Galway's latest music venue set to enjoy a dramatic waterfront location

The Sydney Opera House it ain't, but it does enjoy a dramatic waterfront location. Next Sunday Galway's latest music venue hosts its official launch - in a swimming pool.

Well, not quite the pool itself, but barely a splash away. Galway Corporation has spent almost £1 million on refurbishing the hall in Salthill's Leisureland. Tried and tested with classical concerts late last year, the venue will resound to the strains of the Black Magic Orchestra, Dolores Keane, Maighread and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Micheal O Domhnaill and many others this coming weekend.

Leisureland's main hall is now 25 years old, and the refurbishment is regarded as long overdue. Following the sale of local authority land to the new Galway Bay Hotel, the corporation had no excuse. The Galway architects, Simon J. Kelly and Partners, were engaged to prepare plans, and TBD Developments Ltd was commissioned to carry out the work. Some £500,000 of the total cost came from the land deal.

Beginning last May, it called for redecoration of the hall, installation of new tiered seating and chairs, improvements to the dressing room, installation of a new air-handling system, electrical rewiring and provision of audio-visual equipment for conferences. It is one of many developments in Salthill, which currently resembles a building site. Apart from new hotel accommodation, the resort has been earmarked for an aquarium.

The event will be produced and directed by Mary McPartlan, musician and publicist, who has managed to persuade some of her many partners in late-night sessions to participate.

Presented by Thelma Mansfield, the concert aims to present "a spectacular array of Galway's finest exponents from various disciplines, jazz to music hall and traditional to classical".

Joining the aforementioned will be Garrett Philips, described as Ireland's answer to Harry Connick jnr; the Galway Baroque Singers; the duet of Frankie Gavin and Mairtin O Connor with the Carl Hession Orchestra; and dancers Patrick Lundon and Eibhlin Ni ile Chonghaile from Connemara.

Ten-year-old Nessa Newell from Renmore, who made her singing debut on RTE's Late Late Show before Christmas, will appear, as will the Patrician Musical Society; singer Jerry Lynch, Billy Mulholland, the Galway Concert Orchestra, Galway Bay FM's Keith Finnegan, and, thankfully, a Mayo man, comedian Frank Forde.

Tickets at £10 are available from several outlets, including the Town Hall Theatre and Leisureland itself, at (091) 521455.

The Music for Galway group has already tested the acoustics with several performances, and Leisureland is on its latest programme. Next month, on February 13th, it hosts Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in the venue, with the Opera Theatre Company, the RTE Concert Orchestra and the National Chamber Choir.

Words, rather than music, will dominate a performance in Galway's Town Hall Theatre at 8 p.m. tonight, billed as a celebration of the life of Bernadette McAliskey. Planned by actress and singer Deirdre Herbert, the event will include poet Rita Ann Higgins, Helen Lane and the Cappuccinos, Little John Nee, Eugene Lambe and Mick Crehan, while the guest speakers are journalist Nell McCafferty and Lelia Doolin.

"A powerful and passionate orator, Bernadette has inspired her audiences in Ireland, America, Britain and elsewhere to get up off their knees, to get down off the fence and engage in the struggle for justice and human rights," Ms Herbert says. "This concert is a tribute to her courage and integrity, and an acknowledgement of how she has touched the minds and consciousness of generations at home in Ireland and elsewhere."