Ten great Irish music acts to catch in 2026
From Shark School to SexyTadhg and Dove Ellis to Hotgirl, here’s who’s tipped to take over in the year ahead
Joy Division
The Return of the Durutti Column review: Forever a sliver of wonder brought into a world not yet ready for it
Forget Joy Division, New Order or Happy Mondays. Vini Reilly was the real star of Factory Records, according to Tony Wilson
Sharon Van Etten on making her latest album: ‘We were trying to conjure as many ghosts as we could’
The New Jersey native talks from her parents’ basement about Sinéad O’Connor, growing older and being an angsty teen
Alex Kapranos: ‘I saw a guy in a band being extremely predatory with underage girls. He was exploiting his position’
Franz Ferdinand are back with The Human Fear, perhaps their best album yet. The band’s frontman talks about two decades in the music business
Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division & New Order – An impressive tribute to the bands’ miraculous, affecting art
Podcast review: A sharp and expansive account of the making of music, the forging of friendships and the origin of portentous arbitrary decisions and serendipity
Peaky Blinders, never a great drama, returns without the electrifying Helen McCrory
TV review: The BBC show is still a triumph of style over plot but it hasn’t lost its swagger
Pat Nevin: I was the normal one, it was the rest of football that was weird
‘It’s okay to be an outsider. You can still have a football career without having to fit in’
Sean Moncrieff: Am I middle-aged? What is ‘middle-aged’ anyway?
Most people who are older don’t feel much different than they did when they were 25 or 40
‘The way many of these songs have been embraced by queer people is incredible’
It’s a Sin creator Russell T Davies and director Peter Hoar on the 1980s’ uncoolest anthems
Stuart Staples: ‘The wrench of leaving a small town was very defining’
Tindersticks singer on Nottingham, TV Personalities cover, Eimear McBride and new lp
The best 50 Irish music acts right now – in order
It’s a particularly thrilling time for Irish music – here’s our countdown of the finest
LA Witch: Play with Fire review – Punk with pyrotechnics
The whole of this album is more persuasive than the sum of its parts
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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