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Networking doesn’t always come easily to artists, but as Irish performers broaden their horizons at this week’s music dance and theatre showcases in New York, they’re proving pretty good at it

SINCE LAST WEEK, they’ve been packing the flights from Dublin to JFK, buzzing in the bars and theatre lobbies of Manhattan, and making their way into the columns of the New York Times– it’s that time of year again, when Culture Ireland brings an army of Irish performers and promoters to the city that never sleeps and that expects its artists to maintain an equal level of insomnia. At the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Apap) conference, at the Under the Radar and Coil theatre festivals, and at a series of showcases in theatre, music and dance, some 100 Irish performers and promoters have been getting stuck into the sometimes difficult business of making themselves known.