Seven things to do this week
TODAY Visit the gardens at Kilruddery House, near Bray in Co Wicklow, where there will also be a bring-and-buy sale, with good cakes and plants, from 10.30am to 1.30pm. Tonight, Opera Ireland is at home in the Gaiety Theatre, in Dublin, with La Cenerentola, starting at 7.30 p.m. Tickets €20. www.operaireland.com. In Monaghan, Brian Lynch is overseeing the annual Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Weekend. www.patrickkavanaghcountry.com.
TOMORROW It's census day, so you have to sleep in your own bed, even if you have been celebrating/commiserating after the Munster-Leinster rumble at Lansdowne Road (at 3pm). If you didn't get tickets for the match, head for Laytown, in Co Meath, where the summer season opens at Sonairte, the Ecology Centre, with a crafts and farmers' market from 10.30am to 5pm.
MONDAY Get yourself to the Irish Film Institute this week for the Wolf Blass Dublin Australian Film Festival. Tonight's offering is Blowin' in the Wind, by the Oscar- nominated documentary maker David Bradbury, at 6.30pm.
TUESDAY The excellent Critical Voices 3 programme is devoted tonight to a discussion of visual artists' depiction of war, linked to a show at the Rubicon Gallery, on St Stephen's Green in Dublin, called This Ain't No Fooling Around, with work by six American artists who have addressed US military involvement in Iraq. Prof Liam Kennedy, director of UCD's Clinton Institute of American Studies, will chair the discussion at the RHA Gallagher Gallery at 5.30pm. Booking is advisable. Contact 01-6612558 extension 105. www.criticalvoices.ie.
WEDNESDAY The literati will be en fete in Galway this week as Cúirt International Festival of Literature gets under way. With debates, masterclasses, readings, book launches and lectures, it's a full programme, with highlights including celebrations marking the centenary of Máirtín Ó Cadhain and Seamus Heaney reading from his new collection. The festival club is at the Radisson SAS Hotel & Spa. Cúirt runs until April 30th. Bookings: 091-569777, www.galwayarts centre.ie/cuirt. Anyone not in Galway will be in Louth for Drogheda Arts Festival, which runs over the weekend. Bookings on 041-9876100. www.drogheda.ie.
THURSDAY Now in its fifth year, the City of Derry Jazz & Big Band Festival kicks off tonight with a varied line-up, including Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, Curtis Stigers, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball, The Frames, Soweto Kinch, Jack L, Henry McCullough, Don Baker, Jacqui Dankworth and Tommy Halferty. Most of the 120 events are free, and it continues until next Sunday. For more information and a programme, click on www.cityofderryjazzfestival.com.
FRIDAY Go on. You must go on. If you haven't seen it before, or even if you have, Walter Asmus's production of Waiting for Godot is back at the Gate until May 27th, with Barry McGovern, Johnny Murphy, Stephen Brennan and Alan Stanford. Tickets €28 (www.gate-theatre.ie). Grab a friend, a granny or a child. Or go to Bray, where there is also a jazz festival in progress over the weekend. www.brayjazz.com.