Tomorrow night's 2002 Ernest Blythe lecture at the Abbey - Blythe was director of the Abbey from 1941 to 1967 - will be given by writer Colm Tóibín, on the subject of Lady Gregory. This year is the 150th anniversary of Lady Gregory's birth and Tóibín will speak on Lady Gregory and the Abbey Theatre tomorrow at 8 p.m. in the Peacock.
Tóibín's latest book is Lady Gregory's Toothbrush, based on his year's research at the New York Public Library's Centre for Scholars and Writers, where he studied more than 1,000 unpublished letters from Lady Gregory to W.B. Yeats. The current tendency for writers to rely on disposable e-mail for communication does make you wonder how scholars and writers of the future will approach research in years to come: e-mails often get deleted, while letters that come in the post are often kept.
The lecture is free, but admission is by ticket only, which can be reserved by calling 01-8782222.
The focus of this year's Diversions, the summer events programme at Temple Bar, is film. The festival opens next Saturday with an outdoor screening of Singing in the Rain, which the organisers must be hoping won't turn out to be an ironic choice. Among the other musicals running on Saturday nights will be Moulin Rouge and The Wizard of Oz.
On Sunday nights, there will be a programme celebrating 10 years of the Irish Film Archive, featuring films that have music as their themes, such as The Commitments, Angel and Freedom Highway. There's also a programme of short films by emerging film-makers and visual arts from Glen Dimplex winner Matthew Barney, and Turner-Prize short-listed photographer Richard Billingham.
In July and August, world cinema features on the outdoor programme, with such films as Belle Epoque, Annie Hall, Cabaret, La Colmena, and Ang Lee's fabulous Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In August, the circus moves in, with a circus school taking up residence in Temple Bar, something sure to delight the visiting Hen Parties. Highlight of the circus season will be the performance by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, who'll play live accompaniment to Charlie Chaplin movies, the man who made the part of a clown his own.
Events run until the end of August. Details: www.templebar.ie or Cultureline 01-671 5717 or Temple Bar Properties 01-6772255 for more details.
Michael Clark's subversive choreography - he's said to have been to 1980s British dance what the Sex Pistols were to rock 'n' roll - makes its Irish début tonight and tomorrow at the SFX in the International Dance Festival (which runs until May 26th). In Before and After: The Fall, Clark's company revisits groundbreaking productions from the 1980s, and features a new work, Rise, a collaboration with British artist Sarah Lucas, looking at the link between music, dance and sex. Other highlights next week include two new commissions from independent choreographers Cindy Cummings and Mary Nunan (Project, next Friday and Saturday); a site-specific work which incorporates dance, film, story and live music from Daghdha Dance Company (Project, May 24th-26th): and Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe from South Africa (Project, Tuesday and Wednesday). Information at 01-6790524 and www.dancefestivalireland.ie
Also part of the festival is Hit and Run, an Irish modern dance film which premières today in the IFC (5 p.m.). Choreographed specially for cinema by David Bolger, and directed by John Comiskey, Hit and Run is a co-production between CoisCéim Dance Theatre and Rough Magic Films and is about the implosion of a street gang of eight young people over the course of one night.
On Monday, director John Comiskey takes part in an public discussion on the theory and practice of dance film-making at 4.30 p.m. in the IFC. Booking: 01-6778755.
The Arts Council has announced the appointment of its new music officer, Nollaig Ó Fiongháile. A graduate of UCC, Ó Fiongháile also holds a masters in music in ethnomusicology from Goldsmith's College, London.
A musician, researcher, and lecturer in Irish traditional music, Ó Fiongháile was submission co-ordinator for the development of a national diploma in applied music, to be established by the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. She directed Whiden Toie in Galway, a festival of traveller culture, and has completed research on nomadic practice in the Irish Traveller community. She is also a founder member of the Irish organisation, the Traditional Music and Dance Development Network. Ó Fiongháile was education development director with Northern Rhythms, a subsidiary development company of Údarás na Gaeltachta in Co Donegal, where she was responsible for the development and direction of third-level programmes in traditional music. She is also a founder and current member of the European Network of Traditional Music and Dance.
The Temple Bar Music Centre in Curved Street is bound to be a more-lively-than-usual place today, as it's holding an open day at its Sound Training Centre from 11.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Among those on hand to answer questions about the music business will be sound engineers, lighting engineers, roadies, backline technicians and remixers. Information: 01-6709033.
