Frontlines

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Down a medieval rabbit hole

You shouldn’t follow people who beckon you down dark alleyways, but in this case it is well worth the risk. Through a metal gate and under a stone archway, just off Kilkenny’s historic High Street, is reputedly the oldest townhouse in the country – the aptly-named Hole in the Wall.

Last weekend, on the opening night of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, this restored medieval building was packed to the rafters, with artists, writers, musicians and punters singing songs and raising glasses, with owner Michael Conway in fine form behind the bar.

Ten years ago, Conway, a cardiologist who works in Dublin, returned from Oxford and bought what he says was a “wreck . . . It had been minded but there was a tin roof, pigeons, the floor was crumbly, and it was damp and stinky. But there were features from 1582, fireplaces and beams, so we slowly pulled it all together and you can see what it might have been like then.”

Conway originally planned on two years’ work, but it has taken 10 – “it’s a national monument, you have to jump through every hoop and loop”. The rooms are filled with historic artefacts: guns poke out of corners; uniforms and pictures are pinned to the wall; one sign even advertises a sale of slaves. Every item has story to go with it, and Conway will reel them off date-perfect on request. And punters can rest easy in the knowledge that they are following in the barstools of former patrons such as the earl of Ormonde, Henry Grattan, and Sir Jonah Barrington.

Upstairs is a music venue that is quietly building up a loyal following, from listeners and performers alike. “Every person finds their voice in here, it’s the weirdest thing,” says Conway. “One or two guys, the right combination of people, and it’s just magic, there’s an energy here. It’s part of the tapestry of medieval Kilkenny. Somebody described it as a place for the smallest kind of gigs with the biggest performers.”

During the festival, the venue played host to Guo Yue, an author, chef and composer. “We turned the house into a kind of temple, and Guo stayed all night and then everyone got invited over to his restaurant in Kensington.”

Given that Conway is still working as a cardiologist, how is he managing to balance his commitments? “I’m not sure I’m finding the time; I think it’s burning me alive,” he laughs. “It is a struggle. It is a bit of magic, though, for everybody and all the people who come in.”

Wine, women and song, sore heads and sore throats, and all in a secret little location that has survived centuries, and is now the unofficial festival club of the Kilkenny Arts Festival?

It certainly sounds like a bit of magic.

The Hole in the Wall, 17 High Street, Kilkenny. Opens Wednesday from 6pm, and Friday to Sunday from 2pm, holeinthewall.ie

Laurence Mackin

Literary lunch

Never mind pre-theatre dining, at the beginning of September you can actually have lunch with actors, directors, writers and broadcasters. The Gúna Nua Theatre Co has gathered stars of the stage, art and media and beyond to host 12 tables at a fund-raising lunch in the Royal College of Physicians on Friday September 2nd.

Fellow diners include playwright Bernard Farrell, comedian Gary Cooke, journalist Fintan O’Toole, actors Geraldine Plunkett, Hilda Fay and Sorcha Furlong, author Deirdre Purcell, broadcaster John Murray, Crafts Council chair Laura Magahy and playwright and screen director Peter Sheridan. Broadcaster and Gúna Nua board member John Murray will be the MC. Paul Meade, artistic director of Gúna Nua, an independent theatre company, says: “The arts sector has been going through some very tough times and income raised through this ‘Glunch’ will support the funding of future shows.”

Email pmeade@gunanua.com, or tel: 01-6759921. Tickets are €100 each, which includes a cocktail reception and three-course lunch with wine.

