Things To Do: Put everything in the paper shredder, read about dancing and see one of our reports on the big screen

Our Picks

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

We Used To Dance Here

Over in Hen’s Teeth this evening, writer and filmmaker Dave Tynan is launching his debut collection of short stories: We Used To Dance Here.

Published by Granta, the book chronicles life in the city between 2016 and 2020, exploring “life on the margins, toxic masculinity and frustrated ambitions.” To celebrate its release, Tynan will be joined by the author Sarah Maria Griffin, whose book Eat The Ones You Love came out earlier this year.

The pair will be chatting about books. Tynan will be signing copies of We Used To Dance Here, and then he’ll be spinning records alongside Antonio Ó’Duibhir of Sonntags.

The event is on at 6pm, and admission is free. But, if you can’t make it down to the party, Tynan’s book is on sale now too. So you can tell people that you were there.

For more information, visit the Hen’s Teeth website here.

A R C H I P E L A G O, Royal Hibernian Academy

On Friday, the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts launches A R C H I P E L A G O, a major exhibition of Irish photography in its main gallery.

Organised in collaboration with the artist-led group Island Photographers, and curated by Davey Moor, the show will feature 17 artists whose work will explore “the poetry of the everyday, human and altered landscapes, identity, sexuality, borders both visible and invisible, and reflections on Ireland’s changing cultural spirit.”

Among those on the bill for what will be the largest group photography exhibition in the RHA are artists Conor Horgan, Jialin Long, Shane Lynam, Eimear Lynch, Fionn McCann and Agata Stoinska, the founder of the now closed D-Light Studios.

Stoinska will be showing her new project Echoes of a Dream, which directly reflects on the D-Light Studios’ closure, describing it as a “deeply personal yet universal meditation on grief, endings and new beginnings.”

A R C H I P E L A G O will be running in the RHA’s main gallery from 12 September to 25 October.

For more information, visit the Island Photographers website here.

Search Results, Whelan’s

Good guitar bands should always opt for names that don’t show up easily on Google, like Can or Pavement, or The Vaccines during the height of the pandemic.

And when it comes to names that don’t pass the search engine optimisation test, I’d rank high the lo-fi garage duo Search Results - or “search results dublin band”, as I often feel obliged to type.

After releasing Go Mutant, their second full length album, over the summer, the group has spared no time in making their return, having just dropped a surprise new single, “Excruciating Heights” yesterday. Or maybe it was just a surprise to me.

“Excruciating Heights” is a joyfully ramshackle mix of guitars, both jangly and screechy, bright organs and echoing vocals that feel like they were recorded down a hallway. It’s instantly memorable, and that’s a good thing, because you only have until tomorrow to learn all the lyrics.

They will be playing over in Whelan’s tomorrow night, Friday, 12 September, and tickets are available here.

The Cost of Asylum

If you’re a morning movie-goer, drop down to the Irish Film Institute on Saturday at noon for the IFI and DCU: Masters of Documentary Shorts Programme.

Part of this year’s IFI documentary festival, this event will see a series of shorts documentaries by students on the DCU School of Communications’ masters course: Documentary Practice.

Among those set to be screened as part of the event is The Cost of Asylum by Joshua Perry and Lisa Maslovskaya, which tells the story of Joseph Sesay, an electrician from Sierra Leone, who was attempting to get hired for work when the state ordered his deportation.

Sesay’s story was previously told by our own reporter Shamim Malekmian back in November.

Masters of Documentary Shorts Programme will be screening at 12pm. Tickets are available here.

Shredder

We’re smack bang in the middle of the Dublin Fringe Festival, and while there are no shortage of recommendations, the one that is at the top of my list of priorities this week is Shredder by the artist and writer David McGovern.

Written and performed by McGovern, Shredder has one of those wonderfully vague central premises that will appeal to anybody who would regard watching cold openings from episodes of The X-Files as a hobby.

A man has a shredder. “He shreds the news,” the description says. “He shreds fascist propaganda. He shreds AI slop. He shreds recipes. He shreds his holiday photos. He shreds your holiday photos.”

An “absurd reimagining of our information society,” Shredder draws influence from science fiction, and invites the audience to go off-grid and question what they need in their lives, because the rest is going in the shredder. And, as someone who hoards clothes tags and the pamphlets distributed by the O’Connell Street preachers, that feels like a question I ought to ponder.

Shredder will be on in Project Arts Centre between 17 and 20 September, with a preview on Tuesday, 16 September.

Tickets are available here.

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Richmond Barracks Harvest Fair

Richmond Barracks’ Harvest Fair is coming back to celebrate autumn, abundance and nature on 13 and 14 September.

Admission is free, and the fair promises creative workshops, stalls, music, food and drinks.

The Harvest Fair will begin at Richmond Barracks in Inchicore at 11am on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, visit their page here.

Paddy: The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong

Inspired by Paddy Armstrong’s memoir Life After Life, a Guildford Four Memoir, Don Wycherley’s new one-man show dramatises the life of Paddy Armstrong, one of four men wrongly accused of bombing the Guildford Pub.

Taking place fifty years after Armstrong’s wrongful conviction, Paddy looks at its titular character in his twilight years as he wrestles with thousands of turbulent memories.

Paddy: The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong will be staged in the Sean O’Casey Theatre on 1 and 9 October. Tickets are available here.

Buzzfest

Buzzfest, Phibsboro’s community sustainability and biodiversity festival is returning for its ninth year on Saturday, 4 October.

Taking place in Phibsboro Library and Gardens and the Scout Hall, the event promises a wide range of stalls, talks, workshops, music and food from 12.30pm to 4pm.

For more information, visit the Buzzfest webpage here.

Last Gig Ever

Agents & Juice will be making their Irish debut at the Dublin Fringe Festival with their dance-theatre piece Last Gig Ever.

A heart pounding, physical dive into the highs and lows of contemporary nightlife and DJ culture, the show will be on in Smock Alley between 17 and 20 September.

Tickets are available here.