Events of the week
May bank holiday weekend festivals
Various times, venues and prices; websites as below
From Louth to Cork, Wicklow to Galway, and Kilkenny to Belfast, more festivals are taking place in counties and towns around the island next weekend than over perhaps any other in the year. Jazz fans are well catered for at Bray International Jazz Festival (Friday-Sunday, May 2nd-4th, Co Wicklow, brayjazz.com) and Ballydehob Jazz Festival (Friday-Monday, May 2nd-5th, Co Cork, ballydehobjazzfestival.org). Fans of Americana should head to Kilkenny Roots Festival (Friday-Monday, May 2nd-5th, kilkennyroots.com). Multidisciplinary festivals include Drogheda Arts Festival (Friday-Sunday, May 2nd-4th, Co Louth, droghedaartsfestival.ie), Bealtaine Festival (Thursday-Saturday, May 1st-3rd, nationwide, bealtaine.ie) and Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (Thursday, May 1st, until Sunday, May 11th, Belfast, cqaf.com). Theatre lovers should check out the programme at Galway Theatre Festival (Friday, May 2nd, until Saturday, May 10th, galwaytheatrefestival.com). And poetry devotees can look forward to Strokestown International Poetry Festival (Friday-Sunday, May 2nd-4th, Co Roscommon, strokestownpoetryfest.ie) and to a wealth of words on Poetry Day (Thursday, May 1st, nationwide, poetryireland.ie).
Gigs
The Flaming Lips
Monday, April 28th (sold out), and Tuesday, April 29th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7pm, €61.85, ticketmaster.ie
After 40 years and 16 albums, and with Wayne Coyne as the sole remaining original member, The Flaming Lips do what many legacy bands fall back on when they don’t have a new album on the horizon: they choose a record from their back catalogue to honour. Stretching the notion of 20th-birthday celebrations somewhat, the band’s 2002 album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, will be played in its entirety. Following almost 50 minutes of a “lush and haunting electronic symphony”, as Fortune magazine puts it, The Flaming Lips will then perform selections from other albums.
West X Sound West: A Blowtorch Records Showcase
Thursday, May 1st, Róisín Dubh, Galway, 6pm, €15, roisindubh.net
The Galway-based indie label Blowtorch Records pitches itself as the future sound of Ireland – and with a roster that includes excellent acts such as Adore, Virgins, Nixer, The Savage Hearts, Scattered Ashes and Some Remain, it has a point. This inaugural Blowtorch showcase features those bands along with their fellow signings Innuendo, Nerves and The Swedish Railway Orchestra. The overall style, according to label head Richard Blowes, is punk, postpunk, electronica and shoegaze. “If you’re looking for singer-songwriters and chart music,” he says, “then Blowtorch is probably not the place for you.”
An Evening of Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Thursday, May 1st, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath, 8pm, €20/€18, solsticeartscentre.ie
Several years before he died, in 2023, the Japanese electronic music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto said he wanted to leave a legacy of music he wouldn’t be embarrassed by. He needn’t have worried, of course, and he continued producing excellent work until ill health halted his creative process. Irish musicians influenced by Sakamoto include the boundary-breaking classical pianist Ruth McGinley and the innovative musician Matthew Nolan, who pay tribute to the composer with distinctive interpretations from his back catalogue.
Literature/poetry
Read Irish Women
Sunday, April 27th, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 8pm, €20, paviliontheatre.ie
Karina Clifford, a manager at Dubray Books, created the Read Irish Women Challenge six years ago. Her primary inspiration, she said, was reading Call Me George, Anne Enright’s London Review of Books essay on the poor representation of women writers in the review pages of Irish newspapers. This year’s challenge panel discussion features four Irish writers – Elaine Feeney, Sinéad Gleeson, Liz Nugent and Roisín O’Donnell – talking about existing books, forthcoming books, which books they love and have been inspired by, and many areas in between. The panel moderator is the Irish Times journalist Nadine O’Regan.
Stage
From a Low and Quiet Sea
From Tuesday, April 29th, until Saturday, May 3rd, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €41.05/€35.45/€26.45, ticketmaster.ie
Donal Ryan’s 2018 novel, which was longlisted for that year’s Booker Prize, was adapted for the stage in 2022 as part of Galway International Arts Festival. The play returns under the guiding hand of its director, Andrew Flynn, with Ryan’s four protagonists – refugee, idealist, mother, penitent – presenting their emotionally wrought (and interconnecting) personal stories against a spartan, purposefully cloudy backdrop. Aosaf Afzal, Darragh O’Toole, Eve Bartley and Denis Conway feature.
Visual art
Staying with the Trouble
From Friday, May 2nd, until Sunday, September 21st, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, free, imma.ie
Inspired by the 2016 book of the same name by the philosopher Donna Haraway, this exhibition features wide-ranging work from more than 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists that question, challenge and explore ideas of how to reconsider and restructure ways in which to balance society’s complex issues with innovation and respect. The artists include Áine Mac Giolla Bhríde, Michael Kane, Venus Patel, Samir Mahmood, Elizabeth Cope and Farouk Alao.
Choral
Cork International Choral Festival
From Wednesday, April 30th, until Sunday, May 4th, various times, venues and prices, corkchoral.ie
Founded in 1954, Cork International Choral Festival has been applauded for its far-reaching and high-quality programming. The opening gala (Wednesday, April 30th, Cork City Hall, 8pm, €30/€25) features The Dream of Gerontius, by Edward Elgar, with East Cork Choral Society, the Guinness Choir and the Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra.
Still running
Sarah McQuaid
Tuesday, April 29th, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath, 8pm, €18/€16, solsticeartscentre.ie; Thursday, May 1st, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo, 8pm, €18/€16, thelinenhall.com; Friday, May 2nd, Finn’s Folk Club, Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, 8pm, €15, facebook.com/finnsbarborrisoleigh
Between village halls and arts centres, the Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid (a former resident of Dublin) regularly tours the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland, offering a community-focused presentation of durable, melodic folk music.
Book it this week
The Shark Is Broken, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, May 13th-17th, ticketmaster.ie
Bill Callahan, NCH, Dublin, July 20th, nch.ie
Daniel Herskadal Trio, nationwide, October 21st-26th, musicnetwork.ie
Nick Helm, Sugar Club, Dublin, November 12th, ticketmaster.ie
