Monday
Tulca 2016: The Headless City, Daniel Jewesbury curates
Tulca Festival Gallery, Fairgreen Rd (Next to Jigsaw); Galway Arts Centre 47 Dominick St, Nun's Island Theatre, Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa, Renmore; 126 Artist-run Gallery, 19 St Bridget's Place, The Hidden Valley; University Hospital Galway and Galway City Library Until November 20 tulcafestival.com
The versatile Daniel Jewesbury, London-born, Belfast-based artist, critic, writer, lecturer and curator , takes the helm for this year's festival of the visual arts, Tulca. He's lined up an impressive and diverse range of works and participants, from Miranda Blennerhassett to work by the late Patrick Jolley and Ian Hamilton Finlay. The theme reflects his enduring interest in the development of contemporary European cities, and his current research into the fabric of post-Agreement Belfast for a book with Robert Porter.
Tuesday
Selena Gomez
3Arena Dublin 7pm €49.50 ticketmaster.ie
If we believe even half of what we read in the gossip mags (stays in rehab, break-ups with recent 3Arena visitor, Justin Beiber, dates with Ed Sheeran, recovering from illness, etc), poor young Selena Gomez is in trouble. Blah, blah – here's a young woman approaching the top of her game with a slew of solid pop material at her disposal.
Peter Byrne and Conor Mahony
Whelan's, Wexford St 8pm €16.50 whelanslive.com
Truly a gentle man of Dublin, Peter Byrne waited until his retirement to embark on his singing career, propelled by his enjoyable encounters with guitarist Conor Mahony. Tonight the pair launch their album, Land And Sea, much to the delight of many who have heard Byrne sing in sessions and clubs down through the years. A much anticipated debut.
Wednesday
Sherlock Holmes & The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Stella Lieu Boutique, Kildare Street Hotel. Ends Nov 24 7.15pm (Sunday lunch 2pm) €45 (dinner and show) eventbrite.ie/o/wonderland-productions
Everyone's favourite automaton sleuth Sherlock Holmes is inveigled to investigate the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found on his estate bearing a horrified expression near the footprints of a giant hound, thus raising deep concerns about a fabled canine curse. Sound appetising? Wonderland present Alice Coghlan's new adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective story is staged as a piece of dinner theatre in which a limited audience dine at the Baskerville's table while the mystery unfurls around them in 360 degrees. If easily sated diners are not offered a doggie bag, they're missing a trick.
El Corazón y la Muerte: Mexican macabre art
Gallery X, 65 South William Street Dublin 2 (first floor) Adm free galleryx.ie
If you are still looking for something to scare the bejeebus out of yourself, then this exhibition of macabre Mexican art should do the trick. "Art," say the curators "purges that which blackens our minds and numbs our hearts: the unknown, the unusual, and the terrifying reminder of the fragility of our existence." Come face to face with your own mortality if you dare.
Thursday
Ash
Olympia theatre Dublin 8pm €26 ticketmaster.ie
Usually, 20th anniversary shows are indicators of people getting on in years, but as Ash started life as a schoolboy band, the lads are still in their 30s. The anniversary, however, isn't for the band, but for their official debut album, 1977, so named after the year that various influential punk albums were first released. Don't mistake Ash for a punk band, though – the guitars may slash and burn, but songs from 1977 such as Goldfinger, Girl from Mars, Kung Fu, and Oh Yeah have pure pop hearts.
Any given day
Paintings, drawings and moving images by Bernadette Kiely. Solstice Arts Centre, Railway St, Navan, Co Meath Until January 7 solsticeartscentre.ie
Mists and shadows cloud the landscape in Bernadette Kiely's large-scale drawings and paintings. She explores familiar terrain around her home in Thomastown and on the south coast. The daily world we encounter, she implies, is inhabited by our memories and shaped by the lives of those who lived before us. We always deal with more than what is immediately visible. A melancholy, reflective show.
John McSherry
The Local, Dungarvan 7.30pm €15 thelocal.ie
Belfast piper McSherry celebrates the release of his new album, Seven Suns, with an extensive tour, in the exceptionally fine company of Capercaille's Michael McGoldrick, At First Light compadre, Donal O'Connor and guitarist, Tony Byrne. Never a piper to autopilot his way through a gig or through life, McSherry is a scintillating live presence whose appetite for pastures new is insatiable.
David Kitt
Sugar Club Dublin 8pm €16 thesugarclub.com
As an individualistic singer- songwriter, David Kitt has experienced ups and downs through the years but side roads (in particular, his New Jackson groove) has kept him from falling completely off the radar – indeed, it has given him a much broader fanbase. This show, however, is unusual in that it's the launch gig for his new album, Yous, which is officially released at the start of January. Good forward planning, sir! TCL
