Cy Twombly and Cecil King exhibitions, Enda Walsh's success on the world stage and the opening of the Wexford Opera House and Dublin's Light House Cinema were among the highlights of 2008 for a selection of arts aficionados, writes Catherine Foley.
Maggie Breathnach
Producer of Imeall, the weekly arts show on TG4
Cúirt in Galway this year was truly amazing. I went to a couple of talks and readings and it was fascinating. The theme this year was Eye Witnesses to History. I was so impressed and deeply moved by the poetry of South African author Breyten Breytenbach, who read from his book, Windcatcher, which has poems from 1964 to 2006. It was phenomenal. To see and hear him describing his time in prison in South Africa, when reading and writing kept him sane, was fascinating.
Ciarán Carson gave a talk, Vona Groarke read also, and the author of The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad, was there. I love Cúirt because it brings renowned writers to our doorstep.
Then in the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin, I really loved Brian Maguire's exhibition, Hidden Islands: Notes From the War on the Poor. It was about how people coming into Ireland as refugees do not have a voice. He was making a statement about society through his art and that really appeals to me.
Then in Imeallwe featured an artist from Rwanda who is now based in Limerick. His name is Jean Ryan Hakizimana. All his family were killed in the genocide. I loved the fact that he was getting involved in the local community in Limerick. He came here as a refugee and now he's teaching art. His exhibition was in October. The contrast between the African sunsets and then the traditional Irish musicians he paints with such detail is fantastic.
In theatre, the play Faoi Dheireadh Thiar, a new play by Joe Steve Ó Neachtain, produced by Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, was a highlight. I saw it in Seanscoil Sailearna in Indreabhán. Ó Neachtain is a great writer and it was absolutely lovely to see him on stage as well. He's a powerful man in himself and this play, which is set in an old people's home, is an important part of his legacy.
John Crumlish
Managing director of the Galway Arts Festival and Arts Council member
August: Osage Countyfrom the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in New York, Black Watchfrom the Scottish National Theatre at the Dublin Theatre Festival and The New Electric Ballroomfrom Druid Theatre at the Galway Arts Festival were three fabulous pieces of theatre: great productions, great performances, well-written and, thankfully, all touring internationally.
The new opera house in Wexford is a wonderful venue, and the opening night of the Wexford Festival Opera was a great credit to all who made it happen. Jerome Hynes was sadly missed.
I eventually got to see Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gatesculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park this year. It was ambitious, engaging and subsequently a very cool backdrop for Charlie Bird's US election-day reporting.
In dance, my highlight was the restaging of Giselleby Fabulous Beast at the Galway Arts Festival - the line-dancing in Longford provided the backdrop for a very original, powerful and moving piece of dance.
In music, Elbow's Seldom Seen Kidwas full of great three-minute pop songs perfectly delivered. You can ask for no more.
In film, Martin McDonagh's feature debut, In Bruges, was both atmospheric and funny. Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell had a wonderful on-screen chemistry.
Barbara Dawson
Director of Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane
Can we mention our own? It was such a busy year. I thought the Hugh Lane centenary programme of exhibitions was superb. We were really pleased with it . . . We had record numbers over the year. A big highlight for us is our Hugh Lane Centenary Print Collection, which 13 artists have made for us. Each of them has made an edition of prints and that's superb.
I saw the Snow Maidenat Wexford Festival Opera. I liked it very much. The new opera house is lovely and the new RHA is great.
I liked the Brian Maguire show at the Kerlin. It was superb. He hasn't had an exhibition for some time and it's his best work yet. He's really on form. I liked Patrick Hall at Imma and the Black Church Print Exhibition in the summer was great. Rembrandt at the Chester Beatty was another highlight.
I loved the Cy Twombly exhibition at Tate Modern, it was a wonderful surprise, not having read any of the reviews; it was beautiful. It's always great to see a Francis Bacon exhibition [at Tate Britain]. We have a very close association with him and we are planning our exhibition for his centenary next year. In general the calibre and diversity of exhibitions in Dublin is enormous now. It has grown so much . . . and that is to be celebrated.
