Event of the week
First Fortnight
From Sunday, January 5th, until Tuesday, January 14th, various venues around Dublin and nationwide, various times and prices, firstfortnight.ie
The year always gets off to a good start with First Fortnight, the diverse mental-health, arts and culture festival that runs through most of January. Highlights are plentiful, but we suggest you check out Au Revoir Tristesse (Joe Chester’s solo classical guitar compositions accompanying Steve Wickham’s visual art, Axis Ballymun, Dublin, Monday, January 6th-Friday, January 24th), The Tightrope Walker (writer and performer Jenny McDonald’s pithy exploration of illness, Smock Alley, Dublin, Thursday, January 9th, to Saturday, January 11th), Emma Langford (with Luke Clerkin and Dagogo Hart, St Patrick’s University Hospital Limerick, Thursday, January 16th), and Corina Fitzgibbon’s exhibition (Presentation Arts Centre, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, Thursday, January 16th-Saturday, March 1st).
Gigs
Christy Moore
Sunday, January 5th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7pm, €40 (sold out), ticketmaster.ie
Christy Moore’s live performances feature a seemingly unending display of sold-out signs: Ireland’s greatest living musician (according to RTÉ’s People of the Year Awards in 2007) simply does what he has always wanted to: perform songs in a room in front of people who respect the form. Moore has never gone out of fashion or favour, although it has helped that his quality control has rarely slipped. His 2024 album, A Terrible Beauty, is an autumnal career highlight containing songs, we noted on its release, in October, that hit the “bull’s eye repeatedly and with force”. (Also, Sunday, January 12th, and Monday, January 20th, at the same venue.)
Whelan’s Ones to Watch 2025
Saturday, January 4th, and Thursday, January 9th until Saturday, January 11th, Whelan’s, Dublin, 7.30pm, €6, whelanslive.com
Music promoters, bookers, close friends, extended family, occasional foes and “I’m with the band” wannabes land on Whelan’s like bees on honey as almost 100 emerging acts perform across three stages. A portion of the musicians you’ll see here will be tomorrow’s hot-button bands and performers, so between anxiety and bravado, false starts and flourishing finales, flagrant ambition and cautious optimism, call in and offer them as much support as you can. Performers include Martina & the Moons, Curtisy, I Dreamed a Dream, Delivery Service and Florence Road.
Comedy
Stand Up for Gaza
Tuesday, January 7th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7pm, €29, ticketmaster.ie
Instigated by Irish Artists for Palestine, a coalition of artists fundraising to meet medical and humanitarian needs in Gaza, this is the first quality comedy gig of 2025. A top-notch line-up includes Ardal O’Hanlon, Alison Spittle, Jarlath Regan, Tony Cantwell, Kevin Gildea, Gearóid Farrelly, Shane Daniel Byrne and Fiona Frawley. Proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
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Arts festival
Out to Lunch
From Saturday, January 4th, until Sunday, January 26th, Belfast, various venues, times and prices, cgaf.com
Brought to you by Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, this bespoke boutique event celebrates its 20th birthday in 2025, so expect an abundance of theatre, music, literature, comedy and exhibitions. Music highlights include the Co Donegal teenage blues guitarist Muireann Bradley (who recently signed a deal with Decca Records), the harpist Ursula Burns, the electronic group 808 State, the bluegrass master Tim O’Brien and the Tyneside folk/pop band Lindisfarne. Literary events include public interviews with Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch, discussing his debut novel, Nobody’s Empire, and Martina Devlin on her Brontë-themed novel, Charlotte.
Nollaig na mBan
Women of Magic and Science
Monday, January 6th, Pearse Street Library, Dublin, 7pm, €30, irishwriterscentre.ie
For their annual celebration of Nollaig na mBan, the Irish Writers Centre presents a themed event exploring witchcraft, the tarot and scientific achievement. Hosted by the poet Jessica Traynor, the event features the Tullamore writer Marianne Lee (whose 2020 debut novel, A Quiet Tide, is a fictionalised account of the life of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s first woman botanist), the Indian-Irish writer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan (formerly writer-in-residence for the Institute of Physics) and Shauna Gilligan, co-editor of the 2024 anthology of writing and visual art Fire: Brigid and the Sacred Feminine. Music acts include the jazz, blues and folk singer Zoé Basha.
Mary Coughlan and Paula Meehan
Monday, January 6th, Whelan’s, Dublin, 7.30pm, €32.50, whelanslive.com
Voices and words don’t come any more experienced than those from the Galway singer Mary Coughlan and the Dublin poet Paula Meehan. The former is rightly acclaimed for guiding and comforting us through heartache, desperation and regret in the wee small hours, while the latter is renowned as a voice for the disenfranchised and for being, as the Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy said, “that rare and precious thing – a vocational poet of courage and integrity”. As part of First Fortnight Festival.
Music and wellness workshop
Farah Elle
Saturday, January 4th, Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, Naul, Co Dublin, noon-2pm, free (booking required), tradfest.com
Over the past five years the Irish-Libyan singer-songwriter Farah Elle has established herself as a persuasive force in breaking barriers. Her series of workshops for ages 13 to 18 go some way to bridging the gaps between self-expression through music and feeling comfortable during it. Topics covered include breathing methods, music as self-care, and stress-relief techniques. The workshops aren’t just for performers, says Elle, but for “anyone with an open heart and a love for sound”. Also, Saturday, January 18th.
Still running
Paul Winstanley: Arcadia
Until Saturday, January 18th, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, kerlingallery.com
The English artist Paul Winstanley trained as an abstract and minimalist painter, but over the past decade or so he has been influenced by 19th-century mountain landscapes, specifically by Vermeer and Caspar David Friedrich. Winstanley’s Arcadia exhibition includes a process of degradation of the source images before inventively refashioning them as finished works.
Book it this week
Irish Women in Harmony, NCH, Dublin, March 8th, nch.ie
Nelly, 3Arena, Dublin, June 11th, ticketmaster.ie
Gang of Four, Button Factory, Dublin, June 26th, ticketmaster.ie
The Lumineers, St Anne’s Park, Dublin, May 31st, ticketmaster.ie
