Make the most of the summer by planning which cultural, music and other events you want to see. Brian Boyd, Rosita Boland and Arminta Wallace have picked out some of this year's highlights to get you started. All you need now is your diary
Rock and pop
MAY - Cher
May 8 The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie The last chance to see Cher as this is her farewell tour. Tickets cost €70
Westlife
May 11, 12, 13, 15 (two shows - one at 1.30pm, one at 8pm), 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie
A huge run of gigs, plenty to keep the fans happy. Tickets cost €39.50
JUNE
Britney Spears
June 2, 3
The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie There's huge demand for the singing star with tickets going fast. They cost €50
Red Hot Chili Peppers
June 12
Phoenix Park, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie The Californian funk-metal band are a huge live draw in this country and this is their biggest ever show. If they can handle Slane, they can handle the Park and there's added interest here because the show will include an appearance by the legendary reformed band, The Pixies. Also on the bill are local heroes, The Thrills. Don't expect to see the President, Mrs McAleese down in the mosh-pit, though you never know . . . Tickets cost €59.50
Korn
June 17
The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie With a massive fan-base here, the shock rockers from the US should easily sell the venue out. Tickets cost €44.50
Counting Crows
June 22
The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie Always a strong live act, this is the band's second visit to Ireland this year. Tickets cost €39.50
Bryan Adams
June 25th
Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, Co Kerry 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie Still a popular live draw, the Canadian rocker returns for a big outdoor show. Support comes from Simple Minds. Tickets cost €39.50
Metallica
June 25
RDS Arena, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie At the end of their show at the Ballsbridge venue last year, the metallers announced "see you next year" and here they are back again, still cranking it up very loud. Special guests on the day are Slipknot and Lostprophets. Tickets are €63.50
The Corrs
June 26
Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, Co. Kerry, 0818-719300 www.ticketmaster.ie With a new album in the shops soon, expect a big turnout for the Dundalk band. Support comes from Sheryl Crow. Tickets cost €44.50
Bob Dylan
June 26 Stormont Estate, outside Belfast; June 27th, Pearse Stadium, Galway, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie Two more Irish shows on Dylan's never-ending tour. The first will see him make his first appearance in Northern Ireland while the Galway show will be the city's first major outdoor musical event for many a year. The Stormont show costs £40 sterling and the Galway show costs €65.
Kris Kristofferson
June 27
Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, Co Kerry, 0818-719300 www.ticketmaster.ie Having sold out The Point in Dublin earlier this year, Kristofferson returns for a bigger show. Support comes from John Prine. Tickets cost €44.50
Sheryl Crow
June 27
The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie Playing Dublin just one day after her show in Killarney, Crow has huge crossover appeal. Tickets cost €39.50
The Corrs
June 28/29
Like Crow, they're taking in the Point just after their Killarney show. Tickets cost €44.50
JULY
Usher
July 3
The Point, Dublin, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie One of the biggest r 'n' b stars in the world today. Tickets cost €46
Oxegen
July 10 and 11
Punchestown Racecourse, Co Kildare, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie The festival formerly known as Witnness has become one of the big-hitters on the European circuit and this year's line-up is arguably the strongest ever. The headline acts include David Bowie, The Darkness and The Strokes. There's plenty of quality down the bill however, with appearances by Pink, The Chemical Brothers, N.E.R.D, Scissor Sisters, The Cure, Black Eyed Peas, Ash, Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines. All the action takes place over five stages and camping on the site is available on July 9, 10 and 11. Oxegen is an over 18s event and ID will be required. Those under 18 will be permitted to attend only if accompanied by a parent or guardian. A one-day ticket costs €59.50, a two-day ticket costs €110 and if you want to camp, the price for the two days is €130 (You can't get a one day camping/concert ticket).
