Offaly’s First TV Station Goes Off Air Following Great Success
Thursday, 8 December 2011
After a year of zealously formulating and filming a large collection of short films and animations over the last year, Offaly's first television station drew to a joyous close last Saturday with a screening of work filmed in Crinkle.
The event, held in the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre on Oxmantown Mall, attracted a large gathering of the children from Crinkle, who were the undisputed stars of the show, as well as several representatives from Offaly County Council and Birr Town Council.
The project was undertaken throughout 2011 and involved artist Michael Fortune forming a new series of relationships among residents from the Grove Street housing development in Crinkle.
Michael's work involved conducting weekly workshops with young people and adults in film and the digital media, with the resulting films broadcast to the world via a purposely constructed community based website known as grovestreet.tv.
Through his collaboration with the local residents of Grove Street, Michael also initiated a series of traditional calendar based community activities, including erecting and decorating May Bushes and a Halloween Film Festival held in the local Handball Alley, a venue which is itself reputedly haunted.
To coincide with this he assisted in the formation of an adult group who were provided with the skills and equipment required to carry on producing digital
workshops locally, as well as being left with the task of updating the Grove Street TV website.
The project also played a part in the establishment of a local community house, which will open to the residents in the coming months. 'The fact that the community house is opening soon speaks for itself,' Michael said. 'The whole project has been a great thing for the people of Grove Street and the larger community.'
Michael told the gathering that the children of Crinkle were an essential ingredient of the project and that without their help the project could never have been a success. Michael has also entered the children's films in the Limerick Film Festival and voiced his belief the films will be selected for showing.
Former Cathaoirleach of Tullamore Town Council, Tommy McKeigue told the audience the children of Crinkle can be very proud and can take ownership of the project: 'The community house will now become a centre of artistic activity in Crinkle and hopefully we'll have a Stephen Spielberg amongst us,' Cllr. McKeigue said.
Following an airing of a selection of the best short films and animations made over the last year, Michael Fortune made a presentation of a new MacBook Pro laptop to Crinkle residents Seamus and Nancy and said he hopes that the spirit of the project will be kept alive and the children of Crinkle will continue to explore their talent for film making.
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