Culture | Books, Music, Theatre, Film & The Arts

First Fortnight presents My Story My Song on Sunday 17th January

My Story My Song one of the musical highlights of the First Fortnight festival takes place online this Sunday 17th January.

First Fortnight • 15 Jan 21

Artist and Art in Mind founder Glenn Gibson (Pic: © Darach photography)

First Fortnight: Glenn Gibson on keeping Art in Mind

Throughout January, the First Fortnight festival presents than 70 events online, as they mark 10 years of challenging mental health stigma...

First Fortnight • 12 Jan 21

First Fortnight preview - a collective moment through movement

We explore the series of online events focused on dance and wellbeing offered by Dance Ireland in partnership with choreographer Áine Stapleton...

First Fortnight • 11 Jan 21

Geoff Finan (AKA The Poet Geoff) presents Empowering Voices at this year's First Fortnight festival

First Fortnight preview - empowering Traveller voices

Geoff Finan (AKA The Poet Geoff) writes for Culture about a fascinating project that explores issues around identity and mental health in communities of Traveller men...

First Fortnight • 08 Jan 21

First Fortnight preview: Ultan O'Brien on his cinematic opera

First Fortnight • 07 Jan 21

Bressie with his acclaimed children's book The Chill Skill

First Fortnight - books to help your mental health

Libraries across the country are joining First Fortnight to shine a spotlight on mental health books during the month of January...

First Fortnight • 07 Jan 21

Singer-songwriter Sinead White (Pic: Laura Sheeran)

First Fortnight preview: Sinead White on Blue Sky thinking

Throughout January, the First Fortnight festival presents than 70 events online, as they mark 10 years of challenging mental health stigma...

First Fortnight • 05 Jan 21

Commencing on January 2nd, more than 70 events will take place throughout the month marking 10 years of challenging mental health stigma

First Fortnight Festival to go online in New Year

First Fortnight Mental Health Art & Culture Festival returns for its tenth year in January 2021 at a time when challenging mental health stigma and creating a space where we can each talk about our mental health challenges has never been more important.

First Fortnight • 28 Dec 20

10 years of mental health awareness with First Fortnight festival

For its tenth year running, the First Fortnight Mental Health Art and Culture Festival returns in January 2021.

Arts and Culture • 04 Dec 20

Áine Stapleton's new work is a 'creative investigation' of Lucia Joyce (pictured)

First Fortnight preview: Dancer Áine Stapleton on Lucia Joyce

Dancer Áine Stapleton talks about her creative investigation of Lucia Joyce in advance of her work-in-progress showing of Horrible Creature, exploring Lucia's life, at Dublin's DanceHouse later this month.

First Fortnight • 08 Jan 20

First Fortnight preview: Tadhg Hickey on One Eye, Out The Other

First Fortnight preview: The first solo comedy show from Tadhg Hickey introduces you to Feargal; a downtrodden but cheery man who fulfilled his lifelong dream - of becoming an alcoholic.

First Fortnight • 19 Dec 19

First Fortnight preview: Stephen Butler on music & mental health

First Fortnight preview: Stephen Butler, of national music promoter Labyrinth, discusses his personal link between music and mental health.

First Fortnight • 19 Dec 19

First Fortnight preview: Nicola Anthony on A Desire For Closeness

International artist Nicola Anthony has worked with individuals in Wexford who feel isolated, displaced, or lonely, for her project A Desire For Closeness, to be presented as part of this year's First Fortnight festival.

visual arts • 17 Dec 19

Oisin McKenna writes and stars in Admin, coming to First Fortnight this January

First Fortnight preview: Oisín McKenna on his play Admin

Writer and performer Oisin McKenna brings his acclaimed one-man play Admin back to the stage this January, as part of this year's First Fortnight festival, which challenges mental health stigma through creative arts.

First Fortnight • 16 Dec 19

First Fortnight: Emma Sheridan on the art of sharing

First Fortnight preview: Artist Emma Sheridan's new exhibition, Warpaint, was inspired by her experience of using art as a way to help her deal with her mental health difficulties.

First Fortnight • 18 Dec 18

One of the vintage handkerchiefs used in Angela Alexander-Lloyd's powerful installation If

First Fortnight: Angela Alexander-Lloyd - turning trauma into art

First Fortnight Preview: IF is an installation created by Scottish artist Angela Alexander-Lloyd in memory of a young, close friend who tragically took his life following a long period of struggling with mental illness.

First Fortnight • 17 Dec 18

Clowns Without Borders Ireland, pictured performing in Jordan in 2017

First Fortnight: Clowns Without Borders on healing with laughter

First Fortnight preview: Clowns Without Borders Ireland is a collective of street performers, who for more than a decade have been bringing emotional relief to displaced children internationally and across Ireland.

First Fortnight • 14 Dec 18

Matt Szczerek, Director of Dance2Connect, is coming to this year's First Fortnight festival

First Fortnight: Cathy Coughlan on movement and mental health

First Fortnight preview: Cathy Coughlan, a multidisciplinary artist based in Dublin, outlines why dance could help men manage their mental health ahead of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, her co-curated symposium on men, movement and mental health.

First Fortnight • 13 Dec 18

A ceramic work featured in 'BAD-MAN Oh Man' by Shane Keeling

First Fortnight: Shane Keeling on art and mental health

First Fortnight preview: Ahead of his exhibition BAD-MAN Oh Man as part of the First Fortnight European Mental Health Arts and Culture Festival, artist Shane Keeling outlines why he wanted to explore the phenomena of loss and suicide.

First Fortnight • 13 Dec 18

First Fortnight: Tony Wright on getting creative with depression

First Fortnight preview: When musician Tony Wright, who goes under the stage time VerseChorusVerse, first performed at the First Fortnight Mental Health Arts festival, he was learning to live with his diagnosis of depression...

First Fortnight • 11 Dec 18

Arnold Thomas Fanning on creativity and mental illness

First Fortnight preview: Arnold Thomas Fanning, acclaimed author of Mind On Fire: A Memoir of Madness and Recovery, reflects on what it means to be creative and to live with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness.

First Fortnight • 10 Dec 18

Felispeaks on turning panic into poetry - First Fortnight 2018

First Fortnight preview: Born in Nigeria and raised in Longford, Felispeaks is a spoken word artist who has emerged from the college poetry slam circuit.

Poetry • 10 Jan 18

JP Swaine and David Keegan - co-founders of First Fortnight

First Fortnight - taking mental health to centre stage

How is it that a group of Irish volunteers have created and grown a cultural event from a kitchen table to a major national event? First Fortnight co-founder JP Swaine explains how....

First Fortnight • 09 Jan 18

Making a drama about Bipolar Disorder - First Fortnight preview

First Fortnight Preview: Joanne Ryan, the award-winning playwright behind 2016's Eggsistentialism, was inititally reticient about writing a play based on her mother's experience of living with Bipolar Spectrum Disorder.

First Fortnight • 08 Jan 18

Ryan Tubridy and First Fortnight founder JP Swaine

First Fortnight - changing attitudes towards our mental health

JP Swaine joined Ryan Tubridy to share his personal story and to discuss First Fortnight, a festival aimed at changing attitudes towards mental health through creative arts.

First Fortnight • 03 Jan 18