Event of the week
Ireland Music Week
Tuesday-Friday, October 1st-4th, Dublin, various venues, times and prices, irelandmusicweek.com
More than 90 international music-industry delegates will be in the country to catch Ireland Music Week’s 50-plus emerging and semi-established acts – acts that, according to the event’s organisers, are “export-ready artists”, including Ahmed, With Love, Solis and Celaviedmai. They’ll be showcased at the Button Factory, Grand Social and Workman’s Club venues. The festival hub is Lost Lane, just off Grafton Street, which will also host numerous Ireland Music Week meetings and seminars. If you fancy putting your finger on the pulse of what’s making Irish music justifiably noticed far and wide, you need to investigate. If you’re an aspiring musician, meanwhile, it’s time to put on your happy face and mix with tastemakers and bookers from Eurosonic, the Great Escape, SXSW, Primavera Pro and many more.
Gigs
Barry Sutton
Sunday, September 29th, Grand Social, Dublin, 4pm, €13, thegrandsocial.ie
Promoted by the day- and time-considerate Alternative Sunday Social Club (we like the afternoon start times), Barry Sutton might not be a name that rings a bell, but, as he’s a former member of the Liverpool band The La’s, you’ve more than likely hummed the classic song There She Goes more than once. Sutton left that band in the early 1990s, forging a fitful solo career that continues with his present band, Beatnik Hurricane. Expect to hear the hits, misses, stories and other songs, and then be home well in time for Fair City.
Glassworks by Crash Ensemble
Friday, October 4th, Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, 8pm, €15/€12; regionalculturalcentre.com
In 1982 the US composer and pianist Philip Glass released Glassworks, his attempt to introduce his music to a broader audience, one perhaps unaccustomed to his stage and large-scale concert pieces. It’s a divisive work – on release, the New York Times referred to it as a “footnote in Glass’s catalogue” – yet it remains his bestselling record. Pull up a seat to hear it skilfully re-created by Máire Carroll (keyboard), Gemma Doherty (keyboard/vocals), Susan Doyle (flute), Kenneth Edge (soprano saxophone), Kate Ellis (keyboard), Ruth McGinley (solo keyboard) and Nick Roth (soprano/tenor saxophone). Also, Sunday, October 6th, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow, 7pm, €21/€19, mermaidartscentre.ie; Tuesday, October 15th, Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick, 8pm, €22/€20, limetreebelltable.ie. More details at crashensemble.com
Festivals
Cork Folk Festival
Wednesday-Sunday, October 2nd-6th, Cork city, various venues, times and prices, corkfolkfestival.com
Has it really been 45 years since the venerable Cork Folk Festival started? As if to prove the doubters wrong, one of this year’s highlights is the launch of the book Cork Folk Festival 1979-2024: Reeling Down the Years, by William Hammond. Now looking towards its 50th birthday, the festival continues to go from strength to strength with a line-up that blends contemporary and traditional, from Jack O’Rourke to Iarla Ó Lionáird, Seth Lakeman to Ger Wolfe, Leslie Dowdall to Frankie Gavin & De Dannan, and Paul Brady to Niamh Parsons. The festival also features lectures, workshops, walking tours and (how could it not?) sessions.
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Ballina Fringe Festival
From Friday, October 4th, until Sunday, October 13th, Ballina, Co Mayo, various venues, times and prices, ballinafringefestival.ie
Sometimes the most interesting things occur at the edges. So it is with this multidisciplinary fringe festival that is equally committed to engaging with local and regional communities and to showcasing a broad range of arts events. Good bets include Nightmares, Dreams & Visions, an exhibition by Belfast Print Works, the Divipassion International Short Film Festival, a screening of Conor Walsh: Selected Piano Works, and a conversation with the UK music writer Simon Price, author of Curepedia: An A-Z of The Cure.
Opera
Béatrice & Bénédict
Tuesday, October 1st, NCH, Dublin, 7.30pm, €19-€49, nch.ie
Based on the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing, Hector Berlioz’s affable comic opera Béatrice & Bénédict plays on the notion of conflicted, cynical lovers and the high-spirited “skirmish of wit” between them that ultimately fails to camouflage their deep mutual attraction. This Irish National Opera production features the mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy and the American tenor David Portillo. The actor Fiona Shaw narrates; Ryan McAdams conducts.
Visual art
Gormleys at Charlemont Square
Until Thursday, October 17th, Charlemont Square, Dublin, free, gormleys.ie
More than 250 works by some of the biggest names in international and Irish art feature in this grandstanding exhibition at Dublin’s newly developed Charlemont Square. The artists include Banksy, Salvador Dalí, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, Bridget Riley and Andy Warhol. Exhibition debuts include a series of portraits by the UK fabric sculptor and designer Daniel Lismore, who is perhaps best known for wearing his “sculptural ensembles”, which serve, he says, “as a tapestry of my life as a living sculpture”.
Real Life
Until Sunday, November 24th, Print Gallery, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, free, nationalgallery.ie
A perfect autumnal exhibition that applauds through paintings and drawings the grace and delicacy of nature, Real Life features historical works (including by the Dutch painter Aelbert Cuyp and the Danish-German artist Emil Nolde) and contemporary pieces (including by the Scottish painter and printmaker Barbara Rae and Irish artists such as Michael Wann, Bridget Flannery, Fiona McDonald, Yanny Petters and Angie Shanahan).
Still running
Kavanagh Weekend 2024
Until Sunday, September 29th, Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, various times, venues and prices, patrickkavanaghcentre.com
The annual celebration of the legacy of Patrick Kavanagh concludes this weekend, with special guests Victoria Kennefick, John Francis Flynn, Junior Brother, Cobblestone Sessions and the Armagh Rhymers. A must-see? Jon Kenny’s acclaimed one-man show, Words, Lies and Craic (Sunday, September 29th, Patrick Kavanagh Centre, 8pm, €25).
Book it this week
Boyzlife, Irish tour, January 15th-19th, ticketmaster.ie
The Dubliners Encore, January 23rd-February 1st, nationwide, thedublinersencore.com
Eleanor Tiernan, Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin, February 15th, ticketmaster.ie
Soccer Mommy, Vicar Street, Dublin, May 11th, ticketmaster.ie