James Taylor, Katie Melua, Bob Geldof
July 18
Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie A good venue, so expect to mellow out to the singer-songwriter tunes of James Taylor (You've Got a Friend etc;). A strong bill also includes rising young jazz-soul star Katie Melua and ex-Boomtown Rat, Bob Geldof who puts on a formidable live show. Tickets cost €65
AUGUST
Madonna
August 29 Slane Castle, Co Meath, 0818-719300. www.ticketmaster.ie The material girl's first Irish show will bring her re-Invention tour to the castle. It's the first Sunday show at Slane since Bob Dylan played there in 1984. Expect tickets to go very fast. (No ticket prices available at time of writing).
Festivals
MAY
Wicklow Gardens Festival
May 1-July 31 Locations throughout Co Wicklow 0404-20070, www.wicklow.ie If you don't have your own garden, dream on, and come and look at other people's beautiful gardens, which are open to the public only on selected dates through the summer. New to the festival this year are the wilderness garden, The Rock, in Kilmacanogue; June Blake's contemporary garden and nursery at Tinode, Manor Kilbride; and the five-acre Hunting Brook Gardens and arboretum at Lamb Hill, Blessington. Other gardens on view include Wrenswood at Kiltimon; the Dower House at Rossanagh; and Knockmore at Enniskerry.
Inishbofin Island Arts Festival
May 14-16
Inishbofin, Co Galway 095-45861, www.inishbofin.com Combine your holiday with culture on lovely Inishbofin. The highlight this year is a late-night gig by the Wall brothers, Joe and Steve. Traditional singer Sean Tyrrell will also perform over the weekend, and accordion player Mary Finn will give a workshop. Playwright and screenwriter Neil Donnelly will read; James Morrissey will give an illustrated talk on the history of lighthouses; and there will be a major exhibition of the island's craft and artwork.
Iniscealtra Festival of Arts
May 29-June 7
Mountshannon, Co Clare
087-2686764, www.iniscealtra-artsfestival.com This year's theme is Beyond Human Form. Musical highlights include a songwriters' evening with Johnny Duhan, a recital from the Contempo String Quartet, trad from Four Men and a Dog, and sets from the Tulla Céilí Band. There's a reading and workshop with poet Michael Coady, and traditional music classes on fiddle, box, flute, tin whistle and concertina.
JUNE
Achill Archaeological Field School
June-August
Introductory courses, Achill 098-43564, www.achill-fieldschool.com Weekend and week-long courses from June to August. Students get the opportunity to work in the deserted village of Slievemore, learning on-site excavation techniques. Other field schools offer explorations of Achill's blanket bogs, and some of the tombs, forts and ruined houses in the area.
Listowel Writers' Week
June 2-6
Listowel, Co Kerry 068-21074, www.writersweek.ie Novelist and short-story writer John McGahern opens this year's festival. Among the participants will be novelists Douglas Kennedy, Peter Woods, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Martin Malone, and Hugo Hamilton. There will also be a public interview with crime writer Michael Dibdin, and a celebration of James Joyce's work with David Norris. Máire Cruise O'Brien will deliver the annual Seamus Wilmot memorial lecture, and Antoinette Quinn will deliver the Tim Danagher memorial lecture. Workshops include fiction with Anthony Glavin and Evelyn Conlon; poetry with Mary O'Malley and Mark Granier; and theatre with Jimmy Murphy.
Murphy's UnCorked
June 3-6
Cork 021-4501673, www.murphysuncorked.com Comedy, blues and roots music will be taking over Cork this weekend. The 2003 Time Out comedy winner, Jimmy Carr will perform, as will Paul Merton and the Comedy Club Players, former Perrier winnerJeremy Hardy and David MacSavage. On the music end, there will be London Community Gospel Choir, Sam Brown of the Jools Holland Orchestra, New Yorker Eric Bibb and Ireland's Damien Dempsey, and a Blues Trail of free gigs around the city.