I loved Burn After Reading, the new Coen brothers film. It was a really funny take on the current desire to be different, and I never saw better performances from Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
Eugene Downes
Chief executive of Culture Ireland
The first one for me, and it's great that it's in an art form where in recent years Ireland has made a striking mark on the world stage, is architecture. For Grafton Architects to win the World Building of the Year award from a global jury for their new building for Bocconi University in Milan, which just opened a few weeks ago, was an incredible accolade. It has almost unanimously been greeted as perhaps the most significant building in Italy for many years.
It was also a building that was presented as part of the Irish pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale this autumn so it was something that was a part of a range of really significant Irish work.
The second highlight for me was the wonderful success that Enda Walsh has had in Ireland but also on the world stage in 2008. The Walworth Farce, which had been such a hit at Edinburgh in 2007, made a huge impression in New York earlier this year and then at the National Theatre in London this autumn. Then, as the second part of his diptych of domestic nightmare, we had The New Electric Ballroom, premiering at Galway Arts Festival, but then again having a wonderful success at Edinburgh this summer. As far as the New York Timeswas concerned, for the second year running, Enda Walsh's play, in Druid's production, was the show of the entire festival. And again The New Electric Ballroomis planning major international tours.
Enda is carving out a unique position for himself, and is being recognised internationally as one of the most creative voices of his generation.
The third highlight is a very obvious one but I still haven't got over the sheer surprise and delight of the Wexford Opera House. The best kinds of festival are improbable by nature but Wexford, as one of the most improbable of all festivals, gloriously improbable, has now a building that reflects that magnificently. It is not only a marvellous space for the really recherche and exotic work that Wexford has, but also would be a marvellous space for Handel, for Mozart. It opens up all kinds of possibilities as a space for baroque or classical opera. I think we've only begun to explore a world-class space for music theatre.
A great memory from this year was the night that the Berlin Philharmonic came to town. It was such a privilege to see them up close in what for them was the very intimate space of the NCH. [With the orchestra's] Irish connections - James Galway was the principal flute there in Karajan's time - that was a really special moment.
Jimmy Fay
Artistic director of Bedrock Productions and director of a number of plays at the Abbey this year, including The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings, 1870 to 1925, at the Royal Academy in London, provided a vital 50-year chronicle of a culture in turmoil and revolution, from neorealist pastoral life to the bleak, black abstract paintings of Kazimir Malevich. It was engaging, stimulating and chilling.
Also, Amanda Coogan's six-hour Yellowin Oonagh Young's funky new gallery confirmed to me that durational performance can be transcendental. Of course, I go out with artist, but still . . .
In a year that saw the Boss, Tom Waits, Neil Young and especially Leonard Cohen prove that age can not wither them, I opt for the sprightly 37-year-old Erykah Badu at Vicar Street, who proved to be an electric Nefertiti, an almost punk-hop-soul diva of extraordinary charisma and urgent sounds. It just blew me away. She had a brilliant stage act. It wasn't lavish in any way, and her stage presence was brilliant.
In theatre, Happy Daysat the Abbey demonstrated that great playwrights should be liberated from the academics, reinterpreted and made vital again. Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner showed yet again they are top of their game and the set in the Abbey was inspiring.
The Light House cinema in Smithfield is a blinking beacon in the increasingly bland world of film-going.
Gerard Howlin
Consultant with MKC Communications and former adviser to Bertie Ahern
I have three highlights. One is the Cecil King exhibition at Imma. In the 1990s I rented a flat in which I was very privileged to find the owner had left a Cecil King hanging on the wall. It was the beginning of a long-term relationship with his very beautiful work. I didn't know what it was at the time. I didn't know anything about Cecil King and it took me about six months to decide that this was far more interesting than it looked. It wasn't love at first sight.
The exhibition was a great tribute to Cecil King and a great tribute to Oliver Dowling for his persistence in keeping the work before the public.
My second highlight is the opening of Light House in Smithfield and the opening of the Wexford Opera House. I live in Stoneybatter and I am of Wexford stock and those two institutions are on my respective doorsteps. They are both very, very beautiful and the Light House is making a big difference to the area.
I was there on the opening night of the Wexford Opera House . . . and it's a stunningly beautiful theatre.
My third highlight is the Berlin Philharmonic's concert from September. The conductor was Sir Simon Rattle and the second half of the programme was Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, which is partially a representation of the death of Stalin.
Just to hear such very fine music by such a stunningly good orchestra lifted you out of whatever space you were in. You were in a different space when you came out.
• More highlights from 2008 in My Cultural Year 2, tomorrow
