The Guide: The events to see, the shows to book, and the ones to catch before they end

Event of the Week

Galway Film Festival

From Tuesday, July 11th-Sunday, July 16th, Galway. galwayfilmfleadh.com

This year’s Galway Film Festival brims over with things to do and see from morning to night – the West isn’t just awake, it’s up before sunrise and raring to go for hours. This year’s complementary events include Writers Masterclass (hosted by BAFTA-nominated writer-director Carol Morley, whose latest feature, Typist Artist Pirate King, receives its Irish Premiere, Sunday July 15th) and Actors Masterclass (US actor Matthew Modine, whose new movie, The Martini Shot, receives its world premiere on Thursday, July 13th). Public interviewees include US pop star Cyndi Lauper and US singer-songwriter Joan Baez (by video), while public interest will surely be piqued by the Irish film, Ballywater, which features (alongside Seána Kerslake) a lead acting role from the next Late Late Show hoist, Patrick Kielty. Further details are on the festival website.

Gigs

Forever Young festival

From Friday, July 14th-Sunday, July 16th, Palmerstown House Estate, Co Kildare, 1pm; €252; foreveryoungfestival.ie

Let us not be in any way dismissive or sarcastic – who’s to know where the Class of 2023 will be in 30 or 40 years’ time, and whether they will continue to have the health and the inclination to perform the music that made them high profile names in the first place. All roads, then, lead to the Top of the Pops 40th Birthday reunion bash next weekend, when acts performing include Midge Ure, Bananarama, China Crisis, Billy Ocean, Squeeze, Go West, Hothouse Flowers, Andy Bell, ABC, Jaki Graham, Jerry Fish, and Tony Hadley. NB: The festival is a fundraiser for animal welfare, with all profits donated to charity.

Quarter Block Party

From Friday, July 14th-Sunday, July 16th, Cork city; various venues/times/prices; eventbrite.ie

On the starting blocks once more after Covid put an untimely halt to its steps, Cork city’s very fine arts and music festival features not only some of the best but also the most interesting under the radar artists in, of and from the city (and a few from elsewhere).

Music across the weekend comes from Ana Palindrome, Flowers at Night, Maija Sofia, Elaine Howley, Laurie Shaw, and Craic Boi Mental; non-music events include the Circus Factory, and a range of workshops and discussions.

Charlene McKenna: ‘Within three weeks, I turned 40, had my first baby and lost my father’

Restaurateur Gráinne O’Keefe: I cut out sugar from my diet and here’s how it went

Ireland’s new dating scene: Finding love the old-fashioned way

The Swell Season

Thursday, July 13th/Friday, July 14th; Vicar Street, Dublin; 8pm; €54.65; ticketmaster.ie

Following last year’s reunion of The Swell Season for shows in the United States, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova had little choice but to follow their creative inclinations and team up yet again for more music and concerts. These Dublin shows are the first pair of a tour that will continue coast to coast in the US throughout August, and the first to preview new material since their 2009 album, Strict Joy. Expect a new album before the year is out, then.

Comedy

Ricky Gervais

Tuesday, July 11th/Wednesday, July 12th, 3 Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; (sold out)

The creator of the immensely successful television shows The Office, Extras, Derek, and After Life began the stand-up part of his career in the late 1990s, but didn’t take off in that particular area until 2003, by which time he was riding on the wave of adulation for The Office. Gervais followed Animals, his debut stand-up tour, with Politics, Fame, Science, Humanity, Supernature, and – the show he is bringing to Dublin – Armageddon. He arrives here with a reputation for not being particularly bothered if his occasional too-close-to-the-bone observational comedy offends. But then you know that, don’t you, which is why these shows are sold out.

Stage

Girl on an Alter

From Saturday, July 8th-Friday, August 18th, Abbey Theatre, Dublin; 7.30pm; €45/€30/€25; abbeytheatre.ie

A year after its world premiere at London’s Kiln Theatre, Marina Carr’s play (a reworking of Agamemnon, the first section of Aeschylus’ Oresteia) concerns itself with the manipulation of women and the travails of war, but there’s much more – notably the push-pull relationship between husband Agamemnon (David Walmsley) and wife Clytemnestra (Eileen Walsh) and the eruptive nature of grief. The two lead actors garnered effusive praise last year (“tectonic performers with arresting chemistry” Time Out) as did Annabelle Comyn’s direction (“mesmerising staging” – Financial Times).

Dance

Mám

Thursday, July 13th/Friday, July 14th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin; 7.30pm; €50/€40/€26.50; ticketmaster.ie

After last year’s sell-out nationwide tour (and before it heads off to the Venice Biennale Danza), Michael Keegan-Dolan and Teac Damsa present a compelling fusion of Irish traditional music (Cormac Begley), pan-European classical music (s t a r g a z e) and dance. It’s a got-to-see show, frankly, that this paper’s reviewer described as “over 90 minutes of ritualised ecstasy”.

Exhibition

Analog Rhythms

From Friday, July 14th-Sunday, July 16th, Racket Space, Bernard Shaw, Dublin; €15/€7.50/€5; bodytonicmusic.com

Sub-titled A Celebration of Dublin Club Culture, Analog Rhythms (hosted this year by music website 909 Originals) tips a hat to the early years of Dublin’s club scene, from the lairs of rave epiphanies (Rí-Rá, Sides DC, Columbia Mills, The Furnace) to the somewhat more above ground venues of The Pod, Temple Theatre, RedBox, and The Kitchen. The exhibition will feature a sizeable collection of visual memorabilia such as flyers, posters, and press clippings as well as (naturally) DJ performances, panel discussions, Acid House Bingo, and a headline show on July 15th by Manchester acid house vibemaster, A Guy Called Gerald.

Still running

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival

Until Sunday, July 9th, various venues/times/prices; cairdefestival.com

Sligo’s multi-strand art festival contains an abundance of events during its final two days, but try to get to singer Loah (Saturday, July 8th, Juniper Barn, 8pm, €25) and the Culture Shift panel discussion (Sunday, July 9th, Hawk’s Well Theatre, 3pm, €10). Further details are on the festival website.

Book it this week

Muse, 3Arena, Dublin; September 27th; ticketmaster.ie
Haircut 100, Vicar Street, Dublin; October 10th; singularartists.ie
John Gibbons, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; October 29th; ticketmaster.ie
Django Django, Button Factory, Dublin; December 16th; selectivememory.ie