Murphy's Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
June 3-7
Kilkenny 056-7763416, www.murphyscatlaughs.com Prepare your ribs, it's the 10th anniversary of this laugh-fest. American visitors include Dom Irerra, Rich Hall and Emo Philips. From Britain come Boothby Graffoe, Jeff Green, Sean Lock and Phil Kay, while Ardal O'Hanlon, Des Bishop, Ed Byrne, Jon Kenny, Dara O'Briain and Tommy Tiernan will be on home ground.
Goldsmith Summer School
June 4-6
Abbeyshrule, Co Longford 043-71448 Oliver Goldsmith in London is the focus this year. Speakers are Jonathan Moore of London Metropolitan University, and Sally Mulready of the Camden Irish Centre in London. Other events include poetry readings by Des Egan and Noel Monaghan.
Éigse Carlow Arts Festival
June 12-20
Carlow 05991-40491, www.eigsecarlow.com There's always a strong emphasis on the visual element of the programme, and the main exhibitor this year is Portuguese artist João Penalva, with a major installation and video piece. There is also a glass exhibition from 15 artists working in the medium. Éigse's dance company in residence will perform Mutation, created specially for the festival. Other highlights include a concert by Juliet Turner, comedy from Des Bishop, classical music from Hugh Tinney and Catherine Leonard, and a reading by Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Paul Muldoon.
Diversions Temple Bar Outdoors
June 12-September 4
Dublin, 01-6772255, www.templebar.ie This is the free festival in the heart of Dublin, with film, visual art, and street theatre. Among the movies that'll be screened in Meeting House Square this year are Reservoir Dogs, The Matrix, Strangers on a Train, and Taxi-Driver, as well as a season of Czech and Cypriot films. There's also a special programme of film and music to celebrate the Bloomsday centenary, when a newly-created piece of music will be played each night for a week in Meeting House Square. Other highlights include family fun days with circus, magic and storytelling.
Dublin Writers' Festival
June 17-20, Dublin
01-8721122, www.dublinwritersfestival.com After Bloomsday, the word fest continues. Playwright, director, fiction writer and poet Harold Pinter will be in conversation with critic Fintan O'Toole. American Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a part of literary history: he is the co-founder of San Francisco's famous City Lights Books; a bookshop and publisher which published poets Allen Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams as part of its Pocket Poets series. He's also author of the best-selling collection, A Coney Island of the Mind. Other participants include Chinese novelist Chi Zijian, and Irish novelist Michael Collins, as well as writers whose topic is Africa: among them, Sonja Porle, Pedro Rosa Mendes and Zoe Wicomb.
McGlinchey Summer School
June 24-27
Inishowen, Co Donegal, 086-1722978, www.clonmany.com Big Nights and Bygone Days is the theme of this year's gathering, which will celebrate the traditions of music, song and dance. The school will be opened by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin of the University of Limerick. Other speakers include Damhnait Sweeney of UCC on the repertoire in Co Donegal fiddling; Jim Toland on the life and music of John Donovan; and Breda McKinney on the Inishowen singing tradition.
Killarney SummerFest
June 24-July 4
Killarney, Co Kerry, 064-71560, www.killarneysummerfest.com You might spot crooner Kris Kristofferson in a Killarney jaunting car, since he's appearing at the SummerFest this year. He may even be sharing his jaunting car with the Corrs, who are also playing. However, they may prefer to share their car with Bryan Adams, the third of the trio of acts. Among the other events, there's also a concert from Mundy, an appearance by the Lambert Puppet Show, and a busking competition.
Byrne Perry Summer School
June 25-27, Gorey, Co Wexford
055-21248, www.byrneperry.ie This year's theme is Paired Lives, 20th Century Ireland, held in association with Wexford Co Council, History Ireland and the Keough Notre Dame Centre, Dublin. The opening address will be given by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. Joseph Lee, director of the Glucksman Ireland House and holder of the Glucksman Chair of Irish Studies in New York University, will give the annual Gordon Wilson
Memorial lecture, on Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins. Academic and former SDLP politician, Brian Feeney, speaks on John Hume and Gerry Adams; academic and critic Seamus Deane speaks on Brian Friel and Seamus Heaney; and journalist
Stephen Collins speaks on Garret FitzGerald and Charles Haughey. Playwright Billy Roche will read at Huntington Castle.
