The best photographs of 2018: Arts and entertainment

Irish Times picks of the year: From a Galway moon to an Edinburgh contortionist

Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy
Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy

Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon shines over Shop Street at Galway International Arts Festival in July.

Cleo Royale’s creation for the Bank of Ireland Junk Kouture final in May, made entirely from cast-off materials.

Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Mike Humphrey checks on Fred, a recently completed Mesmer robot, built in Cornwall, in England, in May. Mesmer characters can be fictional, or faithful re-creations of real people.

Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty
Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty

Mónica Alvarez meets a gravity-defying Shane Houlihan in the Upside Down Garden at the 12th annual Bord Bia Bloom Festival, in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Almost 120,000 people attended the festival, which took place over the June bank-holiday weekend.

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Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Hanging around at the Royal Hibernian Academy, in Dublin, in May as final preparations get under way for the RHA 188th Annual Exhibition; 2,600 works were submitted, with 600 going on show.

Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

In a tight spot with contortionist Odka, from Cirque Berserk, at the launch of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in June. The world’s largest arts festival takes place in the Scottish city each August.

Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA Wire
Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA Wire