Skibbereen to hold its own opening ceremony for West Cork town's Olympic rowers
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The rowing capital of Ireland has pulled together to support its Olympians as the eyes of the world turn to the City of Light on Friday for the opening of the summer Olympics.
While organisers of the Paris Olympics have promised a spectacular opening ceremony focused on the Seine, the people of Skibbereen in West Cork, home to four of Ireland’s 16-strong rowing team, are pulling out all the stops too with an Olympics-themed opening ceremony for its annual summer arts festival.
It will feature a screening on Friday afternoon of the superb sports documentary, Pull Like A Dog, which followed the O'Donovan brothers, Paul and Gary, after their silver medal success at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and a ‘Going for Gold’ fancy dress street party on Bridge Street on Friday night with interactive Olympic challenges, live music and food.
It will have its very own parade of nations and Olympic torch run, which saw the flame brought from the Fastnet Rock to the islands, up the river Ilen past Skibbereen rowing club, to arrive in the town centre where it will be used to light the town’s own 'mini Olympic flame'.
An outdoor screening of the multi-Oscar winning Chariots of Fire, introduced by the movie’s legendary producer and local resident, David Puttnam, will take place in the walled garden at Liss Ard Estate at 8pm on Saturday.
Big screens are also being installed in the town hall to screen the rowing over the next two-and-a-half weeks, so locals can cheer on Skibbereen Rowing Club members Aoife Casey, 25, Fintan McCarthy, 27, Paul O’Donovan, 30, and Emily Hegarty, 25.
Arts festival manager, Declan McCarthy, said the popular annual event always features a themed opening street party.
“But when we were planning this earlier this year, we saw that it coincided with the Olympics and so it was a no-brainer for us to get into the spirit of the Olympics, given the success of the rowers in this town,” he said.
In a major coup for festival organisers, the producer and arranger John Metcalfe, who was working most recently with Coldplay at Glastonbury, and who has also worked with U2, Blur and Peter Gabriel, will perform a very rare live performance of his stunning new album, Tree, which reflects an imagined 24-hour cycle in the life of a tree, in the town hall on August 2.
Mr McCarthy said they are also delighted to welcome Dobro (resonator guitar) master and 16-time Grammy winner, Jerry Douglas, for a sold-out show, and to host the spectacular Garden of Shadows light and sound installation in the grounds of Liss Ard for four nights over the bank holiday weekend.
For the first time in the history of the Olympic summer games, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium — it will be held along the Seine, with the 10,500 athletes being paraded on boats.