Things To Do: Take a deep breath, process the end of the world, experience time travel in a Cornish harbour

Our Picks

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

Materia

A new group exhibition on the subject of forestry will be opening down Temple Lane in TØN Gallery this evening.

Materia is a collaborative show, put together by Colin Mac Suibhne, Anthony O’Connor and Steve Doogan, and which offers a collection of artistic reactions to the Irish attitude towards forestry, both as an ecology and a material resource.

The show takes as a site of study the Gearagh in Cork, Ireland’s last primeval forest, which was flooded in 1954 during the construction of Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra Hydro-Electric Dams.

Featuring installations and a short film shot by O’Connor, who previously acted as videographer for Eva Richardson McCrea’s film The Decameron / Na Deich Lá, Materia is described as an exhibition devoted to care.

It opens this evening (Thursday, 22 October) at 6pm, and will run until 31 October.

Plantation

While we have you in Temple Bar, it might be an idea to drop into Project Arts Centre afterwards.

At 6pm, artist Rehana Zaman will be unveiling Plantation, her new solo exhibition which explores land use, labour and environmental collapse through the experience of agricultural workers.

Plantation looks at the nature of work on modern industrial farms that are driven by the accumulation of profit, extractive processes that exhaust and deplete both land and worker, and an increasingly precarious labour force positioned according to class and caste.

It will feature two new films that are presented within an immersive sculptural landscape, and which were filmed in Angus, Scotland and Punjab, Pakistan.

Attendance is free, and the exhibition will then run from 23 October until 19 December between 11am and 6pm on Mondays to Saturdays.

For more information, visit the Plantation event page here.

Born In Dublin

Earlier today, a brand new exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Coombe Hospital opened in the Little Museum of Dublin.

Born in Dublin tells the story of one of the country’s oldest maternity hospitals and the people, the milestones and healthcare advances that shaped the Coombe over the course of two centuries.

Among the figures and innovations it will celebrate are Dr Francis Rynd, the consulting surgeon who is credited with inventing the hypodermic needle, Dr John Drumm who pioneered the use of Doppler ultrasound to assess blood flow in the umbilical cord, and the opening of the hospital’s Family Planning Clinic in the early 1970s.

A special commemorative coffee-table book, The Coombe Hospital: 1826-2026, written by Michael O’Dowd is also available to purchase at the Little Museum of Dublin’s shop.

For more information, visit the museum’s website here.

Beyond the End

Tuesday isn’t a good day to start contemplating the end of the week. But, thanks to the problem of induction and philosopher Bertrand Russell, there is no reason why it wouldn’t be a good day to contemplate the end of the world.

After all, it was Russell who reminded us that there is no guarantee that the sun will rise tomorrow purely because it has risen every single morning prior since the dawn of time.

With that in mind, it might be nice to drop into the Trinity Long Room Hub on Tuesday evening for the launch of Beyond the End, a new podcast which is devoted to the end of the world.

Produced by PhD researchers Irene Barbotti, Hairuo Wang, Simon Brummer, and Maicol Cortes, Beyond the End asks how beliefs around the end of the world have shaped human imagination, religious traditions and social life. 

The launch will kick off on Tuesday (27 October) at 5.30pm in the Neill Lecture Theatre. Admission is free, but booking is required and can be done here.

Rose of Nevada

Back in the autumn of 2019, the Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin released Bait, a dark and unsettling drama which explored the gentrification of a small fishing village.

Written, directed, edited and scored by Jenkin, the film earned praise from critics, chief among them Mark Kermode, who named it one of the best British films of the decade.

Earlier this year, Jenkin returned with Rose of Nevada. Similar to Bait, the film brings its audience into a struggling Cornish fishing village as a fishing vessel, the Rose of Nevada, mysteriously reappears in the harbour after it vanished three decades prior.

Locals decide to send the boat back out to sea again in the hopes that it may bring the village good fortune. But, when the crew return home with their haul, they discover that they’ve slipped back in time, and meet the villagers who greet them as if they are the original crew.

Presuming the sun rises again, this Wednesday, 28 October, the Light House Cinema is hosting a special screening of the film, at which Mark Jenkin and his collaborator Dion Star will be performing its score live.

Using improvised and composed pieces assembled from tape machines, synthesizers, guitars, feedback and field recordings, the pair will reimagine the film’s original soundtrack under the banner of The Cornish Sound Unit.

Rose of Nevada will show at 8pm on Wednesday. Tickets are available here.

Rest/Reset

Last Thursday, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’s Humanarium on St Stephen’s Green launched a brand new exhibition devoted to the science of breathing.

Using interactive exhibits, Breathe looks at our respiratory systems, the treatments used to help people breathe more easily, and the everyday choices that we can make to support good respiratory health throughout our lives.

As a tie-in event, next Thursday, the Humanarium will be hosting Rest/Reset, an evening of music, relaxation and science as part of its recurring Late at 118 series.

On the bill is the gothic folk songwriter Maria Somerville whose dreamy Connemara-inspired second album Luster earned her widespread acclaim last year. Somerville, who also regularly DJs on the online radio platform NTS, will be spinning a special “lying down” DJ set down in the basement auditorium in which attendees are encouraged to get horizontal on yoga mats and breathe deeply.

The RCSI’s Dr Ronan Lordan, a researcher specialising in circadian biology, aging, metabolism, and nutritional pharmacology, will be explaining how we can optimise our body clocks and delving into what types of sleepers we really are.

Movement coach Andy Myers of the Movement Studio will also be showing how to get the most out of lying down, and visitors will also be able to see how our brains and bodies respond to rest and relaxation in the centre’s Recharge Lab with demos from a few of the RCSI’s scientists.

Rest/Reset will kick off at 6.30pm on Thursday, 29 October. Admission is free, but booking is essential. Reserve a spot here.

ADVERTISEMENT

If you're irritated by ghost buses, and cancelled buses, you might want to check out our new t-shirts.

Shop here

Noticeboard

Listings of events submitted by readers – you can submit yours for next week's newsletter, via this form.

Rathmines Post Office temporary community-use expression of interest

Dublin City Council is inviting expressions of interest from community organisations seeking to deliver services in the former Rathmines Post Office.

They will welcome applications from community and voluntary organisations, social enterprises, registered charities, cultural organisations, businesses and other suitably constituted groups.

The deadline for all applications is Friday, 13 November at noon.

For more information and to apply, visit the council’s expression of interest page here.

GPO complex opens space for culture to support communities

The Office of Public Works, in collaboration with Dublin City Council, is inviting expressions of interest from community groups, voluntary organisations and not-for-profit bodies to occupy and activate space on the first and second floors of the General Post Office for a period of three years.

The spaces will be offered in turnkey condition and unfurnished.

Expressions of Interest should be submitted by close of business on 18 November to GPOtemporaryuse@opw.ie.

For more information, visit the OPW website here.

Big Scream Halloween Festival returns to Dublin's north-east inner-city

Zombies, Dracula, creepy carnival fun and a whole lot of Halloween mischief are taking over Dublin's north-east inner-city 19-31 October.

From Horrible History Walks and Monto's haunted past to a Haunted House of Horrors, Halloween crafts, Fright Night Bingo and traditional music with FARÓ, there's something for every ghoul and goblin, Dublin City Council says.

Big Scream festival events are free. Some activities require advance registration, while selected events are private or invitation-only. Check individual listings before attending. Details here.