Shellikybookie coming out of its shell for St. Patrick’s celebrations
By Bernie Commins
Bulginig eyes. Bobbing heads. Oversized. Oblong, animated characters.
Huge safari animals that transform our streetscapes into jungles for just a day. Towering objects that trawl through the streets delighting and exciting the spectators. These are the stuff of dreams, the kind of things that make us all - big and small - smile with awe at these sights.
These were the stuff of dreams for Clonmelman Anthony Lawless, until he set up a wonderful street performance and art group called Shellikybookie just last year. A self-taught artist with an obvious and endless talent and a most humble personality, Anthony’s Shellikybookie is truly starting to emerge from its shell, proving that it can be the greatest street performance group in the county and can be as good as the big ones.
“This was my little baby, my dream,” said Anthony who is the caretaker at the Sisters of Charity School in Clonmel.
Anthony had previously worked on some floats for a few parades in the past, and doing this kind of thing was something that he always wanted to do.
“I was going to volunteer with the Spraoi festival and then my wife said why not set something up myself?” And that was the start of it. Shellikybookie was lucky enough to be given the use of a vacant unit in the Ard Gaoithe business park free of charge, by Europlan. This generosity has habeen invaluable for the group which is run solely by volunteers and with only very minimal, but very welcome, funding. And any financial assistance that the group has received in the past year from local support has gone directly back into Shellikybookie to buy materials and supplies and to pay for utilities in the studio.
“Shellikybookie is a street entertainment venture, most of what we do will end up on streets as installations and floats and we hope to build on this in the future by getting jugglers, fire eaters and more to join the group.
“It’s not rocket science to me, all the pieces we make are made from regular building materials that we can use,” said Anthony, whose vision and natural aptitude for design, art, craft and sculpture is the driving force behind Shellikybookie and the band of takented volunteers who follow.
And although Shellikybookie has only been in existence for a short time, it has made a big mark locall in the town having participated in the annual Junction Festival last year; transformed Gordon Place car park into a medieval world for the Walled Towns Day; and scared the pants off people when they did face make up for participants of the inaugural Zombie Walk which took place last year in Clonmel as part of Halloween celebrations.
Anthony has bigger plans for Shellikybookie but for now, is intent on building up the group’s portfolio and proving that it can do spectacle, just as well as the rest of them.
“It is all about credibility, that we could do the same as other big cities.
“Our plan is to submit an application for funding eventually to the Arts Council, we have a lot of ideas and we need funding for them, but for now we have to let the work do the talking.
And this March 1, Shellikybookie will be one of the groups that will take centre stage at this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in Clonmel with no less that 10 giant floats in the production line at Shellikybookie base in Ard Gaoithe. They are designing and creating five original floats, including a Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ inspired float which promises to be amazing, as well as five other floats for a number of local groups including Clonmel World Music, Sisters of Charity and St. Mary’s Choral Society.
Anthony is really excited about the floats inspired by Pink Floyd’s concept album and feature film ‘The Wall’. In the parade a giant character depicting the ‘teacher’ will be followed by a second float carrying local band The Waheys, who will play live for the duration of the parade. There will also be a group of children wearing gas masks. Entertainment with a powerful message too. You will just have to come along on the day to witness this creation in all its glory - you will not be disappointed.
“This is our first St. Patrick’s Day parade and we hope that we can pull it off. We are excited but nervous because we have expectations to meet. We will leave the floats do the talking.”
All Shellikybookie volunteers are regular people who have an interest in art, performance and enjoy getting crafty but more are always welcome - craftspeople, tradespeople or anyone at all who would like to get involved in an amazing community group.
Kieran Fenlon from Clonmel has been volunteering with Shellkybookie since last May. A welder by trade, he loves it and really enjoys putting his trade to good use in a more creative way.
“Anything to do with building metal frames and things like that, I can do, but I would do anything else that needs to be done as well whether it’s making giraffe heads or whatever,” said Kieran.
“We are always looking for new people to come and join us, it is a great place and we have great craic.” He said that he believes that Shellikybookie’s participation in this year’s parade will make a big difference and is really looking forward to it.
If you would like to find out more about Shellikybookie, or if you would like to volunteer contact Anthony Lawless on 086 3021297 or look them up in Facebook.
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Weather for Clonmel
Saturday 19 May 2012
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Temperature: 5 C to 11 C
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