Emergenza is the world's biggest festival for unsigned bands, with an average of 6,000 bands participating every year in 200 different cities all over the world. Every year the national finalists gets to spend three days in Germany at the Taubertal Open Air festival, where the world final takes place, with an average of 30,000 people showing up over the weekend. This is where, every year, the best band wins a professional production for their first album and where plenty of other musicians are rewarder for their skills with prizes from the festival's sponsors.

 

The National Gallery of Ireland's famous Vaughan collection of watercolours by JMW Turner (1775-1851) will be on display for the month of January. It includes Turner's most striking works in watercolour painted during his later European tours: the Doge's Palace in Venice, Lake Lucerne, and the fortresses at Bellinzona in Switzerland. This year the exhibition will be complemented by a display of seventeenth-, eight eenth- and nineteenth-century silhouettes and miniatures from the Mary A. McNeill Bequest, comprising works by John Comerford, Richard Crosse and William Grimaldi.

 

Between Metaphor and Object features a range of works from the IMMA Collection, primarily sculptures and installation works from the 1990s. It provides perspectives on the diversity of practice that is represented in the IMMA Collection from this period, explores its particularities, and considers them in the context of international trends of the decade. The title of the exhibition references perceived polarities in art since the 1960s and also proposes the idea of the continuous flux visited upon artworks in the mind of the viewer between symbolism and objecthood. Notably the exhibition incorporates a number of pieces from the Weltkunst Collection, which is on loan to IMMA since 1994. This significant collection of British sculpture and drawings of the 1980s and ‘90s will return to the Weltkunst Foundation in 2010 and the exhibition acknowledges the generous loan of these works.

 

Comedian Brendan O'Carroll is bringing Mrs Brown to the BBC in a new TV series. A pilot show was filmed in front of a live audience in Scotland in October and will be screened by RTE, which is involved in the production, over the Christmas period. The BBC will also show the pilot later next year ahead of the screening of all six episodes.

 

 

Electropical global beats.

 

DJs Dave McGuire and Steve O.

 

The much-loved traditional pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk returns to The Gaiety Theatre. Join Jack and his beanstalk on a giant adventure, where Jack must outwit and outrun the giant. This classic tale will capture children’s interest and spark their imagination. When Jack swaps his cow for some magic beans, they grow into an enormous magic beanstalk. Can Jack climb the beanstalk, save the lovely princess from the giant and escape with all his arms and legs? Come along and follow Jack up the beanstalk to find out!

 

Minimal techno.

 

Live classic rock.

 

Picturing New York comprises 145 masterworks from the photographic collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, covering the period from the 1880s to the present day. It celebrates the tradition of photographing New York, a tradition that frames and influences the perception of this vibrant urban centre. Including photographs by such influential photographers as Berenice Abbot, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Lisette Model, Alfred Stieglitz and Cindy Sherman, it explores both New York and its inhabitants, highlighting associations – from the vast, overwhelming architecture and bright lights, to the diversity of people that lie at the soul of the city.

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Naomi O'Connell mezzo soprano Colman Pearce conductor Corcoran Four Orchestral Prayers Corcoran Quasi una Fuga Lutosławski Novelette Pre-concert talk: Frank Corcoran, 12.30pm

 

 

Lecturer Tim Thurston, presenter, RTÉ lyric fm

 

Indie and electro.

 

Live slot for local up and coming bands.

 

Includes light lunch. Bosco Hogan gives one of his finest and most accomplished performances in a richly drawn portrait of W.B. Yeats: the poet, the mystic, the visionary and the man. For lovers of great literature, theatre and Irish culture, I Am Of Ireland promises to be atmospheric, evocative and insightful. Bewley's Café Theatre are proud to present, in association with Focus Theatre, a revival of an entertainment on the life and work of one of Ireland's great creative icons.

 

 

Eamon was a former member of early 90s Dublin bands "The Conspiracy", "Babylon The Bride" and "Drowning Kristiania". Eamon also played on stage with U2 in Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork in 1987 where they performed they Curtis Mayfield classic "People Get Ready".

 

 

A thrilling tale of a debt with the Devil… “Drink yourself up on to the next shelf in the basement. Drink to where possibility feels infinite and your immortality feels strong.” It’s Christmas Eve and Sharky has returned to Dublin to look after his irascible, ageing brother who’s recently gone blind. Old drinking buddies Ivan and Nicky are holed up at the house too, hoping to play some cards. With the arrival of a stranger from the distant past, the stakes are raised ever higher. In fact, Sharky may be playing for his very soul… In the midst of this raucous tale of drinking, craic and card playing, there is a tender story of a family, and of redemption. So, pull up a chair alongside Sharky, Nicky, Ivan and co and enjoy a great story, well told.