The Dublin St. Patrick's Festival is the celebration of Ireland's national holiday... some have gone so far as to say it's the world's biggest annual party. It's a six day extravaganza offering a feast of events including street theatre, spectacles, Irish music and dance.

 

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 programme will include songs from the Musicals, Ragtime and the great American Songbook, featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Gershwin, Scott Joplin and Fats Waller including such gems as Phantom of the Opera & Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Kathy Nugent is internationally acclaimed through appearances in Carnegie Hall NY, Boston Symphony Hall and radio and TV on both sides of the Irish Sea. Colm is Ireland's leading exponent of Ragtime and has performed in the USA and UK including several appearances at the prestigious Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, MO.

 

What would happen if the words of one of Ireland’s greatest literary figures were merged with the music of one of the most legendary live bands in rock’n‘roll? The answer is An Appointment with Mr Yeats, a show fusing the poetic power of W.B. Yeats and the visceral music of The Waterboys. Since setting The Stolen Child to music on thier classic Fisherman’s Blues album, Waterboys’ singer Mike Scott has been quietly crafting a rich collection of songs utilising Yeats’ poems as lyrics. A few were performed solo by Scott during the Yeats International Festival at the Abbey in the 1990s, but most have remained unheard, waiting for the moment when, in Scott’s words, ‘I had enough songs to create a full programme and present it in a potent, radical fashion, worthy of the Abbey Theatre which Yeats himslf founded.’ For five nights in March 2010 An Appointment with Mr Yeats, will receive its world premiere at the Abbey, performed by a unique extended line-up of The Waterboys featuring Mike Scott and Irish fiddler extraordinaire Steve Wickham. The performance will feature specially invited guest musicians including exquisite new rock vocalist Katie Kim; brilliant flute player Sarah Allen, formerly of Flook; Catalan trombonist Blaise Margall; piano maestro Simon Wallace; and stylish Irish guitarist/vocalist Joe Chester. The twenty Yeats poems in the programme span the poet’s humours from wry to romantic, rustic to mythological, and include famous and lesser-known works. the show will also include a selection of Waterboys favourites, specially chosen and rearranged for this context.

 

Every Monday, good quality stuff.

 

Artist’s Proof is an exhibition by 24 Irish and international fine art printmaking artists. Visitors will be able to see the creative methodology of the printmaker showing the development of the idea from the research and exploration stages through to the rigorous process of making the print, requiring great technical skill. The prints will be displayed alongside two working proofs to provide a glimpse of how it was made.

 

Make Dublin yours this St. Patrick’s Festival and enjoy the City at Play with Chills, Thrills and Near-Spills. A firm Festival favourite the spine-tingling Festival Funfair will lighten up both north and south side of the river Liffey alike with top-notch carnival fairgrounds, gripping high-flying attractions as well as the much-tamer kiddie rides. And don’t miss the breath-taking views of our Fair City from the 150-foot high Jubilee Wheel.

 

 

After the enormous box-office success of his last show, “Patrick’s Divorce”, the comedian DIEUDONNÉ returns with his newest stage show “Sandrine”. This deals with the theme of marital violence. Patrick has become a wounded animal, unable to accept the break-up with Sandrine. He drifts into a hellish downward spiral of hatred and violence, leading to a lawsuit which is the subject of this comedy. The contrast between the austere courtroom setting with its solemn conventions and the humorous scenes taking place in it sets up a tension that helps to reveal Patrick’s character and his humanity. The courtroom setting makes it possible for DIEUDONNÉ to present us with a rogues’ gallery of interesting and humourous characters. Among them are an African lawyer who overclaims extravagantly, a misogynist Chinese doctor and a priest who preaches the joys of abstinence! The issues touched on, while sensitive, are more social than political on this occasion. The world DIEUDONNÉ portrays here represents a return to his earlier apolitical comedic roots.