Emma Cullinan

The way we were

Currently on display at the Norman Gallery in Enniscorthy is a haunting exhibition of photographs of rural Ireland by Carlow-based Gwen Wilkinson, who won this year’s Golden Fleece Award. Her black-and-white images of grandiose ruins, abandoned hillside cottages and architectural follies have been captured using a 1850s photographic process called tintype, which adds to their forlorn, melancholic quality. Called Edifice, the exhibition is about the feelings and memories these structures evoke; memories of conflict and struggle, of fortunes lost and gained. An arts graduate from UCG, Wilkinson spent five years working around the world on racing yachts, co-founded an education organisation in the US, and returned to study photography at Griffith College in Dublin. Since then she has made photographic documentaries about her travels in Argentina, Mongolia, Spain and Poland, and currently teaches photography in Kilkenny. Edifice runs until August 14th, see normangallery.com

Deirdre McQuillan

Sew Much Time is the apt title of an exhibition of colourful and individual textile work by a number of asylum seekers based in the Tower Sewing Club in Clondalkin. It opens this week in two locations: Pallas Projects in 23 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin; and the Intercultural Centre in Clondalkin village. The group of more than 20 people who come from varied backgrounds, and the clothes and textiles reflect their different traditions. The project has been run by artist Fiona Delaney. Sew Much Time runs until August 23rd.

Deirdre McQuillan

Farm festival

With so many small arts and music festivals going to the wall, it’s not the easiest time to start up a new event. But the organisers of the Stendhal Festival of Art, to be held on August 20th at Ballymully Cottage Farm in the Roe Valley, Co Derry, are determined that their inaugural one-day party will be a success. The festival’s curious name comes from the psychosomatic disorder Stendhal Syndrome – a profound experience of rapid heartbeat, dizziness and even hallucinations that may overtake an individual when exposed to a wide range of art. While festival-goers hopefully won’t be overwhelmed to the extent that they keel over, the programme is full to bursting. Turin Brakes headline the music stage; other acts include Swanee River, Gorgeous Colours, Rainy Boy Sleep and an an acoustic performance by Andy Irvine. Craft workshops, poetry sessions, dance performances and comedy sets are also in the line-up, and aspiring young rock stars will make a bee-line for the Wheelworks ArtCart Digital Music Workshop. Tickets are very reasonable, starting at £15 for a day pass, and £20 for two nights camping. The Stendhal Forever scheme means that anyone who buys tickets in two of the first three years the festival runs will get a free ticket for life. See stendhalfestival.com

Fionola Meredith

WORD ON THE STREET Marmite 

What it means:Coldplay are marmite. Lars von Trier is marmite. Lee Evans is marmite. No, it's not cockney rhyming slang. Marmite means you either love it or hate it – there's no in between. Used as an adjective, marmite can describe anything, from a band to a comedian or an app, that divides opinion right down the middle. "Our Edinburgh show was very marmite with critics: either four/five stars, or – a couple of times – one star," observed the producers of Fringe comedy show Choose Death, earlier this year. If you lived in Australia, you might prefer to use the adjective "Vegemite" instead.

Where it comes from:The well-known brand of yeast extract has been dividing opinion for aeons. Fans of the gooey brown paste say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and happily slather it all over their white pan. Detractors gag at the very mention of the stuff, and would rather starve than let it defile their lips. But rather than sulk in a dark, forgotten corner of the larder, the makers of Marmite decided to turn their love-it-or-hate-it nature into a virtue, basing their advertising campaign on the product's ability to completely polarise opinion. Now, the brand has been adopted by tastemakers as shorthand for anything that elicits diametrically opposed reactions.

If you read a critic describing a show as "Marmite", should you go and see it or give it a wide berth? Simple – just follow your taste buds.

How to say it: "Marmite: The Musical? Now, that will definitely divide the critics."

Kevin Courtney

Fit for a royal

The latest fan of Paula Rowan's ritzy leather gloves is Princess Charlene of Monaco, photographed here receiving the handy gifts from Aileen McQuaid, an Irishwoman living in Switzerland.

McQuaid and her husband Pat, who is on the International Olympics Committee (on which Prince Albert also serves), were guests at the royal wedding and celebrations, during which she presented the princess with Rowan's gloves.

McQuaid, a long-standing customer of Dublin-based Rowan, travels extensively and likes to wear and promote Irish fashion. She is currently introducing the glove brand to high-end ski resorts in Switzerland.

Deirdre McQuillan