'I have a huge connection with Galway'

Thu, Jul 26, 2018

THIS SATURDAY afternoon, at the Heineken Big Top in the Fisheries Field, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra extend An Invitation To The Dance for this year’s Proms Concert, jointly presented by the Galway International Arts Festival and the Róisín Dubh.

Sabina Niguez - casting a Spanish eye on Galwegian life

Thu, Jul 26, 2018

GALWAY HAS long prided itself on its historic Spanish links but an exhibition currently showing in the Black Gate makes a modern connection between Spain and the city. The work is by Spanish artist Sabina Niguez who hails originally from Alicante but has been living in Galway for the past four years.

'I’m always trying to create an eerie atmosphere in my work'

Thu, Jul 19, 2018

SINISTER, ABANDONED, fairgrounds; iconic Galway buildings, sharp and in detail, against the haze of a multi-coloured mist; young girls wandering in places where nature and urban landscapes share space uneasily - this is After The Future.

‘Opera has been well ahead of the Zeitgeist in embracing gender fluidity’

Thu, Jul 12, 2018

IT WAS the chance purchase of a recording of Orfeo ed Euridice which led PE teacher Sharon Carty on a path that has seen her become one of Ireland’s finest mezzo-sopranos, performing across Europe to great acclaim. This year, she takes the lead role in the opera where, for her, it all began.

Incantata and ‘reaching across the void’

Wed, Jul 11, 2018

THE SHOWPIECE theatre premiere in this year’s GIAF is the staging of Paul Muldoon’s great elegy Incantata, which the poet wrote in response to the death from cancer, in 1992, of his one-time lover, artist Mary Farl Powers, who was aged just 44.

Circuses, streets, and gardens - all part of GIAF magic

Tue, Jul 10, 2018

FROM ITS earliest days, Galway International Arts Festival has wowed audiences by transforming city streets into sites of magic and bringing the visual verve of circus to indoor venues. This year’s festival again delivers a feast of spectacle and who better to give the lowdown on the hoedown than GIAF artistic director, Paul Fahy.

'Orfeo ed Euridice is very much a spiritual journey'

Tue, Jul 10, 2018

THE MYTH of Orpheus and Eurydice has inspired countless artists down the centuries, including Ovid, Cocteau, Stravinsky, Titian, and Rodin. Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice is part of a rich and enduring artistic tradition and its exciting new staging from Irish National Opera, directed by Emma Martin, is a highlight of this year’s GIAF programme.

The 'joyful music' of Amadou & Mariam

Mon, Jul 09, 2018

MUSICAL MAGIC from Mali will be sure to light up the Heineken Big Top on Wednesday July 18 when husband and wife duo Amadou & Mariam unleash their irresistible brand of Afropop on Galway.

'Druid gets hundreds of scripts a year and only two are chosen for the Debuts'

Thu, Jul 05, 2018

THE WORLD premieres of two plays - Furniture by Sonya Kelly and Shelter by Cristín Kehoe - will be presented by Druid Theatre Company as part of this year's Galway International Arts Festival.

Baoite – 'a very human story'

Thu, Jul 05, 2018

AMONG THE exciting new plays being premiered at GIAF is Darach Mac Con Iomaire’s Baoite at An Taibhdhearc, a co-production with Abbey Theatre in association with the arts festival.

'The biggest thing the fleadh has going for it is Galway'

Thu, Jun 28, 2018

THE FULL programme for this year’s Galway Film Fleadh is unveiled this evening, Thursday June 28, at the Galmont Hotel and, under the stewardship of new programmer William Fitzgerald, it features more films than ever before with a host of exciting premieres and guests.

'I am fascinated as to how Incantata is going to turn out'

Thu, Jun 21, 2018

ONE OF the major events in this year’s Galway International Arts Festival is the world premiere of the stage adaptation of Paul Muldoon’s great poem Incantata, which Muldoon wrote in memory of his close friend and one-time lover, artist Mary Farl Powers, who died from cancer in 1992 aged just 44.

'It’s a proper night at the movies, not just a thesis on history'

Thu, Jun 21, 2018

BLACK 47, Lance Daly’s Famine-set thriller, will close this year’s Galway Film Fleadh on Sunday July 15. The western-tinged revenge drama is part of the festival’s ‘Galway on Film’ strand, a rich selection of films that features Galway and Galwegians.

'Even when we get fantastical it's still rooted in something we’re really feeling'

Thu, Jun 14, 2018

ONE OF the surefire musical highlights of GIAF 2018 is The Flaming Lips’ gig in the Heineken Big Top on Thursday July 26. Freewheeling, prolific, and endlessly inventive, the band remain as full of zip and ideas today as when they started out more than 30 years ago.

'We’ve always wanted to show different sides to the band'

Thu, May 31, 2018

'YOU NEVER forget your first time…’ is an old expression, but one which holds true for The Magic Numbers and their relationship with Galway, a city they have performed in numerous times over the past decade, and to which they return in June.

The ‘delicate nastiness’ of James Joyce’s Furey

Thu, May 31, 2018

AHEAD OF Bloomsday, County Galway publishing house Doire Press will hold the launch of a new poetry collection, Furey, by James Joyce. The Joyce in question is not the author of Ulysses but Galway’s own James Martyn Joyce, and the collection revolves around the vivid, memorable, persona of Furey.

'Songs are a wonderful way to deliver intimate emotions'

Thu, May 24, 2018

STEEPED IN the culture of his native Middle East, Israeli lutenist Ziv Braha is also a man very much at home with English Renaissance music. He is about to make his Galway debut, playing the Galway Early Music Festival this weekend, but his journey to classical and early music began in a most unexpected way.

Frankie Gavin in 'fiddle heaven' with new group The Provenance

Thu, May 24, 2018

FRANKIE GAVIN, Gradam Ceoil’s 2018 Traditional Musician Of The Year, and long-time stalwart of De Danann, has launched a brand new, high-octane fiddle group, The Provenance, who play the Town Hall Theatre on Saturday June 3 in a gala birthday celebration for Tigh Choilí.

'We should be given Government bonds to cheer people up'

Thu, May 17, 2018

FEET PLACED firmly in a pair of high heels, armed with a six-string acoustic guitar and a host of comedy songs, all wrapped in a sequinned dress, it can only be The Nualas, back in the ring for another swing, and ready to deliver a Glam Slam!

Myths, legends and medieval melody in Galway Early Music Festival

Thu, May 17, 2018

THIS YEAR'S Galway Early Music Festival, which runs from Friday May 25 to Sunday 27, is filled with gods and faeries, heroes, and heroines, and a feast of magical Mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque music. With Myths and Legends as the theme, it explores the musical inspiration of classical mythology, Celtic myth, and medieval legend.

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