Musician Sarah Corcoran from Pillow Queens offers her spotlight events for the 15th edition of the First Fortnight Mental Health Arts & Cultural Festival - and gives a nod to her own work with the festival!
As a musician, January is usually a really quiet time for me. Sure, I could use this time to write, but when everyone's too cold to leave their house, and when the nights outweigh the days, there’s not a whole lot of inspiration floating about.
Or at least, that’s how I felt before I got involved with First Fortnight.
I’d been aware of their work for years, having played their Therapy Sessions in both 2018 and 2019, but when the opportunity came up to take on an organisational role with the festival in 2023, I jumped at it.
health stigma supported through the healing power of the arts.
Each year brings a jam-packed line-up of diverse performances across a range of art forms, and this year is no exception. I’ve picked some of my personal highlights, but honestly - just check out the full line-up yourself, it’s stacked.
· ANTIDOTE 2 is a performance by WeAreGriot commissioned by First Fortnight and the Arts Council of Ireland which features spoken word and poetry performances from some of the best in the country. With new pieces on the night challenging the stigma around mental health, ANTIDOTE II has been described as a dose, a herb, a flat 7up for your mind.
· Therapy Sessions Series: Always a firm favourite (and quick to sell out), this year Therapy Sessions is going on tour. They feature poetry, spoken word and songs from a host of artists including Inuit and First Nations artists Taqralik Partridge, Melissa Shaginoff and Leslie Kachena McCue, Dublin rapper Nealo, Wexford’s own Basciville, and First Fortnight legend Stephen James Smith.
· Wired Our Own Way is an honest, lively conversation about autism, identity, and how Ireland is shifting. The discussion will be inspired by Niamh Garvey's bestselling collection Wired Our Own Way - An Anthology of Irish Autistic Voices, which digs into what a diagnosis can open up and the depth of autistic lived experience.
· He Dies in the End: This beautiful play won the First Fortnight Award at Dublin Fringe Festival 2025 and deals with love and loss and grief in a heartfelt and hilarious way.
· Dublin Story Slam was one of my highlights from last year and is back again this year for a beautiful night in the Sugar Club. It features storytelling from audience members focusing on a particular theme. I cried my eyes out last year and I expect no different from this event.
· Future Stories is a film collaboration between young people with lived experience of the Irish care system, and a group of Irish creatives. Over 18 months, ten young artists collaborated with writer Emmet Kirwan, directors Oonagh Murphy and Em O'Ceallaigh, and filmmakers Maeve Stone and Alex Gill to create a film that shares the stories behind the numbers.
· Ar Ais Arís: A VR encounter exploring migration, isolation, identity, memory and place through 180° film, movement, text and music. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but audiences are immersed in the Connemara landscape and that sounds glorious.
· Walls of Containment is a photography exhibition by David Killeen featuring psychiatric hospitals built in Ireland between 1814 and 1922. It's fascinating to consider the buildings that once housed over 20,000 people, which now lay vacant for the most part.
· In Good Company: Declan O'Rourke and Deirdre O’Kane in conversation on one of the most beautiful stages in the country, the Abbey Theatre? With a special live performance from Toshín? In January? What more could you want?
· Nollaig na mBan: Once you’ve polished off the tea and the last of the Christmas cake, what else is there to do on Women’s Christmas? May I present to you a night of music and poetry featuring Vona Groarke, Tolü Makay and Jan Brierton? Absolutely gorgeous.
First Fortnight runs from 6th - 17th January 2026 - take a deeper dive into this year's programme here
