EVENT: SILENT FILM FESTIVAL GALWAY
Ireland's first Silent Film Festival arrives in Galway with a vibrant programme of screenings, workshops, and live performances; created by Cinephile Paradiso and The Silent Cinema, the event celebrates and reimagines the legacy of early film. Highlights include Shoes (1916), directed by pioneering filmmaker Lois Weber, with a live score by Mia Fitzgerald and an introduction by silent film historian Dr Veronica Johnson, a screening of Alla Nazimova's dazzling and queer 1923 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé Salomé (1923) at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop with live music by Thomas Quill, and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc at St Nicholas’ Church, with live accompaniment by Mila Maia on piano and flute and Michael Chang on violin (Various venues, Galway City, 24–27 September)
MUSIC: MUSIC FOR GALWAY
Music for Galway opens its 44th International Concert Season with acclaimed Hungarian pianist Daniel Lebhardt, bringing a deeply emotive Romantic programme to Galway that includes Liszt’s sacred works and the monumental B minor Sonata, bookended by music from Robert and Clara Schumann, including Robert’s poignant Ghost Variations, his final composition. A must for classical lovers and new listeners alike (St Joseph's Church, Galway, Tuesday 30 September)
MUSIC: OUR TIME IN SPACE
This special event at the National Concert Hall's Tradition Now festival honours writer and cartographer Tim Robinson with a newly commissioned work by composer Susan Stenger for Crash Ensemble, plus an impressive lineup that includes poet Moya Cannon, writer Fintan O’Toole, performer Olwen Fouéré, folk duo Ye Vagabonds, sean-nós singer Treasa Ní Mhiolláin, biographer Lillis Ó Laoire, and filmmaker Pat Collins. Together they explore Robinson’s concept of the "Connemara fractal," weaving it through music, language, and landscape, fusing tradition with contemporary expression to reflect Robinson’s deep connection to place, time and perception (National Concert Hall, Dublin, September 28th)
FILM: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
When a long-forgotten enemy returns after 16 years, a group of former revolutionaries must reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own... The new action-thriller from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor, with newcomer Chase Infiniti in a breakout debut role. It's a movie that very much speaks to now, and might just be PTA's finest hour (or two hours and forty minutes) to date - and considering this is the filmmaker behind Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, that's saying something. NB: The IFI in Dublin are screening a 70mm print, one of a handful in rotation worldwide (Cinemas nationwide)
FESTIVAL: WRITE BY THE SEA – 10TH ANNIVERSARY
2025 marks the 10th anniversary the much-loved literary festival set in the coastal village of Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford, celebrating a decade of storytelling, creativity, and community in the company of literary heavyweights such as Claire Keegan, Colum McCann, Marian Keyes, John Banville, Eimear McBride, Mike McCormack and Donal Ryan, alongside exciting new voices like Garrett Carr and Roisin O'Donnell. With talks, readings, and workshops in a warm and intimate setting by the sea, this book-loving bash remains an inspired and inspiring experience (Various venues, Co. Wexford, 26–28 September)
BONUS: THE WILD GEEZE
The Wild Geeze are landing in Cork — and bringing the madness with them! The fearless female comedy duo are joined by Gaelgóir poet and rapper Julie Goo for a night of razor-sharp wit, surreal sketches, soaring harmonies, off-kilter burlesque and irreverence a go-go (St Luke’s, Cork, Saturday 27 September)
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