All Ireland Archery Festival Bulletin (part II)

Dear Archers, The All Ireland Archery Festival is gathering pace and we have confirmations from numerous clubs and individuals regarding workshops, therefore we strongly encourage clubs to confirm their participation as soon as possible so we may accommodate your needs and suggestions as best we can and also to secure place for your stall should you opt for one. Our main offering for clubs is the opportunity to present themselves in any way they choose - this provides an infinite number of opportunities and means of showcasing club achievements and sharing plans for the near and distant future. It also gives clubs some opportunities to seek funding, as representatives from the Sports Partnership and potential sponsors will be present at the festival.

Confirmation of participation can be sent to the dedicated festival email festival@tifam.ie

Clubs are also encouraged to take part in the festival tournaments as there are prizes to be won in the club/group competitions. The grand one in the main club game will be a EZ compound bow press.

W also have 2 Buck Trail 25LB Metis 60” bows, and Avalon archery matt to be won by young archers in individual competitions.

More prices to come:)

These prizes in the competitions have a twofold significance and their main purpose, (apart from the obvious satisfaction of winning grand prix) is to be of genuine help to the club, i.e. something that will serve the members of a given archery community for a long time to come.

Our "idea fix, and so the idea behind the festival, is of course to promote archery and work towards the integration of archery communities, but not through catchphrases or big concepts on paper, but through genuine action. However, we would like this strive not to result from some top-down imposed prerogatives, but from the ground-up work with individual archers, and clubs, regardless of affiliation. That is why I keep repeating that we need your commitment. And do not fear... It won’t be another burden or an effort from which nothing shall bear. On the contrary! Inaction and apathy are the mortal enemy of progress. What can you do? Let me put it in one word - everything!

But - everything or nothing...

The festival is not meant to be a single organisation's show - the point is that the ground intention was to create an unprecedented event nationwide, where not one board, committee or whatever you want to call it, but all of you: associations, clubs and individual archers (and there I go again, banging my head against the wall) regardless of affiliation, are responsible for the shape and form and content. Hence my emails to you as representatives of archery associations, clubs, and societies. Hence the repetition of the same thing over and over again. If you are aiming at something, have a vision, an idea, an agenda you would like to push - you will not fare better in promoting it! The festival gives you a unique opportunity to say out loud everything that you grapple with, things you would like to put right! The Festival can be for you a kind of Forum, an Agora where every archer has the same weight of voice. After all, it offers the one and only chance to stand in front of the forum of not just one archery organisation but all of them!

That's why we are talking about a panel discussion... that's why this idea is so important!

Please don't belittle it, do not stall... Think about what you pursue, what is important for you and all of us as a community, what we are facing and what we can do to integrate further! Let's not dream of a better world - let's roll up our sleeves and start building it. The festival can be a suitable foundation for all of this, but it is you who have to start laying the bricks and erecting the walls - if you want a place (an idea) where you feel at home...

So, you can do this by confirming your participation, sending association delegates, registering clubs for a tournament, organising workshops, displays, exhibitions - any other archery-related shows. Take part in a panel discussion; send proposition of topics, create the discussion agenda. Lend a hand to the future…

Freedom - the ability to choose, a voice that reaches further and has greater weighing power is all within reach here. In this respect, TIFAM is a unique project - capable of becoming much more than just a magazine - it is our great community-sociological endeavour, where everyone has a place and a decisive voice - if they so wish.

Freedom begins where awareness of its absence is born. But impediments and barriers are challenged all the more easily the more pressure we exerted on them - this is the weight of the social spirit, the commune of striving and working towards the same goal.

This is the time for bringing to light everything that has been crying out for a long time. Let us look at ourselves and see the best in each other, leaving the rest in the realm of shadows, or better still, sending all that is small, angry and dark within us back to the confines of the past, whence there is no return. The festival is our golden chance of awakening the Icarian spirit of liberation and may become the perfect measure of releasing it to light.

Archery is a passion, a lifestyle and a livelihood, so for many of us it becomes life in the truest explication of the word. We breathe it and live it.

Please forgive the hefty words... But there is no other way to describe this phenomenon: we are who we are, and we do what we do - the only difference is how we do it, and the division that limits us by our own actions. But "between the God and the truth" - this separator exists and has always existed solely in the domain of thoughts, that is where it's cradle lies so, it is more a matter of ideas, juxtaposing notions inside our minds than a physical mandate of this world.

And here... I really don't want to be the "Wizard of Oz", but look and see for yourself. Each of you is Great and Powerful in your own right - you just have to want it. Perhaps one could venture philosophical digression, following Descartes's famous "Cogito Ergo Sum" - "Somniare Ergo Sum" which translates to "I dream, therefore I exist". So Exist! Join us!

Well... After such a mini-manifesto of mine, there really isn't much more to say about the festival, let's limit ourselves to a few organisational matters. So, most questions were about the possibility of camping from Friday - here we can confirm that the camping site will be available from Friday evening. It will be open from 17:00 and there will be a TIFAM person on site.

The following question that came up was whether stalls for clubs and shops are paid. I think the answer will satisfy you all. Of course, the stalls are free of charge, but if you manage to make some profit and feel the impulse to support TIFAM you can donate as much as you dim appropriate... Or not - there is no obligation to do so:)

For those of you who intend to arrive at the festival in a camper van or caravan, please confirm your intention to do so as early as possible, as we need to prepare space for your vehicles.

As far as accommodation is concerned, Portlaoise is a very convenient location, apart from the campsite you can stay in three hotels in town, all of which are no more than a 5 minute's drive from the festival grounds:

1. Maldron Hotel Portlaoise

2. Midlands Park Hotel

3. The Killeshin Hotel

There is also a large selection of B&Bs and air B&Bs in and around the town.

You can check them here: https://www.airbnb.ie/s/Portlaoise--Ireland

The Portlaoise town has all the necessary shops, cafes and restaurants: Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes Stores, Supervalu, Iceland, Supermac's, McDonald, Eddie Rockets, and more than a dozen pubs and restaurants, also within walking distance of the festival grounds you will find a service station with a large and well-supplied Centra Shop.

The host of the festival www.fiorbhiafarm.ie will be offering burgers, steaks, sausages etc. throughout the event. - in short, everything you can put on the BBQ, so don't worry about running out of food:) Check the Fiorbhia farm store here: www.fiorbhiafarm.ie/store/

If you have further enquiries, please do not hesitate to write to festival@tifam.ie