'Hostages set fire to little fuses that are still fizzing in my head'

What were your cultural highlights for 2016?

Anohni's Hopelessness turned out to be the most sublime, powerful and heartbreaking protest album in years. The opening scene in Anu's These Rooms is as good a piece of theatre as I've seen. Oisin Fagan's anarchic book Hostages set fire to little fuses that, months later, are still fizzing in my head. Happy Valley was the most thrilling TV show of the year.

And Drop Everything delivered the best arts event in the most outstanding scenery imaginable. Who doesn't want to climb into a sauna at midnight on a beach in Inisheer? Seeing Björk play a brilliantly diverse DJ set at the Red Bull Music Academy in Toronto was only upstaged by an outstanding session with Pauline Oliveros, who discussed her Deep Listening Institute at length.

And what let you down?

Amid all the deaths, Pauline Oliveros quietly slipping off, just weeks after her RBMA appearance, was desperately sad.

What was the dominant plot twist of 2016?

You can barely move on a TV or film screen these days without getting sucked into a time-travel plot device (I won't name names for fear of the spoiler police). It might be a great way of dodging an explanation about your rickety plot, but unless it's as clever as, say, Grant Morrison's 1990s graphic novel series The Invisibles, it's probably best left to Dr Who.

How did our centenary celebrations strike you?

Well-planned, dignified and not in thrall to dogma. It was also terrific to see many of the women involved in the Rising getting their much-belated cultural due. It could be another 100 years before anyone suggests a new project about the life and times of Roger Casement.

What will be your cultural resolution for 2016?

I’m mortified by how few gigs I saw this year that weren’t at a festival, which is hardly the best place to appreciate an act.

2016 in three words?

Nation once again?