BOOK: WILD HOUSES
As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer, Cillian English, and County Mayo's enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum... Our reviewer Aimée Walsh describes the debut novel from the acclaimed Mayo writer Colin Barrett (following short story collections Young Skins and Homesickness) as 'carefully rendered, woven with beautiful language, often veering between the brutal and the sublime', while Sally Rooney calls it 'a book not just to read but to live inside' (Penguin, out now)
ART: GROUND TRUTH
Ground Truth / Fírinne Bhunúsach is a term used in AI and machine-learning for the original image used to train systems. For her first solo exhibition in Ireland, Liverpool-born, Amsterdam-based artist Kate Cooper presents a pair of fascinating works - one created in collaboration with her 4-year-old daughter - exploring this 'ground truth' image, testing new visual and technological grammar and relations (Project Arts Centre, Dublin, until 10th February 2024)
FILM: THE HOLDOVERS
If anyone's going to give Cillian Murphy a run for his money for this year's Best Actor Oscar, it's Paul Giamatti - as a curmudgeonly teacher holed up for Christmas with a wayward teen - in this welcome reunion with his Sideways director Alexander Payne. We're talking instant seasonal movie classic here - that said, why they waited until January to release it, we have no idea (Selected cinemas nationwide)
STREAMING: IRISH MOVIE CLASSICS
Did you know that the RTÉ Player is currently playing host to a (digital) stream of Irish movie gems? Take your pick from The Snapper, My Left Foot, Ann, Parked, Intermission, Brooklyn, Belfast, The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Breakfast On Pluto (RTÉ Player, now streaming)
MUSIC: YOU RAISE ME UP
Over 1,000 artists have recorded Brendan Graham's song You Raise Me Up; with versions in over 50 languages, it has been performed at Super Bowl, Olympic Games, Nobel Peace Prize and the opening of the Northern Ireland Assembly. What's more, Graham has won Eurovision twice with Rock 'n’ Roll Kids and The Voice. Coming together with the National Symphony Orchestra and an all-star line-up of vocalists, Brendan himself hosts this special evening celebrating the art of his songwriting. Miriam O'Callaghan pays tribute below (National Concert Hall, Dublin, 20th and 21st January)
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