Event of the Week
Paul Weller
Monday October 10th/Tuesday October 11th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; Wednesday, October 12th; Ulster Hall, Belfast ticketmaster.ie
Paul Weller is one of the more durable original members of the UK punk rock class of 1977/’78 — time may have weathered his features, but the wide-ranging songs he has written over the decades keep arriving, and quite a few of them aren’t too bad. These rescheduled dates aren’t necessarily focused on a new studio album (his latest outing is 2021′s Fat Pop Volume 1), so you can expect, perhaps, a broader spread of more recent material. As per usual with Weller’s acceptance of previous accomplishments, however, don’t be at all surprised to hear a few choice Jam and Style Council songs in the mix — recent UK shows have featured the likes of That’s Entertainment, Start!, Town Called Malice (The Jam) and My Ever Changing Moods and Headstart for Happiness (Style Council).
Gigs
Meet Me at Sundown
Monday October 10th to Tuesday October 25th, 7pm, €35 hibernacle.ie eventbrite.ie
Musical adventures from paired songwriters (Gemma Hayes, Paul Noonan, Cathy Davey, Mick Flannery, Dani Larkin and EW Harris), and two beautiful venues (Claregalway Castle, Co Galway and Orlagh House, Rathfarnham) at which to experience their songs seem like a great idea — especially when there are only 100 tickets per show. The skinny? Paul Noonan and Dani Larkin play Orlagh House/Claregalway Castle (Monday October 10th/Tuesday October 11th); Mick Flannery and EW Harris play Orlagh House/Claregalway Castle (Monday October 17th/Tuesday October 18th); and Gemma Hayes and Cathy Davey play Orlagh House/Claregalway Castle (Monday October 24th/Tuesday October 25th).
In Conversation
Elizabeth Strout
Monday October 10th, Pepper Canister Church, Dublin, 7pm, €15/€12.50
Everyone likes a good in-depth conversation and, as part of International Literary Festival Dublin’s Off the Page one-off events, that’s exactly what you’ll get here. Irish Times journalist Róisín Ingle will be putting questions to Pulitzer Prize-winning and Booker Prize-nominated author Elizabeth Strout about her latest novel, Lucy by the Sea, a distinctly Covid-centric work (“I couldn’t think of writing anything else,” Strout has said). The event will be recorded as a live episode of the Irish Times Women’s Podcast.
Early Music
East Cork Early Music Festival
Thursday October 13th-Sunday October 16th, various venues/times/prices, Cork City and county eastcorkearlymusic.ie
Acknowledging early music (music composed before 1750 on instruments fitting to the period) as a crucial root of various contemporary cultures, this festival doesn’t bind its figurative hands with unyielding programming. Over four days, six concerts (including Iverni Baroque Ensemble, Italian violinist Davide Monti and Camerata Kilkenny), as well as masterclasses and workshops, are presented in an environment that aims to, the festival states, “integrate the authentic style and spirit of an earlier time with performances that are vital and coherent in the present”.
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Ireland’s new dating scene: Finding love the old-fashioned way
Podcast
RedHanded presents Confessions Live!
Friday October 14th & Wednesday October 19th, Liberty Hall, Dublin, 6pm (sold out) ticketmaster.ie
What a talkative rollercoaster ride the RedHanded podcast has had over the past five years. Hosts Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire started their weekly true crime investigations with a £10 microphone and an under-the-stairs “studio” that they could barely fit into. Now? With a three-pronged attack of wicked humour, skilful research and astute analysis (the mixture of which won 2021 and 2022 Gold gongs at the British Podcast Awards) of what makes the criminal mind tick, for the past few years Bala and Maguire have had to put up the “sold out” signs minutes after tickets have gone on sale. Which reminds us — you have a ticket, don’t you?
Arts Festival
Belfast International Arts Festival
Until November 6th, various venues/times/prices, Belfast belfastinternationalartsfestival.com
Belfast’s longest-running international arts festival celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and it does so with a wide-ranging list of events that criss-cross artistic disciplines such as visual arts, theatre, music, cinema, dance, opera and conversations/discussions. Highlights include dancemaker Oona Doherty’s Navy Blue (Tuesday October 25th & Wednesday October 26th, The MAC, 7.45pm, £18), twice Ivor Novello-nominated composer Conor Mitchell’s Propaganda: A New Musical (until Saturday November 5th, Lyric Theatre, 7.30pm, £12-£28), and author Jonathan Coe reading from, and discussing, his new novel, Bournville (Tuesday November 1st, Black Box, 7pm, £7).
Exhibition
Turn Back to the Light: Women Artists from the Niland Collection
Until Friday October 28th, Civic Offices Gallery, Ballina, Co Mayo, Adm free ballinafringefestival.ie
Curated by Emer McGarry, director of The Model, Sligo, this exhibition, running as part of the Ballina Fringe Festival (October 7th-15th), gathers work from The Model’s Niland Collection and features work across various disciplines (from sculpture, found objects and photography to large-scale oils and watercolours) by Dorothy Cross, Alice Maher, Kathy Prendergast, Constance Gore-Booth, Ann Yeats, Mary Kelly, Fiona Mulholland, Marie Foley and Clea van der Grijn.
Still Running
The Mousetrap
Until Saturday October 15th, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €21 ticketmaster.ie
Hello, hello, hello, what’s all this, then? The world’s longest-running play concludes its 70th anniversary Dublin run next Saturday and, whatever you do, don’t name the killer concealed among the seven strangers who find themselves snowed in at a countryside hotel.