Buí Arts and Heritage Festival
June 24-27
Blacklion, Co Cavan and Belcoo, Co Fermanagh, 071-9853299, www.cathalbui.com A revamped festival this year, in a move away from the original summer school format. The festival this year aims to celebrate the people, traditions and landscape of west Cavan and Fermanagh. Highlights include fields trips to archaeological sites in Cavan; a concert by the local youth orchestra; and a talk by writer Michael Harding entitled Creative Imagination and the Home Space, which illustrates how the local landscape has influenced his work.
JULY
Erris Literary Festival
July 2-4
Erris, Co Mayo 097-83568, www.errisliteraryfestival.com Festival looking at J.M. Synge's association with the Erris area, which will be opened by academic Enda McDonagh, formerly of NUI Maynooth. Speakers will include Renagh O'Dwyer of NUI Galway, Irish Times columnist John Waters, poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh, poet and director of Poetry Ireland, Joseph Woods, and RTÉ chief news correspondent, Charlie Bird.
Willie Clancy Summer School
July 3-11
Miltown Malbay, Co Clare 065-7084148
The only time you can say Willie Week and everyone takes you seriously. Workshops, classes, concerts and sessions on all aspects of traditional Irish music, with the best of teachers. There are 10 dance workshops this year, from Connemara sean nós dancing, to the Jenny Ling set of east Kerry and north Cork, and the mysterious-sounding steps and rhythms of the Clare Set, "battering etc".
Bard Summer School
July 4-9
Clare Island, Co Mayo, 01-4904879, www.bard.ie With a nod to Tolkien, this year's theme is the Return of the King. The workshops and lectures will explore the relevance and meaning of kingship in the contemporary world, by looking at the stories of Conaire Mór and Cormac Mac Airt. Speakers include Dáthaí O'hOgáin of UCD and writers John O'Donoghue and John Moriarty.
Galway Film Fleadh
July 6-11, Galway 091-751655, www.galwayfilmfleadh.com Full details are yet to be announced of this year's programme, but the focus will be on British cinema. Promised are screenings of experimental and avant-garde British films, as well as a selection of new and classic film. The best of Irish Shorts will screen again this year, and the Galway Film Fair runs alongside the fleadh, where all the wheeling and dealing happens after the reeling of new films has been done.
Earagail Arts Festival
July 8-18
Locations throughout Co Donegal 074-9129186, www.earagailartsfestival.ie That old rocker Rat, Bob Geldof, is assembling his other old rats and playing a concert of classic hits in Letterkenny's Holiday Inn. Folk and blues singer John Martyn, blues singer Garth Hudson, the Chinese Conservatory of Music and the West African percussion dance troupe, Yelemba d'Abidjan will be other music highlights. There will be the première of Little John Nee's new show, Rural Electric, at the festival. There's comedy from David Strassman, and an Irish première of Swiss video artist Christine Munz's multi-media piece.
Galway Arts Festival
July 12-25
Galway, 091-509700, www.galwayartsfestival.ie The biggest arts festival in Ireland is always full of surprises. This year, the programme will be announced on June 2nd. All we know so far is that there will be a strong focus on Irish and international theatre. There will be two new pieces produced by Galway Arts Festival, including a dance collaboration between Icelandic and Irish artists. Street art, music, comedy, literature and those special Galway trademark multi-disciplinary shows will all feature.
Patrick MacGill Summer School
July 18-23
Glenties, Co Donegal, 074-9551103, www.macgillsummerschool.com The theme is Politics and Democracy in Ireland in the 21st century. Among the topics being discussed, which are bound to provoke heated debate, will be: Dáil Éireann, why is it failing?; The media and politics; Can democracy work in a 25-country Europe?; and The public services, value for money? The arts element of the programme includes a recital by pianist John O'Conor, and the Tribunals Show with Joe Taylor, Malcolm Douglas and Susie Kennedy.
