Event of the week
Lana Del Rey
Monday, June 30th, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 5pm, €176.75/€126.25/€106.25/€89.50 (sold out) ticketmaster.ie
The queen of noir romance and melancholia returns for her biggest headline appearance in Ireland. It’s perhaps a risk to bring her predominantly languid, low-key style to as enormous a setting as the Aviva Stadium, which is better suited to banger-oriented pop and rock. But Del Rey is used to big venues: when she played at the 3Arena in Dublin in 2023, it became a full-throttle love-in, the crowd belting out the lyrics to every song she performed. That show, which she announced only 10 days in advance, also featured a swirl of vocalists and backing dancers, there to make it more of a spectacle. So expect something similar on this short tour of Ireland and Britain, plus, with luck, some of the tracks from Del Rey’s upcoming album.
Gigs
Alanis Morissette
Sunday, June 29th, Malahide Castle, Co Dublin, 4pm, €69.90/€59.90; Monday, June 30th, Belsonic, Belfast, 4pm, £81/£71, ticketmaster.ie
Thirty years ago this month the Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette released her game-changing third album, Jagged Little Pill. Its explicit confessional thrust is viewed not only as a landmark moment for the music industry but also as a significant influence on emerging female acts, inspiring them to more forcefully voice their opinions. There is still a lot to be angry about, Morissette recently told Elle magazine, “except now we’re conscientious as fuck.” Support comes from the US songwriter Liz Phair (one of Morissette’s pivotal early influences) and the ensemble group Irish Women in Harmony.
Joe Bonamassa plays Rory Gallagher
From Tuesday, July 1st, until Thursday, July 3rd, Live at the Marquee, Cork, 8pm, €82.55/€77.55, ticketmaster.ie
Arriving shortly after the 30th anniversary of Rory Gallagher’s death, these three shows pay tribute to one of Ireland’s earliest internationally successful rock stars. Gallagher’s influence on future generations of guitarists runs from Brian May of Queen and the Edge of U2 to Johnny Marr of The Smiths and James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers. Joe Bonamassa – “arguably the world’s biggest blues guitarist,” according to Guitar World – also fell under the spell of Gallagher’s artistry, and these shows will see the US musician rip through selections from the guitarist’s back catalogue. Special guests include Gallagher’s long-standing bandmate Gerry McEvoy.
Stage
The Pillowman
From Friday, July 4th (previews until Wednesday, July 9th), until Sunday, September 7th, Gate Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €26.50, gatetheatre.ie
Martin McDonagh’s Tony-nominated play from 2003 was revived in 2023 for a 12-week run in the West End of London, and the following year at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Now it’s the turn of the Gate, in Dublin, to tell the sometimes unsavoury story of two brothers, Katurian (Fra Fee) and Michal (Ryan Dylan), and their dysfunctional family background. The Olivier Award winner Lyndsey Turner directs. Aidan McArdle, Julian Moore-Cook and Jade O’Connor also feature.
Festival
Kaleidoscope
From Friday, July 4th, until Sunday, July 6th, Russborough House, Blessington, Co Wicklow, 1pm, €97.55/€72.55/€56.25, ticketmaster.ie
Ireland’s largest family-friendly summer festival returns with a mix of UK bands (Texas, Ocean Colour Scene), Irish acts (The Coronas, Riptide Movement, Hermitage Green, Jerry Fish), DJs (the Line of Duty actor Vicky McClure, Kelly-Anne Byrne, Calum Kieran) and an abundance of kids-oriented activities. These include a mini disco, children’s yoga, movie time, interactive workshops, circus, a reptile zoo, science and design.
Literature
Happy Ever After: Falling in Love with Irish Romance Fiction
From Friday, July 4th, until November, Museum of Literature Ireland, Dublin, moli.ie
The forgotten history of (and regular snide commentary on) Irish romance fiction is explored in this exhibition, which features work by pioneering writers (including Lady Morgan, Rosa Mulholland, Maeve Binchy and Edna O’Brien) and contemporary authors (including Deirdre Purcell, Kate Kerrigan, Patricia Scanlan, Marian Keyes, Sally Rooney and Cecelia Ahern). The exhibition is curated by Paige Reynolds, professor of English at Holy Cross College, in Massachusetts, and author of Modernism in Irish Women’s Contemporary Writing: The Stubborn Mode.
Exhibition
From Dickie to Richard: Richard Harris – Role of a Lifetime
From Friday, July 4th, until Sunday, November 16th, Hunt Museum, Limerick, €12.50/€10 (under 16s free), huntmuseum.com
Drawing on the extraordinary family archive that was donated to University College Cork in 2022, this exhibition celebrates the formidable life and career of the Limerick actor Richard Harris. All key points are covered, from his Oscar-nominated breakthrough performance, in the 1963 kitchen sink drama This Sporting Life, and his roles in Camelot (1967), The Field (1990), Unforgiven (1992), the first two Harry Potter films (2001-2002), to his Grammy-winning career as a different kind of pop singer in the late 1960s. The actor’s son, Jared Harris, will take part in a public interview nearby (at Belltable Arts Centre on Friday, July 4th, 6pm, €20) that will be followed by a screening of the documentary The Ghost of Richard Harris.
Musical
Only Fools and Horses
From Tuesday, July 1st, until Saturday, July 5th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, 7.30pm, €63.40/€52.30/€24.50, ticketmaster.ie
Del Boy, Rodders and Grandad: one of the most beloved of UK sitcoms of the past 40 years arrives in Ireland from a four-year run in the West End of London. Based on John Sullivan’s television series (and featuring a script and original music by Sullivan’s son, Jim, and the highly regarded comic actor Paul Whitehouse), it promises to offer Trotter fans a celebratory knees-up and a lovely-jubbly feelgood factor.
Still running
Hibernacle at Orlagh House
From Friday, July 4th, until Sunday, July 6th, Orlagh House, Rathfarnham, Dublin, 5pm, €65, hibernacle.ie
This three-day event at Orlagh House, an 18th-century Georgian mansion in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, is a byword for quality. An outdoor stage and various nooks and crannies will host music acts such as Villagers, Pillow Queens, Lisa Hannigan, Ye Vagabonds, Wallis Bird and Ailbhe Reddy. Over-18s only.
Book it this week
New Ross Piano Festival, New Ross, Co Wexford, September 24th-28th, newrosspianofestival.com
Write by the Sea, Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, September 26th-28th, writebythesea.ie
David McSavage, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, October 2nd, ticketmaster.ie
Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 7th, ticketmaster.ie
