Emer Dineen’s 0800 Cupid at Dublin Theatre Festival. A glorious, life-affirming musical, inspired by Dineen’s experience of growing up queer in London, and one I look forward to witnessing again.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the 02. One can disagree with Mr Cave’s stance on the cultural boycott of Israel – he’s very much against it – and still revel in the communal joy of a live concert with a Seeds line-up that included the mercurial Warren Ellis on violin (and banana) and Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on bass.
The RDS Visual Art Awards 2024 at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin features the work of ten recent art graduates from around the country, including Sorcha Browning from the Sherkin Island BAVA programme and Fionn Timmins from the Crawford in Cork. An electrifying display of new and emerging talent.
Galway’s annual TULCA Festival of Visual Arts ran in November, curated by Michele Horrigan under the title The Salvage Agency. Exhibitions were sited all over the city, and included work by artists living and dead, including the late Lily van Oost from the Black Valley in Co Kerry. Felled by a bout of ‘flu, I missed attending.
The Cork-born visual artist Dorothy Cross’s Kinship initiative, involving the restitution of a 2,000-year-old mummy in the possession of University College Cork to the Museum of Egypt, has been one of the most fascinating art projects of recent years. I was delighted to interview Dorothy at various stages of the project, most recently after the departure of the mummy on an Egypt Air flight to Cairo on December 12.
Michael G Hall’s The Untold Story of the O’Sullivan Beare. I’m biased, of course – the whole tragic saga of the O’Sullivan Beares played out on my doorstep – but Michael’s book explores what became of the clan in the 17th century, and illuminates the politics and drama of that era in Ireland like no other historical work of recent years.
Claire Keegan is finally getting the recognition she deserves for her wonderful fiction. Small Things Like These, the film of her 2021 novella, stars Cillian Murphy, hot off the heels of his Oscar success with Oppenheimer, and his Disco Pigs co-star, Eileen Walsh. So small a country, so many world-class talents.
One Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix. This had the potential to ruin my relationship with what I consider to be one of the grandest works of fiction in existence. I’m four episodes in – eking out the experience – and thankfully, any quibbles I’d have are very minor indeed.
The DOMINION exhibition, at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in London, was drawn from the artist’s personal collection. Some highlights included Marcus Harvey’s notorious portrait of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley, comprised of children’s handprints; Francis Bacon’s painting Crucifixion; and Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture Comedy, which features a banana duct taped to the wall.
The absence of red dots at exhibition openings, due to lack of sales. The wisest investors in art are never those who spend millions on an Andy Warhol at auction, but those who picked up his work for a pittance when it was first shown.
Radical! Women Artists and Modernism, 1910 – 1950 runs at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria from 18th June – 12th October 2025. Featured are Kathe Kollwitz, Lotte Laserstein, Tamara de Lempicka and 27 other artists whose oeuvres were largely overlooked in their lifetimes. In Vienna, one of Europe’s most elegant cities. I’m there.