International Humbert Summer School
July 20-25
Ballina, Co Mayo, 087-2418461, www.humbertschool.com This year's theme is Media and the Public Interest - Spin out of control? The highlight promises to be the head-to-head between Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's erstwhile press secretary, and P.J. Mara, Charles Haughey's former master of spin, exchanging their views on George Bush, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern. Other topics under discussion will be the Peace Process in the North; and the media and public controversies in the UN and the Middle East.
Boyle Arts Festival
July 22-31
Boyle, Co Roscommon, 071-9662703 Visual art is always a key feature of Boyle. Among the 60 exhibitors showing this year are Basil Blackshaw, Sean McSweeney, John Shinnors, Felim Egan, Gwen O'Dowd and Louis le Brocquy, as well as emerging artists Sarah Longley, Colin Davidson, Michael Canning and Clifford Collie. Poet Michael Longley will read, as will last year's Booker prizewinner and Leitrim resident, DBC Pierre. Also on the programme are traditional and jazz concerts, and workshops on drumming, dance and creative writing.
Gerard Manley Hopkins Summer School July 24-30
Monasterevin, Co Kildare, 045-433613, www.gerardmanleyhopkins.org There are varied elements to the school this year: a music workshop, film-making and lectures and readings, which explore a trio of themes - Hopkins and music, visual art and imagery. Speakers include Hikaru Kitabayashi from Japan and Terence Brown of TCD. Poets include Jacek Kozik from Poland, Demosthenes Kourtovik from Greece, Paul Wimmer from Austria and Robert Minnhinnick from Wales.
John Hewitt International Summer School
July 26-31
Armagh, 028-37521, www.johnhewitt.org Media features prominently at the summer schools this year. The Hewitt's theme is Crazily Tangled - Myth, Media, History and Confusion. The keynote speaker is Clare Short, British Labour MP, and former minister for overseas development. The week's other speakers will include Eamon Delaney and Steven King. Those reading include playwrights Sebastian Barry, Daragh Carville, Conal Morrison; novelists Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Carlo Gébler; and poets Michael Longley, Cathal Ó Searcaigh and Gabriel Rosenstock. There will also be two creative writing workshops with poet Anne-Marie Fyfe, while critic Fionola Meredith will facilitate workshops for those who want to talk about books they have read.
Yeats International Summer School
July 31-August 13
Sligo 071-9142693, www.yeats-sligo.com Poet and academic Brendan Kennelly opens this year's school. Among the speakers are: Yeats biographer Roy Foster on The End of Yeats's Life; Bernard O'Donoghue from Oxford on The Visionary Politician, Michael Robartes and the Dancer; Helen Vendler of Harvard on Yeats and Lyric Form; and novelist Colm Tóibín on W.B.Yeats and his Father.
This year's poetry workshop will be led by distinguished American poet Jorie Graham. Graham will also give a reading, as will Seamus Heaney, Richard Murphy and Colm Tóibín.
AUGUST
Kilkenny Arts Festival
August 6-15
Kilkenny, 056-7752175, www.kilkennyarts.ie Dance company Coiscéim will be providing two very unusual highlights this year, with their site-specific shows. Chamber Made will stage its première in Kilkenny and is set in a (real) hotel bedroom; Swept is set in a bar, and is a co-production
with the Peacock. Dublin Fringe Festival winners for 2002, The Performance Corporation, will be doing an outdoor show, Audio Detective, which the audience will follow around Kilkenny, armed with headphones.
Other highlights include British cellist Steven Isserlis and writer Sean O'Reilly in conversation with Dermot Bolger.
