POETRY: JAN BRIERTON AND HENRY NORMAL
For this Irish tour, UK poet Henry Normal, known for his tender observations of modern life, will share the stage with our own Jan Brierton, whose poetry reflects on midlife, love, family, and female experience. This nationwide trek marks the first time the two have performed together, creating a must-see double bill of spoken word that celebrates life, love, family, ageing, and the everyday moments that connect us all. You may laugh. You may cry. Either way, you'll be charmed. Dates include The Cresent Arts Centre in Belfast (May 10th), Roisin Dubh in Galway (May 13th), Dolans in Limerick (May 14th) and the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin (May 15th)
EXHIBITION: TAYLOR WESSING IRISH PHOTO PRIZE
Selected from a nationwide open call that received over 1,300 entries, this exhibition at Photo Museum Ireland celebrates the shortlist for the inaugural Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Prize, a major new national award celebrating outstanding contemporary photography being made in and from Ireland today. Artists were invited to respond to the theme Community – Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine ("it is in each other's shadow that we live"), working across documentary, portraiture, conceptual and experimental photography. The top prize of €10,000 went to Conor Horgan for work from his series EDGE - documenting barriers installed along Dublin's Grand Canal and surrounding areas, designed to prevent homeless people seeking asylum from sleeping there. Horgan's work can be viewed alongside the others on the shortlist, offering a beguiling snaphot of contemporary Irish photography - and society (Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin until 24 May 2026)
FILM: TRAD
Written, directed and produced by Lance Daly (Kisses, Black '47), this homegrown road movie won the Audience Award at last year's Galway Film Fleadh, and it's not hard to see why. At its centre is Shóna McAnally (played by talented newcomer Megan Nic Fhionnghaile) a fiercely independent, defiant and gifted young fiddle player— who, along with her younger brother Mickey (Cathal Coade Palmer) leaves home to join a troupe of wandering musicians. What follows is a journey across Ireland filled with adventure, romance and quality tunes aplenty. Filmed across Donegal, Meath, Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Westmeath and Galway, with a supporting cast that includes Aidan Gillen, Sarah Greene and Peter Coonan, it's a powerful celebration of music, youth, and identity from one of Ireland's most consistently entertaining filmmakers (Cinemas nationwide)
BOOK: THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY
Like a recent Time Magazine article rather brilliantly put it, Elizabeth Strout's novels are just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe - except nothing happens and the multiverse is Maine. Her earlier masterworks have focused on the private worlds of interconnected characters, each navigating life as best they can in the wake of the experiences that have defined them. Often, nothing happens and yet everything happens. These modest masterworks have won her a legion of admirers and considerable acclaim, including the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kitteridge, memorably adapted for a HBO miniseries. Her eleventh book, set along the coast of Massachusetts, marks a noteworthy shift by introducing an entirely new set of characters, anchored by Artie Dam, a well-regarded history teacher whose quietly satisfying life is unsettled when an unexpected discovery forces him to re-evaluate everything (Out now, Faber)
VISUAL ART: IRELAND AT VENICE
Artist Isabel Nolan's commission Dreamshook will be presented at the Irish Pavilion during the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Dreamshook takes its title from a term describing the sensation of waking from a dream. The installation incorporates hand-tufted tapestry, drawing and sculpture, and examines themes including thresholds, dream states and the relationship between immaterial and physical realities. The work continues Nolan's exploration of systems used to interpret the world and the human tendency to impose order (Venice, from May 9 to November 21, 2026)
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