A marriage of festival fun and honours

STUDENT brides will have audiences rocking in the aisles at the Muscailt Arts Festival in NUI Galway.

Yesterday the brides, actors Gillian Keady, Aisling Gafney and Ruth D'arcy (above), were being put through their final rehearsals for 'The Wedding Singer', a rock musical version of the hit comic movie.

The show is one of the highlights of the week-long festival. The programme also features the premiere of a new opera, 'Colombo Tutto Tondo', music, sculptures by Spanish artist, Ana Perez Pereda, poetry, theatre and children's shows.

Meanwhile, the unversity is to honour the Irish Independent's education editor John Walshe.

He is one of six graduates of NUI Galway who will receive alumni awards at the 11th annual banquet on March 5.

A native of Galway, he was appointed education correspondent of the Irish Independent in 1970 at the age of 23. He has been education editor for almost 20 years.

RTE sports news broadcaster Colm Murray will receive the Aer Arann Alumni Award for Sports Achievement and Leadership. Mr Murray has been bravely battling a serious illness and continues to work at the broadcaster.

Other winners include Gabriel D'Arcy, CEO of Bord na Mona; Michael Conroy, general manager Cisco Product Group; Dr Gerald Farrell, managing director of Eli Lilly and former president of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association; and Dr Brian Griffin, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Training Programme at the Cleveland Clinic in the US.

- Brian McDonald

Irish Independent