Parnell Summer School
August 15-20
Avondale, Co Wicklow, 01-2852113, www.parnellsociety.com The theme this year is Ireland, Real and Ideal. Among the speakers are novelist Colm Tóibín; Ben Levitas of Goldsmiths College, London; Louise Fuller of NUI Maynooth; Derek Hand of St Patrick's Drumcondra; and Lionel Pilkington of NUI Galway. The topics under discussion include reflections on the Northern peace process, women and the Irish revival, celebrating Irish forestry, and 100 years of the Abbey Theatre.
Merriman Summer School
August 21-28
Ennistymon, Co Clare 087-9324725, www.merriman.ie One of the oldest summer schools focuses this year on orthodoxies and heresies, the new Ireland and its sacred cows. Among the specific topics are: gender issues; health care; psychology and personal lifestyles; and demographic and socio-economic issues. Speakers include academics and critics Alan Titley, Kevin Whelan, Muiris FitzGerald, Ciarán Benson and Mary Davis CEO of the Special Olympics.
Desmond Greaves Summer School
August 27-29
Dublin, 053-75843 The school opens with a discussion, The Proposed Constitution for Europe, chaired by Patricia McKenna, MEP. Other debates over the weekend include Irish Capitalism, Loyal to Whom?, chaired by Damien Kiberd; and Democracy within the EU, chaired by Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD. The Sunday forum is entitled Power Politics and the EU.
Classical Music
JUNE
Music in Great Irish Houses
June 10-19
086 2589319, www.musicirishhouses.com A Polish pianist at Kilruddery: an Irish soprano at the RDS. The new Europe meets the old in this year's Music in Great Irish Houses Festival, with guest performers from the new EU member-states joining Irish musicians for a programme which ranges from Bach and Mozart to Janacek and Martinu. The "great" in this festival doesn't just apply to the music - or even the houses. There's also the business of picnics on the lawns, walks in historic gardens, getting on your best bib and tucker and stepping out for an undeniably elegant evening. And for those who don't want to drive, there's even the option of taking a coach to Slane for the concert on Thursday, June 10 and having supper at the castle.
West Cork Chamber Music Festival
June 26-July 4
027 52788/9, www.westcorkmusic.ie The pushing of boundaries has always been the business of Bantry's annual chamber music festival, and this year is no exception, with works by Azeri and Georgian composers mingling happily with music from Hungary, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania. Masterclasses for breakfast, "coffee concerts" at noon, plus three musical outings each evening.
This year's line-up includes the world première of a new quartet by Jane O'Leary, song cycles by Shostakovich, James MacMillan's version of a Jewish legend about the fragments left over from the intense light of Creation, Raising Sparks. The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet will be in residence, and visiting ensembles include the Vilnius Quartet, the Leipzig Quartet, the St Petersburg Quartet and the Altenberg Trio; among the soloists are pianists Artur Pizarro, Finghin Collins and Joanna MacGregor, clarinettist Romain Guyot and trumpeter Simon Lenton.
Walton's Guitar Festival of Ireland
June 30-July 4
01-4781884, www.guitarfestivalofireland.com A new festival for dear old Dublin, and who better to headline a guitar festival than the near-legendary John Williams, who will perform at the National Concert Hall on July 3. This feast of plucking and strumming will feature an eclectic programme of classical, world, jazz and flamenco guitar music, with performances and master classes from some of the world's most exciting guitarists. These include the Spanish flamenco player Rafael, the Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas; and they'll be joined by the Dublin Guitar Quartet, Louis Stewart and John Feeley. Master classes and tutorials will take place at Trinity College, Dublin and the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, with concerts at a variety of Dublin venues.
JULY
Killaloe Music Festival
July 21-25
061-202620, www.icorch.com This year's series of concerts kicks off on July 21 with a recital by the Canadian soprano Dominique Labelle. The week features a variety of musical outings, from traditional nights with fiddle player Liz Carroll to candlelight concerts with the Quartetto Stradivari and lunchtime gigs by the Szabò Trio and pianist Isabelle O'Connell. The big closing concert features percussionist Adrian Spillett with the Irish Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan in an exhilarating programme which includes Villa-Lobos and Ginastera.
