Street covers the social history of the house from its construction in the 1720s as a luxurious home for a wealthy family to its use as a tenement for the utterly impoverished in 20th-century Dublin. As such it reflects the development of Dublin city and the response of the newly established Irish Free State to improve the living conditions of some of its most vulnerable citizens in what had become the worst tenements in Europe.

Dublin City Council embarked on the purchase and conservation of the house in 2000 and 14 Henrietta Street was opened to the public in 2018.

This is definitely worth a visit!

Fee of €10 to be paid in cash on the day

We will have a guided tour of the house but the tour is limited to 20 people. To book your place send an email as soon as possible to info@thebrayheadsu3a.ie with ‘Henrietta Street’ in the Subject heading.

Hello Delia Murphy - the story of the singer's life and music, with her songs, recorded and live

Carmen Cullen with Accompanist, Gerry Anderson

• 📅Thursday, November 16, 2023
• 🕥10:30 - 12:30
• 🏟Bray Golf Club(map)

In this innovative presentation, which will feature both recorded and live music, singer and writer Carmen Cullen will be telling us the story of her aunt, Delia Murphy (1902-1971), one of the best known singers and recorders of traditional Irish ballads - as well as ones which she wrote herself - from the 1930s through into the 1960s.

Delia married Irish civil servant, Tom Kiernan who went on to to join the Irish diplomatic service, with Delia accompanied him on his postings abroad in London, the Vatican, Canberra, Bonn, Ottawa and Washington DC, where she entertaining guests with her singing at their diplomatic gatherings. During their time at the Vatican. the city was occupied by the Nazis and Delia secretly assisted Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty in hiding Allied prisoners of war, Jews and many others, helping to smuggling them to safety them out of the country - this story told recently by Joseph O'Connor in his latest novel, My Father's House. During her long singing career, Delia recorded at least a hundred Irish ballads in her inimitable style, playing a major role in bringing traditional Irish music to international attention.

Carmen Cullen, who lives in Bray, has been performing Delai's songs and telling her story since 2009. In 2021. She devised a show for The Mermaid Arts Centre here called 'My Aunt and I, 4 Generations', which outlined her family's extensive musical tradition and their influence on her own singing and writing and she will be covering some of this also in her talk to our group

Originally a teacher, she has written poetry and a number of novels and she has completed a M.Phil in Creative Writing at TCD.

Carmen's live singing of Delia songs will be accompanied by, musician and composer Gerry Anderson.

More information about Carmen can be found on her website, where she can also be heard reading some of her poems:

Carmencullen.com.

Who Put the Ball in the English Net? - The Irish Revival that Mattered

Fergus Finlay, journalist and commentator

• 📅Sunday, November 30, 2223
• 🕥10:30 - 12:30
• 🏟Bray Golf Club(map)

FERGUS FINLAY

Fergus Finlay was CEO of Barnardos, Ireland’s largest children’s charity for fourteen years. For around twenty years prior to that he was employed as Senior Adviser to the Labour Party, serving in three Governments and working for the Party in opposition. He was centrally involved in the election of President Mary Robinson in 1990. In government he worked for three years in the Anglo-Irish peace process. He was one of the drafters of the Downing Street Declaration (which led directly to the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires), and one of the negotiators of the Joint Framework Documents.

He also served for three years as a Director of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations. He is the author of four best-selling books.

He has been a life-long campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities and is currently chair of a government task force to implement a comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities. For fifteen years he has been Chair of the Dolphin House Regeneration Board, which is overseeing one of the largest regenerations in the city. He is also Chair of Lakers in Bray, a highly successful club and service provider for young people and adults with an intellectual disability. He is a member of the Board of the HSE and Chair of its Performance and Planning Committee.

He broadcasts regularly on radio and television and contributes a weekly column to the Irish Examiner. Fergus Finlay was awarded a Human Rights Award by the French Embassy in Dublin in 2013 to recognise the work of Barnardos with Ireland’s children. He was also honoured by UCC as an Outstanding Alumnus in 2016 and was awarded an honorary Doctorate by NUIG.