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The telling of intimate stories, presentation of alternative tales and highlighting of undervalued and/or under-represented communities: the Irish Film Institute’s annual documentary festival always provides great insight into a variety of topics and subjects. This year’s festival of 14 documentary features includes two world premieres and seven Irish premieres, as well as several post-screening Q&A sessions with film-makers. Feature highlights include The Song Cycle, directed by Nick Kelly (Friday, September 27th, 6.20pm), Housewife of the Year, directed by Ciarán Cassidy (Saturday, September 28th, 3.30pm) and The Ban, directed by Róisín Agnew (Sunday, September 29th, 1.10pm).
Premieres of new Irish work feature strongly at this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival, with Ross Dungan, Kate Heffernan, Caitlin Magnall-Kearns, Amy Kidd and Dee Roycroft making their festival debuts as writers. International highlights include Benji Reid’s multidisciplinary Find Your Eyes. The festival’s opening production is Nobodaddy, a large-scale new dance work by Michael Keegan-Dolan and Teach Damhsa, with music by Sam Amidon.
[ Motion and emotion: Watching as Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Nobodaddy takes shape at Teach DamhsaOpens in new window ]
Ireland loved Leonard Cohen, and, with a dozen appearances here between 2008 and 2013, it’s safe to say that Cohen had a genuine affinity with Ireland. On what would have been the Canadian songwriter and poet’s 90th birthday, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Maloney, intensifies its strings and gathers guest singers to celebrate the great man’s music. Performers include Mick Flannery, Suzanne Savage, Phelim Drew and Jess Kav.
Voluntary performances by all the musicians involved add weight to the importance of this fundraiser for the nonprofit organisation Middle East Children’s Alliance. Stepping up on stage to have their voices heard are trad-music royalty Paddy Glackin, Sean Potts and the Donegal Gaeltacht sisters Tríona and Mairghead Ní Dhomhnaill. The actor Stephen Rea will present spoken word, while the Irish-Palestinian singer Róisín El Cherif, Jim Page and Damien Dempsey will deliver the songs. Dr Mona El Farra, the alliance’s director of Gaza projects, will speak about the tragic situation for children there.
Ever the chameleon, Marc Almond might be best known by the casual music lover as half of the UK electro-pop unit Soft Cell, but avid fans will know him as a quality interpreter of other people’s material. Almond’s latest tour promotes his recently released album, I’m Not Anyone, on which he covers 11 songs you may not have even heard the first time around. (Blue Cheer, King Crimson, Colin Blunstone, anyone?) Not that it matters: Almond is a true-blue pro, so he won’t have the hits Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, Torch and Tainted Love locked up for too long.
[ Marc Almond: ‘I was hysterical about everything. Everything was total drama’Opens in new window ]
“I want to uncover, rediscover, dismantle and reassemble songs ‘before your very eyes’, as stage magicians used to announce before their next trick.” So says Elvis Costello, who, with his trusted friend and colleague Steve Nieve, returns to Dublin for four shows that are loosely structured yet dig deep into his significant, ridiculously diverse back catalogue. Based on the pair’s inventive nights at the National Concert Hall last year, they’ll feature songs you’re very familiar with and some you might have to Shazam. Whatever way the mop flops, if you’re a long-term admirer you’re in for a treat.
[ Elvis Costello: ‘If I knew how to have success with songs I probably wouldn’t be speaking to you now’Opens in new window ]
Ireland is, naturally enough, first in line as Sally Rooney begins a global promotional tour for her new novel, Intermezzo, which follows her international bestsellers Conversations with Friends, Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You. Teasing out the granular intricacies with the author of a work about bereavement, siblings, family relationships and romantic trysts is the Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole. The audience will be able to buy copies of the novel a few days ahead of its publication next Tuesday.
[ Sally Rooney: ‘There is something Christian about my work, even if I would not describe myself as religious’Opens in new window ]
Three virtuosic musicians – the fiddler (and former Planxty member) Nollaig Casey, the nimble-fingered guitarist Niall McCabe, and Mike McGoldrick, a master of the wooden flute, low whistle and uilleann pipes – kick off a tour of dates featuring ensemble tunes plus world premieres of Music Network commissions by each of the trio. The tour concludes with a show at St Michael’s Church in Waterville, Co Kerry, on Sunday, October 6th.
A picturesque east Co Cork seaside village, a carefully restored 19th-century church (St Colman’s), a charming traditional pub (the Blackbird) and a programme of Irish comedians? The reasons to attend the fourth Ballycotton Comedy Festival are further boosted by shows from John Colleary, Danny O’Brien, Emma Doran, Laura O’Mahoney and Ross Browne.
Galway Comedy Festival, October 22nd-28th, galwaycomedyfestival.ie
West Wicklow Festival, Tulfarris, Co Wicklow, November 14th-17th, westwicklowfestival.com
Bell X1 and the Theodora Byrne Ensemble, Helix, Dublin, December 20th-21st, ticketmaster.ie
Dua Lipa, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, June 27th, ticketmaster.ie
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