Event of the week
Westlife
Various dates and venues; 6pm; £95/£49/€72.10; ticketmaster.ie
Everyone loves Westlife, don’t they? Some people even like to repeatedly listen to their 2004 Rat Pack covers album, Allow Us to Be Frank, but of course, what people do in the privacy of their own homes is their own business. Looking towards 2023, they will be celebrating 25 years as a hugely successful group: among other notable commercial achievements, Westlife have the most singles certification for a pop band on the UK number one singles chart since The Beatles. So, Rat Pack covers albums aside, fair play and all of that. These shows form part of their Wild Dreams tour (so named after their 2021 album), and the special guest on all dates is Cork singer Lyra.
Gigs
Soft Boy Records/Soft Xmas
Saturday, December 17th; Sugar Club, Dublin; 5pm; €15; thesugarclub.com
Make way for a winter party from the Soft Boy Records crowd. The indie label overseen by Irish songwriters/musicians Kojaque and Kean Kavanagh wraps up the year with performances from Yenkee (aka Cork’s Graham Cooney) and Gaptoof. As the year comes to an end, so does this gig with DJ sets from no other than label heads Kojaque and Kean Kavanagh. Why is it starting at the early time of 5pm, you may justifiably ask. Read my lips: hot drinks, tasty snacks and chilled-out vibes in the venue’s heated outdoor terrace. That’s why.
John Spillane and Friends
Sunday, December 18th; Everyman Theatre, Cork; 7.30pm; €27.50 (sold out); everymancork.com
You have to hand it to John Spillane, the Cork-based singer-songwriter, who in 2022 is celebrating 25 consecutive years (presumably the Covid “years” are not being counted) performing on the Sunday before Christmas at the splendid Everyman. There will be numerous guests joining Spillane on stage, but the focus will surely be on him and his songs, which are grounded in authenticity, encased in melody and delivered with equal parts wit and wisdom.
Damian Dempsey
Various dates; Vicar Street, Dublin; 7pm; all shows sold out; ticketmaster.ie
Anyone who has seen Damian Dempsey perform on any stage will know that he has a particularly convincing connection with his audience (and for those who haven’t, search out director Ross Killeen’s enlightening 2021 documentary, Love Yourself Today). Despite a modesty that belies the scope of his material, Dempsey always manages to strike an admirable balance between man-of-the-people and superhero, as every one of these sold-out shows will no doubt demonstrate.
Beauty & the Beast review: On the way home, younger audience members re-enact scenes. There’s no higher recommendation
Matt Cooper: I’m an only child. I’ve always been conscious of not having brothers or sisters
A Dublin scam: After more than 10 years in New York, nothing like this had ever happened to me
Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December
Cat Dowling
Thursday, December 22nd; Workman’s Club, Dublin; 8pm; €16; theworkmansclub.com
Fortune favours the brave, but it also favours those with enough resilience to withstand life’s slings and arrows. Singer and songwriter Cat Dowling is one such, and the owner of one of the most distinctive voices in Irish contemporary music. She flits in and out of live music, and occasionally releases albums, the most recent being last year’s Animals. As usual, it’s a fine piece of work to which this paper’s reviewer awarded four stars for its “varying shades of pop-noir” and “dreamy characteristics.” Go see.
Pop-up
Merchy Christmas
Saturday, December 17th and Sunday, December 18th; The Grand Social, Dublin; 11am-5pm; free admission (with a suggested donation of €5); facebook.com/1StopBandShopIE
Established two years ago during the Christmas lockdown by Saint Sister and their manager, Conor Cusack, the third iteration of Merchy Christmas features more than 50 Irish music acts selling their merchandise (vinyl, T-shirts, cassettes, tote bags, keyrings, beanie hats, stickers, and all manner of other items that will make perfect Crimbo presents). All proceeds from the door donations will go to the Dublin Simon Community, as will proceeds from a bumper raffle (which will include limited edition and collectors’ items from the artists). In 2021, almost €5,000 was raised but organisers are hoping to double that figure this year. Merchandise will be on sale across a few levels of the venue, so get to it sharpish.
Festive
Vladimir’s Viennese Christmas
Sunday, December 18th; 3Arena, Dublin; 1.30pm (show from 3pm); €33.50; ticketmaster.ie
If you’re looking for a pre-Christmas extravaganza to which you can bring the entire family then this is the one. Viennese ballroom dancers, Arabella Voices Choir, soprano Claudia Boyle and tenors Sean Costello and Gavan Ring are corralled by Slovakian violinist Vladimir Jablokov in a sizeable production that sees the 150-plus performers present music from the Strauss Family, Franz Lehar, and all the Christmas songs, carols, and festive crackers you can handle in the space of two hours.
Exhibition
Kevin Mooney Revenants
Until Sunday, March 5th; Courtyard Galleries, IMMA, Kilmainham, Dublin; free admission; imma.ie
Curated by arts writer and Government of Ireland scholar Sarah Kelleher, Cork-based Kevin Mooney’s solo exhibition comprises recent paintings (2016-2022) that not only are informed by Irish mythology, history and cultural migration but which have also been adapted materially to reflect such engagement (Mooney shifted from oil on canvas to work with acrylic, distemper and oil on jute). The exhibition, writes Kelleher, “marks the gaps in our visual culture as a reverberant event in the Irish psych, a traumatic break caused by famine and forced migration”.
Still running
Winter Exhibition 2022
Until Saturday, January 7th; So Fine Art Editions, Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, South William Street, Dublin; sofinearteditions.com
Featured in this group exhibition of Irish and international artists are works of original fine art prints, photography, ceramics and paintings. The theme (as such) is “bringing light and joy into winter’s long nights”; artists include Bernadette Madden, Niall Cullen, and Mary O’Connor.
