Event of the week
Pulp
Tuesday, June 10th, 3Arena, Dublin, 6.30pm, from €66.75, ticketmaster.ie
Never say never, right? The Sheffield art rock-pop group Pulp, who, in 2022, returned from almost 10 years in exile, this week release a new album, More, their first full studio work since We Love Life, from 2001. They’ll be playing some of its songs, of course, but every diehard fan will surely be waiting for the 30th-anniversary deep dive into the band’s fifth album, Different Class, which features the perennial pop songs Common People and Disco 2000. Accompanying the music will be the distinctive, trim figure of Pulp’s frontman, Jarvis Cocker, whose dance moves alone will be worth the ticket price.
Gigs
In the Meadows
Saturday, June 7th, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, 1pm, €85/€75, ticketmaster.ie
There’s nothing like an Iggy Pop show, as anyone who has seen the man play live knows. The 78-year-old’s stage presence may be more subdued of late, and he no longer stage-dives – “I’m too rickety for that now,” he says, in fairness – but he still packs a punch. Equal to the task is a support line-up that includes Slowdive, The Scratch, Gilla Band, Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Billy Nomates, the teenage blues whizz-kid Muireann Bradley and Meryl Streek. No less a festival treasure than Dr John Cooper Clarke will administer shots of poetry and jokes.
The Waterboys
Saturday, June 7th, 3Arena, Dublin, 6.30pm, from €46.35; Sunday, June 8th, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, 6.30pm, £45.65, ticketmaster.ie
There is little point in trying to categorise The Waterboys, the creative-free-for-all band fronted by Mike Scott since 1983. From postpunk and cinematic rock to genteel folk and stabs of vigorous trad, Scott has led the group with a singular yet no less widescreen vision. They’ll be playing songs from their most recent album, Life, Death and Dennis Hopper, but those waiting for The Whole of the Moon won’t walk away disappointed. Also, Thursday, July 10th, Live at the Marquee, Cork.
Beyond the Pale
From Friday, June 13th, until Sunday, June 13th-15th, Glendalough Estate, Co Wicklow, noon, €239/€99, itsbeyondthepale.ie
One of the more recent Irish music success stories is Beyond the Pale, which has shrewdly managed to make its presence felt on the festival calendar through smart programming, family-friendly areas and youngster-tailored activities, wellness events (including Ireland’s first mobile sauna), arts (including public interviews, comedy, circus/burlesque, cabaret, spoken word and theatre) and food talks/tastings in the site’s Beyond the Plate tent. Music acts to experience include Jon Hopkins, Róisín Murphy, Kiasmos, Soda Blonde, Fionn Regan, Death in Vegas and – yes! – Samantha Mumba.
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Arts festival
Cork Midsummer Festival
From Friday, June 13th, until Sunday, June 22nd, various venues, times and prices, corkmidsummer.com
What isn’t there to like, asks Lorraine Maye, head of Cork Midsummer Festival, about “shows you won’t see elsewhere in Ireland, art that will be seen for the very first time and moments that will never be repeated?” This multidisciplinary arts festival returns with a series of events created not only by Cork natives and communities but also by artists from Australia, France, Norway and Palestine. Highlights include the Helios installation (St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, from Saturday, June 14th, until Saturday, June 21st), The Second Woman (Cork Opera House, Saturday, June 14th, and Sunday, June 15th), Solstice Céilí (Elizabeth Fort) and The Black Wolfe Tone (Cork Arts Theatre, Friday, June 20th, and Saturday, June 21st).
Book festival
Dalkey Book Festival
From Thursday, June 12th, until Sunday, June 15th, Dalkey, Co Dublin, various venues, times and prices, dalkeybookfestival.org
A snug coastal village featuring critical thinkers, writers and poets? Yes, please. Topics range from globalisation, the psychology of money and Adolf Hitler to the United States in 2025, AI and Roger Casement. Authors who’ll be at the four-day festival include Lionel Shriver, Caroline Erskine, John Banville, Joe O’Connor, Elaine Feeney, Kevin Barry, Joseph O’Neill, Horace Panter, Martina Devlin, Roddy Doyle, James Morrissey and Colum McCann. Martin Doyle, Jennifer O’Connell, Fintan O’Toole, Finn McRedmond and Patrick Freyne are among those from The Irish Times taking part.
Visual art
Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields
From Friday, June 13th, until Sunday, January 25th, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, free, imma.ie
Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) is regarded as one of the most important innovators in postwar American painting. His works of unstretched lengths of painting, sewing and collage, suspended from the walls and ceilings of exhibition spaces, highlight his mastery of form and colour, and choice of material. Sewing Fields is influenced by Gilliam’s time in Ireland in 1993, when, while in residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, in Co Mayo (and in collaboration with a local dressmaker), he engaged with new materials that he cut and layered into groundbreaking sculptural compositions.
Film festival
Bloomsday Film Festival
From Wednesday, June 11th, until Monday, June 16th, James Joyce Centre/IFI, various times and prices, bloomsdayfestival.ie
Run in partnership with the Bloomsday Festival and the James Joyce Centre, the Bloomsday Film Festival is inspired by “Ireland’s father of modernism”. The six-day event includes Irish and international screenings (Sunday, June 15th, is dedicated to Joycean short films), poetry readings, music performances and public interviews. Official Selection highlights include Tania Notaro’s Postpartum, Pádraig G Finlay’s Bloomsday Zoomplay, Gemma Creagh’s Conveyance and Fernando Oikawa Garcia’s If You Call Me Eveline.
Still running
Escaped Alone
From Thursday, June 12th until Saturday, June 14th, Everyman Theatre, Cork, 7.30pm, from €19, everymancork.com
Receiving its Irish premiere, Caryl Churchill’s acclaimed 2016 play revolves around four women balancing the benefits of a good chat with a sense of impending doom. Sorcha Cusack, Anna Healy, Ruth McCabe and Deirdre Monaghan star; Annabelle Comyn directs. (Also, from Thursday, June 19th until Saturday, June 28th, Project Arts Centre, Dublin.)
Book it this week
Galway Film Fleadh, Galway, July 8th-13th, galwayfilmfleadh.com
Yusef/Cat Stevens, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, September 18th, ticketmaster.ie
Tom Odell, 3Arena, Dublin, October 23rd, ticketmaster.ie
Metallica, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, June 19th and 21st, 2026, ticketmaster.ie
