Things To Do: Pin the blame on indie sleaze, visit a bungalow, see the Dead Zoo in blue

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Our recommendations – no sponsored content, or adverts, just stuff we like.

Black Noise

Below Hume Street in GalleryX, artist and curator Ishmael Claxton is launching Black Noise, a new group exhibition this evening at 5pm.

The exhibition was born of Claxton’s frustration at seeing artists of colour in Ireland being overlooked, misrepresented and marginalised for years, as well as his desire to create something “constructive and collective”.

Black Noise is described as a celebration of the African diaspora and wider Black communities across Ireland. Drawing inspiration, in part, from the spirit of AfroPunk, it looks to explore how creativity can bring people together during moments of uncertainty and social fracture.

Twenty artists, including Claxton, Kofi Jezille, O.A., Salem Anowe Chukwuezi, Rebecca Ruth Ewnetu, Tessy Ehiguese and Winifred Otowa will have works on display. Moreblessing Chigwedere is the show’s assistant curator.

Black Noise is dedicated to George Nkencho, and will run until 25 June.

For more information, follow Claxton here and GalleryX here.

Make Strange by Niamh Campbell

Also this evening, Rooney Prize-winning author Niamh Campbell will be in Books Upstairs to launch her new book Make Strange.

Her third novel, Make Strange is about a young couple, Lena and Odhran, whose four-year-old daughter Sunny claims to remember her own death. Her parents are left desperate for answers as, over the course of the next year, Sunny refers repeatedly to her past lives and how they ended.

Is their daughter suffering from disassociation or has she been contaminated by her parents' haunted histories: Lena’s time as a musician in the indie sleaze era or the shady legacy of madness in Odhran’s family?

All of this, and more will be revealed at 6:30pm today, Thursday 4 June, with author Anne Enright dropping in to introduce the novel.

To reserve a seat, visit Books Upstairs's website here.

re:verb

On Friday and Saturday, experimental poet and former member of the Fingal Libraries team Christodoulos Makris is piloting re:verb, a new festival of contemporary poetry and the verbal arts.

Organised as a series of live readings that will take place this Friday in Kirkos on Little Green Street on, the inaugural session will feature poet and Dwelling author Máighréad Medbh, and poet and Dublin City University English lecturer Kit Fryatt at 5pm.

Then, at 7:30pm, poet, theatre translator, theatre-maker and performer Mai Ishikawa, and cross-disciplinary artist and writer Suzanne Walsh are billed to appear.

On Saturday 5 June, poet and writer Jazmine Linklater and multidisciplinary writer Joanna Walsh will be appearing at 2:30pm, followed by author Alice Lyons and writer and songwriter Maija Makela at 5pm. Finally, at 7:30pm, poet Ellen Dillon and assistant progressor of creative writing in University College Dublin and Pattern-book author Éireann Lorsung will see the festival off.

Unfortunately, the full two-day festival tickets have now sold out. But, there are still tickets available for each individual event here.

For more information and for updates, follow Makris on Instagram here or on his Blogspot blog here.

These Four Walls

On Saturday afternoon, a terraced bungalow in The Coombe will be the site of a new group exhibition which explores the increasing scarcity of domestic, social and creative spaces in Dublin.

Hosted and curated by Sadbh O’Brien, These Four Walls uses a DIY approach to highlight the potential of creative work in alternative spaces. Featuring pieces by visual artists Matthew Coll, Alex de Roeck, Alex Keatinge, Jack Ó Meara, Eileen O’Sullivan and Joanne Reid, the artworks “enter a dialogue with the tensions arising in the contemporary lived experience of late stage capitalism”.

The exhibition will run from Saturday 6 June to Wednesday 10 June. To get the address, contact O’Brien via her Instagram here. Visiting hours will vary as the bungalow has limited space. To book an appointment and for more information, visit click here.

These Four Walls opens at 12pm on Saturday. At 7pm, O’Brien and co will be holding a drinks reception at 7pm at Lucky’s on Meath Street. 

The Dead Zoo in Blue

Remember Ishmael Claxton? That’s right, he’s back again.

The artist and curator is also currently staging an exhibition of his photo series The Dead Zoo in Blue at the Dead Zoo Lab in the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks.

Published as a book earlier this year by The Library Project, The Dead Zoo in Blue book saw Claxton immerse himself in the spaces and collections of the Dead Zoo, bringing his own unique perspective as an African American living in Ireland to the images he captured.

Through the use of blue-tinted filmstock – a reference to the Irish term for black person “duine gorma” or “blue person” – this considered medium portrays an atmosphere that normal photography cannot evoke, and proves a new visual perspective on the animals and spaces.

This considered medium and careful lighting “paints” an atmosphere that normal photography is unable to evoke, providing a new visual perspective on the animals and spaces – creating something unique. And, between here and Sunday 7 June, you will be able to see the works themselves on display in the Dead Zoo Lab.

For more information on the Dead Zoo Lab, visit its website here, and to get a copy of Claxton’s The Dead Zoo in Blue, head on over to the Library Project’s shop here.

Acts of Defiance

Last week, photographer Rose Comiskey launched her new photobook Acts of Defiance, a visual record of the Irish Women’s Movement and the collective acts of protest that shaped modern Ireland.

The images compiled in the book were taken by Comiskey between 1984 and 1992, and capture protests from the reproductive rights campaign, Ronald Reagan’s visit to Ireland, and the Dunnes Stores strike against goods from Apartheid-era South Africa. Alongside these photographs, Comiskey includes testimonies from people who participated in these struggles such as Ivana Bacik, Pauline Conroy, Ita Gannon, Paula Meehan, Rosemary McCluskey, and Kate Shanahan.

You can purchase a copy of Acts of Defiance here.

Come join us!

In seven sessions, members of our team will teach skills and knowledge that could be used in journalism, but also just by people who are involved in their communities and trying to make them better places.

Saturday 27 June and Sunday 28 June, mostly at 10-13 Thomas Street, in the Digital Hub, in Dublin 8. Tickets are €50 per session – pick as many or as few as you like.

Learn more

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The Strike

On Wednesday 17 June, there will be a screening of the feature documentary The Strike at the Maxwell Theatre in Trinity College.

The Strike tells the story of a generation of Californian men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, inspired by the Irish hunger strikers, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.

The screening will include a post-film panel with the filmmakers and formerly incarcerated strike activists.

The Strike will screen at 2pm. Tickets are free and can be reserved here.

Curepedia – The Story of the Cure

On Sunday 14 June, ahead of the Cure’s sold out Marlay Park show, music writer Simon Price will be interviewed by Dan Hegarty about his book Curepedia – The Story of the Cure at the Pavillion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire.

The conversation will begin at 2pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Tickets are available here.

Ringsend Bloomsday 2026

Ringsend District Historical Society, with support from Dublin City Council’s South East Area team, will be hosting their annual Bloomsday celebration from 11 to 16 June.

Among the events planned is the society’s launch of its book Our Writers in Bloom, a tour of St. Patrick’s Church, a lecture on the history of Irishtown Garda station, a boat cruise of Dublin Bay and a Joycean procession,

For more information, contact the society at ringsenddistricthistorical@gmail.com or visit the Bloomsday festival event page here.

St. Edmundsbury re-zoning protest

On Tuesday 16 June, locals in Lucan will be protesting the rezoning of lands at St Edmundsbury, Liffey Valley.

The meeting will take place at 3pm just inside the main entrance to St. Edmundsbury.

For more information, visit the Save St. Edmundsbury campaign’s Facebook group here.