Things To Do: The One Where We Don’t Just Recommend Culture Night

Our Picks

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

Trumpets

If you’re in the city centre this evening, director and dramatist Yvonne McDevitt’s film, Trumpets will be screening in the Irish Film Institute (IFI).

Her second feature-length after 2013’s 2Graves, Trumpets tells the story of Magda, a Polish immigrant who, after travelling to Italy on the anniversary of her son’s death, returns to her home in Donegal where she has a life-changing encounter with a refugee from Rwanda. It is described by the IFI as a piece of “exquisitely slow, contemplative cinema”, and McDevitt will be in attendance to give a Q&A after the screening,

Trumpets is on at 6.20pm today, Thursday 18 September. Tickets are available here.

Oisín: A Modern Retelling of the Story of Tír na nÓg

A lot has happened since we joined Niall Morahan, also known as Blue Niall, on a post-St. Patrick’s Day 2024 stroll around the National Museum of Ireland. At the time, he was gradually unveiling his multi-media project Oisín: A Modern Retelling of the Story of Tír na nÓg, which – across music, videos and a graphic novel – fused his own biography of migration with the myth of Tír na nÓg and lined it with a heavy dose of political satire.

Since then, Morahan has blossomed into something of a meme-master general, with his particular forte being cultural and political commentary. I would strongly advise you to give that a gander here.

On Friday, 19 September, as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, he will be joining up with visual artist and frequent collaborator St. Diabhal for a live version of Oisín at the Racket Space in the basement of the new Bernard Shaw. The show, which will run from 7pm to 10pm promises a blend of hip hop, Irish traditional music and Celtic illustrations as it reimagines the story of Tír na nÓg as told through the eyes of a returning emigrant.

Tickets are €18, and you can purchase them here.

Material Acts

Last Thursday, artist Kathryn Maguire launched Material Acts in Pallas Projects/Studios.

The sixth exhibition in Pallas’ Artist-Initiated Projects programme for 2025, Maguire’s work examines minerals as both ritualistic and magical objects, and as extractable commodities. Assembled from her research into minerals, 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps and mining, the sculptural exhibition delves into contemporary practices of mapping and modelling through the use of geodata and 3D printing.

Building upon this work, for Culture Night on Friday, Pallas will be hosting a talk by Patrick Roycroft, a geologist and the keeper of the Earth Sciences Collection at the National Museum of Ireland. From 7pm, Roycroft will be discussing Irish minerals and rare earth materials

Tickets are available here, while Maguire’s exhibition is running until 27 September.

Barrelling

The joy of experimental drummer Jason McNamara is that you never know where or when he’ll appear. It could be at a gig or a festival, or on one of several streets around the city centre, and like the beats he hammers out, there’s no guarantee that he’ll stick around in the same spot for too long. One day, you’ll see him on Grafton Street. Then, it could be two months before he’s sighted again on Grattan Bridge or O’Connell Street.

As the weather slowly deteriorates around all of us however, the likelihood of spotting him around will probably decrease. But fortunately, under the moniker of Barrelling, he has released a new album, Street Tape One.

Recorded on Westmoreland Street and Grattan Bridge over two nights in June, Street Tape One is a collage of feral and erratic rhythms, drum sticks pounded against pavement, glitchy synths, distorted samples, passers-by chattering drunkenly and Luas bells clanging.

It is the fifth album he has released this year, and arguably quite a good point of entry for anyone who is in search of a good music rabbit hotel to go down this weekend.

Street Tape One is streaming on Bandcamp here.

Sounds Sketchy

On Sunday evening, the Irish Composers’ Collective (ICC) will convene in Kirkos Ensemble’s new Unit 44 venue on 1 Little Green Street to unveil their latest show, Sounds Sketchy.

Over the last few months, the ICC has been developing a new series of works for electric guitar, all of which incorporates elements of graphic score writing into their compositions.

In other words, the composers aren’t just using conventional sheet music with standard musical notation. Instead, they’ll be deploying more subjective directions across a range of visual media, which guitarist Barry O’Halpin of Crash Ensemble has been tasked with interpreting on this particular occasion.

Sounds Sketchy will begin at 4pm on Sunday, 21 September. Tickets are available here.

Tangent

Since last November, the Mish.Mash cafe on Capel Street has been hosting Tangent, a creative writing meet-up for writers, poets, storytellers and songwriters. It’s aimed at “creatives of all kinds”, with a particular emphasis on those who don’t refer to themselves as a “creative”, which is a position we can all get behind.

All of this is to say that Tangent is set to host its seventh meet-up on Tuesday evening. Beginning at 6.30pm, their sessions encourage attendees to assemble ideas through free-writing periods, conversations and prompts, as well as imagery or phrases that tie into a monthly theme.

And the beauty is, you aren’t obliged to share what you’ve written. All you need to do is bring some writing materials.

Tickets are available here. For more information, follow Tangent on Instagram.

The Known and Unknown World

Anyone who has followed our Brushing Up series on the stories behind works of art may be familiar with the name Georgie McCutcheon.

A painter, sculptor and activist in the field of disability and the arts, McCutcheon featured in the series when we looked at a limestone relief that he created, and which is installed above the entrance to the Academy music venue on Middle Abbey Street.

Last week, it came as a great surprise to spot the late artist’s name on show over at the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts as part of a new group exhibition titled The Known and Unknown World.

A twenty-fifth-anniversary celebration of the Kilkenny arts centre KCAT, which McCutcheon helped to found, this new show features his paintings and sculptures alongside a plethora of other pieces by KCAT artists, including Andrew Pike, Brianna Hurley and Mary Cody.

Curated by Benjamin Stafford, The Known and Unknown World will be on show in the RHA until 26 October.

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Open House 2025

The Irish Architecture Foundation has announced the programme for this year’s Open House festival of architecture, taking place between 11 and 19 October.

The nine-day programme, which can be seen here, promises a range of new events including guided tours of the General Post Office, the Docklands Municipal Water Sports Centre and Dublin Airport’s Old Central Terminal Building.

The Sound of Silence, Jennifer Hart

From Friday, 3 October, artist Jennifer Hart will showcase a selection of her paintings in The Sound of Silence, her new solo exhibition at the Reds Gallery.

Using vibrant colour and realism, Hart transforms everyday scenes into unexpected visual experiences, often incorporating phantasmagorical elements that challenge conventional perceptions.

Curated by Tony Strickland, The Sound of Silence will run until Wednesday, 8 October.

Ovation! AIMS – Association of Irish Musical Societies – 60th Birthday Celebration

AIMS, the Association of Irish Musical Societies is celebrating its 60th anniversary at the Convention Centre on Saturday, 11 October.

Bringing together more than 130 amateur musical societies, the show will celebrate musicals in all their forms, including Miss Saigon, Matilda and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Tickets are €65 and are available here.

LambaZouk Workshop and Party

On 19 September at Inchicore Sports and Social, Zouk Dublin will be hosting a night of dance, music and community.

Featuring a Lambada workshop and a LambaZouk party (50 percent Zouk, 50 percent Lambada), tickets are free, with any donations being used to support the Dublin Dance Growth Funds.