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

Meet The Mastermind: rising star Josh O'Connor talks to RTÉ Arena

Director Kelly Reichardt and lead actor Josh O'Connor discuss their new film, The Mastermind for RTÉ Arena - listen above.

RTÉ Arena • 25 Oct

Winners announced of RTÉ Short Story Competition 2025

A "subtle, sensitive and quietly powerful" story of domestic tension, Witness by Lynda McCarthy has been announced as the winning story in this year's RTÉ Short Story Competition 2025 in honour of Francis MacManus.

RTÉ Arena • 25 Oct

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 13: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guests Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter during Monday’s October 13, 2025 show. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)

Bill & Ted wait for Godot on Broadway - Eimear McBride reviews

For RTÉ Arena, novelist Eimear McBride reviews the new Broadway production of Waiting for Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter - listen above.

Theatre • 16 Oct

Cover of the book Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

Shadow man: RTÉ Arena on the return of Thomas Pynchon

Richard Aldous reviews Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, a crime story set in 1930s Milwaukee.

RTÉ Arena • 08 Oct

In The Picture: RTÉ Arena celebrates Culture Night

RTÉ Radio 1 celebrated Culture Night 2025 in style with a hour-long Arena special, live from Studio 1 in RTÉ's Radio Centre.

RTÉ Arena • 01 Oct

The best of Sean Rocks - classics from the Arena archives

For Culture Night 2025, we asked Guest Editor Belinda McKeon to select some highlights from the hundreds of interviews and performances hosted by Sean Rocks for RTÉ Arena over the years...

Culture Night 2025 • 20 Sep

Writer Belinda McKeon edits RTÉ Culture for Culture Night 2025 (Pic: Rich Gilligan)

Take a trip into the mystic with Guest Editor Belinda McKeon

Welcome to Culture Night 2025 - take a trip into the mystic with Guest Editor Belinda McKeon

Culture Night 2025 • 19 Sep

That's Sooo Povo - Sophie O'Toole & Trudy Nolan's Fringe comedy

A new play premiering at the Dublin Fringe Festival wants to challenge the idea that Ireland doesn't have a class system and that we are a proudly classless society.

RTÉ Arena • 19 Aug

Tune up - Martin Hayes celebrates the cream of Irish musicianship

Kate Ellis on cello and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on fiddle and viola are just two of the musicians appearing at this year's Masters of Tradition in Bantry, Co. Cork.

Festivals • 18 Aug

Remembering Sean Rocks - the Irish arts community pays tribute

It's been a heartbreaking day, with the Irish arts community mourning a true champion, RTÉ Arena host Sean Rocks.

RTÉ Arena • 01 Aug

Composer Jennifer Walshe's trip to Mars with Irish National Opera

Would you like to take a trip to Mars? If you're not a billionaire like Jeff Bezos, then why not take a trip to Mars through the power of your imagination?

RTÉ Arena • 30 Jun

Seamus Heaney's North at 50 - a poetry masterpiece revisited

North was Seamus Heaney's fourth poetry collection – he was in his mid-30s when it came out, living in Glanmore, Co. Wicklow.

Books • 26 Jun

The legacy of Ireland's mother and baby homes, in story and song

A new theatre piece from the activist, writer and performer Noelle Brown, and architect and performer Camille O'Sullivan, explores the history of Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland – but through an unusual lens.

Theatre • 01 Jul

(MANDATORY CREDIT Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images) Robert Plant (vocals) of Led Zeppelin performing on stage at Earl's Court, London, May 1975. (Photo by Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images)

Was the year 1975 a watershed moment in music and pop culture?

What year in music history spawned Springsteen's Born to Run, Led Zeppellin's Physical Graffiti and Love Is the Drug by Roxy Music?

RTÉ Arena • 17 Jun

Wreckquiem - Pat Shortt is music-mad in Mike Finn's new play

RTÉ Arena spoke to multi-award-winning actor, comedian, show runner, comedian, musician and national treasure Pat Shortt.

RTÉ Arena • 17 Jun

Twin Peaks returns - co-creator Mark Frost talks to RTÉ Arena

Written by Mark Frost and David Lynch, Twin Peaks was a sensation when it first aired in 1989.

RTÉ Arena • 13 Jun

CIRCA 1966: Singer Brian Wilson of the rock and roll band "The Beach Boys" relaxes backstage in circa 1966. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Brian Wilson remembered - RTÉ Arena on a troubled pop genius

Brian Wilson co-founder, chief songwriter, and creative force behind The Beach Boys, one of the most influential bands in American pop music history has died at the age if 82. For RTÉ Arena, John Meagher reflects on Brian's life and work

RTÉ Arena • 12 Jun

Kay Sheehy bids farewell to RTÉ later this month

RTÉ Arena's Kay Sheehy signs off after 25 years

'Its been such a thrill...' As the incomparable Kay Sheehy bids farewell to RTÉ after a quarter century, she looks back on a glorious career as a true champion for arts and culture in Ireland.

RTÉ Arena • 11 Jun

The River Crana: Frank McGuinness on his new poetry collection

Frank McGuinness is one of our greatest writers. He is best known for plays such as The Factory Girls, Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Carthaginians and Someone Who'll Watch Over Me as well as his adaptations of Ibsen.

Books • 28 May

Iarla Ó Lionáird celebrates the power & beauty of the human voice

The inaugural Festival of Voice is a weekend event celebrating the power, beauty and universality of the human voice.

Iarla O'Lionaird • 22 May

Long live Iggy Pop - RTÉ Arena on the Godfather of Punk

Ahead of his headline performance at In The Meadows, Paul McLoone looks back at the amazing career and life of the Godfather of Punk Iggy Pop.

RTÉ Arena • 02 Jun

Entering The Cave: "It's just epically funny from the get-go"

A man crawls out of a cave in south county Sligo on all fours, looking like 'he's after a night of the horrors'. A second man appears, managing 'to stand up on his two feet'...

Theatre • 15 May

Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch's on his debut novel

Stuart Murdoch is a singer, songwriter and founder member of iconic Glasgow band Belle and Sebastian.

RTÉ Arena • 15 May

Kila raise the road (and the roof) with their new album

Kila, and brass - be in the audience for RTÉ Arena's live special

The new album Raise the Road features Irish music legends Kila and the Paul Frost brass band, and captures all the exhilarating energy of a live Kíla performance, and more.

RTÉ Arena • 30 Apr

Andor returns: the team behind the Star Wars TV hit talk to Arena

The second and final season of Andor, the critically acclaimed Star Wars TV series, has just debuted on Disney+ to rave reviews, with some critics already calling it the finest TV show of the year.

RTÉ Arena • 23 Apr