Children and adults from the Muirhevnamor estate in Dundalk entertained a packed house of local residents, peaceniks, local authority officials and sundry guests at the local sports complex with their marvellous Muirhevnamonster shadow puppet performance on Saturday 14th May.

Under the guidance of MuPaPu artists Vivienne Byrne, Mark Whelehan, Dearbhla McNally and Susan Farrelly, the 20 particpants created a fabulous parallel world inhabited by such colourful characters as Henrietta Monster who fears nothing… except the sludge at the bottom of the river; Fuddle Buddle who keeps getting caught in a bubblegum spider net and the boy-monster racers Hypnoshock, Robobrainwave and Bonemobile.  A screening of James Coogan’s video documentary of the event was shown at Dundalk County Museum last Thurssday 26th and at the International Puppet Festival at Ards on May 28th.  A monstrous, meteoric rise to fame if there ever was one!

Cool improvised soundtrack was provided by Ed Reynolds; I was privilged to be ‘guest storyteller’ and in a rare moment of reconciliation between warring regions, technical management was by that most peaceable of Drogheda-men John McGovern.  The EU’s Peace III programme funded the project which was produced by the renowned crafters of fine things in the North East, Louth Craftmark.