Thursday-Sunday, September 11th-14th, various venues, times and prices, soundsfromasafeharbour.com
If you prefer your music and other art forms to be sprinkled with spicier ingredients, the Sounds from a Safe Harbour line-up should whet your appetite. Highlights include the opening show, Remembering Talos (Thursday, September 11th, Cork Opera House, 5.30pm, €35), Fionn Regan (Friday, September 12th, Triskel Arts Centre, 5.30pm, €28.50), Lisa Hannigan (Friday, September 12th, Live at St Luke’s, 7.30pm, €35, sold out), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (Saturday, September 13th, Kino Events House, 1.30pm, €20) and the festival finale, hosted by Efterklang (Sunday, September 14th, Cork Opera House, 7.30pm, €30). If you get to see half of what’s on, consider yourself lucky.
Numerous collaborations with Eminem and songwriting credits for Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris, Skrillex and Lewis Capaldi have afforded Jessie Reyez a decent lifestyle without the burden of being recognised in restaurants or bars (outside the United States and her home country, Canada, at least). Support-slot status to the likes of Billie Eilish and Sam Smith is due to change with her third album, Paid in Memories, a smart R&B/hip-hop hybrid that has brought her out from behind the scenes and positioned her centre stage. This is her first headline show in Ireland.
As part of Music Network’s autumn touring season, the Connemara siblings Séamus and Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta, winners of the emerging-artists prize at the RTÉ Folk Awards 2024, collaborate with the pianist Ryan Molloy, TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2024 composer of the year, on a seamless blend of traditional and contemporary music. The tour runs until Sunday, September 21st, with concerts in counties Limerick, Wicklow, Clare, Galway, Kerry and Dublin.
The Australian musician Conway Savage died in 2018, having featured on landmark Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds albums such as Let Love In, Murder Ballads and The Boatman’s Call. Savage also had close links with Dundalk via some of the town’s recording studios and venues. This show is part of a three-day festival celebrating the life and music of the much-admired musician. Other events include the former Bad Seeds member Mick Harvey in conversation (Saturday, September 13th, An Táin Arts Centre, 1pm, €6.50, antain.ie), Suzie Higgie (Saturday, September 13th, Roe River Books, 7.30pm, €16.50, antain.ie) and Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo (Sunday, September 14th, Spirit Store, 8pm, €27, spiritstore.ie).
Opening with the Irish premiere of the heroic Kenyan film How to Build a Library, this year’s IFI Documentary Festival includes a mix of features (more than a dozen), panel discussions and public interviews. Feature-length highlights include Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man, Motherboard, Once We Were Punks, and In Time: Dónal Lunny. Guests include the directors Lenny Abrahamson, Nuala O’Connor and Frank Shouldice.
Paul Smith’s career trajectory began a decade ago, when he took a stand-up course in the hope that he could offset his chronic shyness by, he says, “bungee jumping for confidence”. Over the past five years the Liverpool comedian has progressed from small clubs to sizeable venues such as Dublin’s 3Olympia (and two 3Arena shows in October). He can thank social media for the increase in figures: when he uploaded clips of his comedy USP – character-destroying banter with front-row audience members – people arrived in droves to be insulted. You have a front-row seat? Ouch.
There’s never a dull moment at Dublin Fringe Festival, which this year says it’s “shaking up the city with events that defy expectations, champion artistry and celebrate joy”. The programme for the 31st edition runs the creative gamut (and gauntlet) from A to Z. Highlights include I Want to Speak to Your Manager (How I Was Radicalised and Became … Karen), by the slam poet Holly Hughes (September 13th and 14th, Pearse Centre, 8.30pm, €16); Octopus Children, by Felispeaks (September 6th-7th and 11th-14th, Project Arts Centre, various times, €20/€18); and A Piano Meditation, by As If I Always Knew (September 16th-18th and 20th, Dublin Castle, 8.30pm, €16).
Regarded as one of tomorrow’s visual-art stars, the Co Meath artist Hazel O’Sullivan transformed her mode of painting from figurative to architectural during her Erasmus course in Germany several years ago. This exhibition of new work, the core of which is Droichead na Sidhe, a suite of eight modular paintings that when hung together produce two unified images, explores global decolonisation and cultural identity.
Exploring how we might live differently in a period of climate and sociocultural breakdown, Earth Rising suggests how we can engage with profoundly important issues through “the lens of art, creativity and community”. Events across three days include talks, workshops, tours, art installations, music and screenings.
Hansel, Gretel & the Witch, Ambassador Theatre, Dublin, October 26th-31st, ticketmaster.ie
Picture This, 3Arena, Dublin, December 29th-30th, ticketmaster.ie
CMAT, Virgin Media Park, Cork, June 20th, ticketmaster.ie
Olivia Dean, Fairview Park, Dublin, June 20th-21st, ticketmaster.ie