 

Nobody has ever seen a living dinosaur, but scientists can give us a good idea of what they looked like and how they moved. We often imagine dinosaurs as colossal flesh-eating beasts that lived on our planet for an incredible 160 million years. Some were indeed gigantic, but many were only as heavy as a Labrador dog and many were vegetarian! Did you know that the Ornithomimus could run faster than an Olympic sprinter? See how the sociable Triceratops lived in herds, caring for and protecting their young. Meet Dilophosaurus, a relative of the first dinosaur found in Scotland. Come face to face with the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the fiercest land predators ever known. This massive animatronic model, 4 metres tall and 7 metres long, is so lifelike you’ll think it’s the real thing! Walk past the head of a hungry Tyrannosaurus and watch as his terrifying jaws go SNAP!

 

ESB became title Sponsor of Feis Ceoil in 2009. Given its distinguished record in Arts sponsorship, its country-wide reach and of course its significance as an Irish company, ESB is the perfect fit as sponsorship partner for Feis Ceoil. The fact that over 2,000 young people from every county in Ireland participate in this competition annually indicates the importance of this organisation to young people who love music. These competitions comprise all musical disciplines from Piano to Strings, Vocal to Brass, Choral to Chamber music. 32 Choirs will be competing for the title of “ESB Feis Ceoil School Choir of the Year”. The sheer depth of community involvement in the competition appeals very strongly to us at ESB as we clearly play an important role in the day-to-day society at every level and are deeply committed to the positive development of young people. ESB Feis Ceoil 2010 takes place from the 15th to 26th March in the RDS Ballsbridge.

 

 

Rum cocktails and Jamaican soul.

 

As described by themselves: "Yes, ladies & gentlemen & boys & girls, The Village on Wexford Street will host the weekly musical extravaganza which sees 6 acts go head to head playing three songs each in a cauldron of excitement. Then we roll out our famous Clap-O-Meter; a gigantic, scientifically homemade replica of The Empire State Building which lights up to the ecstatic reaction of an audience going bananas. The winner then goes forward on a journey through a perilous musical jungle until we are left with the King of the Kong, the grand prizewinner! It’s a Monster!!! "

 

Two men discover more than they bargained for as they while away the night on a train to nowhere. With the help of drink, poker and a beguiling Gipsy they encounter the void within through the lives of each other. Drink, cards and prophecy, not to mention comedy and tragedy pervade this intriguing piece of theatre which examines identity and how seeds sown in the past have a habit of sprouting, whether we like it or not.

 

 

Over a seven week period well known artist and sculptor Cris Neumann will facilitate the creation of 3D works by Coolmine and Hartstown Community School students in a project that will be a fun reflection of Vodafone Ireland’s Green Agenda Policy. This educational and environmentally innovative visual arts project will explore the concepts of communication, mobility and technology and how these concepts can work in the reduction and recycling of waste. For more information and photos of the works in progress check out the website: www.makeartnotrubbish.com

 

This play established Brian Friel's reputation as a world-class writer in 1964, and became the toast of Broadway in 1966. A timeless study of youth, old age and the chasm that divides them, the play is that rare thing: a popular masterpiece.

 

Born in Belfast, raised in Scotland and living in Dublin for many moons now, Robin James Hurt plays guitar like a ‘demon gadgie’ (Edinburgh slang). He also sings like a wee bird, and composes and arranges fine folky music.

 

A little bit of everything, from singer-songwriter, to poetry, to drama. Check out Dublin's genuine local talent.

 

Swing dancing for beginners and intermediates.

 

 

 

Includes light lunch. Emer O'Kelly of the Sunday Independent wrote: "a heart-searing, heart-searching piece of work, provoking tears and haunting the soul. If it doesn't live in dramatic memory, we have neither folk memory nor capacity for pity..... Harding's performance is nothing short of glorious -- a piece of sustained dramatic economy that is performance art of soaring, incandescent strength. Every gesture tells, every step is measured, every pause significant, every subtle change of tone adding to a threnody for a dying soul.....If audiences are not hanging out of the rafters in future venues, there is no soul for drama in Ireland."

 

 

The issues touched on, while sensitive, are more social than political on this occasion. The world DIEUDONNÉ portrays here represents a return to his earlier apolitical comedic roots.

 

Cooney makes postmodern one-man black comedy videos backed by DJ tunes. Cabaret + weekly video showcase of work. Come weekly to see live comedy. Starts at 9PM and continues after the show with guests playing their music .