Event of the week
Derek Hickey, Liz & Yvonne Kane, Macdara Ó Faoláin
Tuesday February 11th, Station House Theatre, Clifden, Co Galway, 8pm, €22, clifdenstationhouse.com; Wednesday February 12th, Belltable, Limerick, 8pm, €22, limetreebelltable.ie; Thursday February 13th, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 8pm, €25, paviliontheatre.ie; Friday February 14th, Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare, 8pm, €18, riverbank.ie
Each one of these TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2024 winners has what Liam Neeson might call a unique set of skills. Put them together on a stage, however, and you have perhaps the closest thing contemporary traditional music has to a supergroup. The Letterfrack sisters Liz and Yvonne Kane are queens of the fiddle; the Limerick accordionist Derek Hickey and the Co Waterford bouzouki player Macdara Ó Faoláin also excel in their fields. The tour continues until Sunday February 23rd; musicnetwork.ie for more details.
Gigs
Dani Larkin
Saturday February 8th, Coughlans, Cork, 6.30pm, €15, coughlans.ie; Thursday February 13th, Workman’s Club, Dublin, 7.30pm, €17.50, ticketmaster.ie
Following the success of Notes for a Maiden Warrior, Dani Larkin’s 2021 album, the Belfast-based singer has barely had time to set foot in Ireland over the past few years. Touring with the likes of Snow Patrol, Glen Hansard and Rufus Wainwright, as well as performing solo in Australia, Korea, Finland and Canada, Larkin is viewing this year as an important one. She has new music on the way, the first taster of which is the very fine folk-pop single David. These shows form part of Larkin’s Full Circle tour, which will continue on and off until the summer.
Jason Isbell
Wednesday February 12th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7pm, sold out, ticketmaster.ie
Jason Isbell has been at the forefront of tough, authentic Americana music for the best part of 30 years, praised by revered figures such as John Prine and Bruce Springsteen. With a new album, Foxes in the Snow, due next month, the Alabama-born singer-songwriter arrives in Ireland for his first solo acoustic show here in many years. For fans of Isbell, his former band, Drive-By Truckers, and his current (temporarily grounded) group, The 400 Unit, this sold-out show can’t arrive quickly enough.
Declan O’Rourke
Thursday February 13th, National Concert Hall, Dublin, 8.30pm, €45/€35/€25, nch.ie
He’s a busy guy, Declan O’Rourke: when he isn’t writing songs and performing them, he’s writing novels based around the time of the Great Famine. O’Rourke will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut album, Since Kyabram, with selected dates and special events. In the meantime, this show will feature tracks from the album (including the revered Galileo, Marrying the Sea, Sarah and No Place to Hide), as well as what O’Rourke calls tricks up the sleeve.
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Marty Morrissey: ‘I’m an only child of an only-child dad and an only-child mum. I’ve no aunts, uncles or first cousins’
Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in February
‘We didn’t want it to be bright or stand out’: How one couple built a bungalow in a Kerry front garden
Literature
Omar El Akkad
Thursday February 13th, Pepper Canister Church, Dublin, 7pm, €15/€12.50, ilfdublin.com
Omar El Akkad is no stranger to writing about challenging world issues. His debut novel, American War, from 2017, imagines a dystopian alternative history of the United States, What Strange Paradise, from 2021, according to NPR, “pushes past political talking points and shocking statistics to rehumanise the discussion about migration on a global scale”. In Ireland for International Literature Festival Dublin, the Egypt-born, Oregon-based author will discuss his new book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This – also his nonfiction debut – with the literary journalist and editor Alex Clark.
Visual art
Moments of Being
Until Sunday March 15th, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath, free, solsticeartscentre.ie
Group exhibitions are an opportunity to showcase not only the skills of visual artists (emerging or otherwise) but also their thoughts, themes and personal interpretations of what’s going on in the world around them. Curated by Brenda McParland, a former head of exhibitions at Imma, this one features, among others, the artists Annette Smyth, William O’Neill, Laura Fox and Colin Martin.
Stage
Scene + Heard: The Festival of New Work
From Thursday February 13th until Saturday March 1st, Smock Alley, Dublin, various times, €15/€13, smockalley.com
Pitched as a theatrical feast for the senses, this year’s Scene + Heard includes more than 110 new stage works featuring hundreds of directors, designers, creators and performers. The diversity of forms is one of this festival’s primary attractions – there is everything a theatregoer could hope for, from comedy, dance and music to drama, experimental, rehearsed readings, works in progress and “partial” improvisation. Audience feedback in the shape of in-person ballots, online commentary and post-show conversations adds to the experience.
Comedy
Eleanor Tiernan: An Awkward Age
Thursday February 13th, Coughlans, Cork, 7.30pm, €18, coughlans.ie
Eleanor Tiernan once described her performance style as “like a sneaky Russian spy slipping people laughs before they’ve even realised”. Now based in the UK, the comic has structured her career on similar lines, easing in and out of successful sketch shows (including The Savage Eye and Irish Pictorial Weekly, in which her bogus court reports raised her profile tenfold) and comedy series (including Bridget & Eamon, The Young Offenders and Holding). She is at her best, however, when she’s on a stage delivering wry, often spiky observations. Also Saturday February 15th, Liberty Hall, Dublin, 8pm, €25, ticketmaster.ie
Still running
Bad Daters
Until Saturday February 22nd, Bewley’s Theatre, Dublin, 1pm, €15/€12/€10, bewleyscafetheatre.com
Comedy with an undercurrent of poignancy runs through Bad Daters, which focuses on world-weary singletons Liam (Brian Gallagher) and Wendy (Georgina McKevitt) and their respective anxiety when it comes to trust issues. Derek Murphy writes and directs. (There is an evening performance, 7pm, Friday February 14th.)
