For two weeks in September, Dublin will be captivated by theatre, dance, music, visual art, live art and street performance from Ireland, and around the globe.

 

Damien will play this one off intimate club date to celebrate the opening of The Workman’s Club. Damien is currently recording his new album and this will be a rare opportunity for fans to catch him up close and personal, performing in what should be the perfect setting for an original working class Dubliner. Support on the night will be from Eoin Glackin.

 

Songs of Praise started in 2005 as a way to inject some fun into a club culture that was becoming increasingly dull and uptight, two fingers if you will to those who were taking themselves a little too seriously. It was soon obvious that we had tapped a vein of purest mental in the Dublin scene. Rock + Roll, Punk, alternative Karaoke with DJ Montane wrecking the gaff in-between performances, a simple and somewhat daft plan.

 

This exhibition will pay homage to the Dutch seventeenth-century artist, Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) and his exquisite scenes of daily life, which rank among the finest of the Dutch Golden Age. It will also highlight some of Metsu's lesser known achievements in the fields of history painting, portraiture and still life. Metsu started his career in Leiden, where he painted biblical scenes on a large format. After his move to Amsterdam in the middle of the 1650s, he changed his specialisation to intimate scenes of daily life. As Metsu's style became more meticulous in the 1660s, he focused increasingly on representing the pastimes of the upper class. He died at the age of thirty-seven, having painted a varied oeuvre of more than 130 paintings. Few of his colleagues were as versatile as Metsu and his handling of the brush was almost unrivalled. Moreover, his paintings display a unique approach to daily activities, marked by a psychological interest in the people he portrayed. An accompanying catalogue will be published to coincide with the exhibition.

 

 

Ladlane formed in 2004 in Dublin. The band features Eugene Quinn from Templeogue, Dublin on guitar/banjo/vocals, Ray Dempsey from Ballyduff, Co. Waterford on accordion and Colm Keane from somewhere in north county Dublin on fiddle/vocals.

 

 

‘Is General Connolly an’ th’ Citizen Army goin’ to be your only care? Is your home goin’ to be only a place to rest in? Am I goin’ to be only somethin’ to provide merrymakin’ at night for you?’ Now regarded as a masterpiece, The Plough and the Stars is one of the plays most closely associated with the Abbey Theatre. Set in a tenement house, against the backdrop of the Easter Rising in 1916, The Plough and the Stars is both an intimate play about the lives of ordinary people and an epic play about ideals and the birth of our nation. Amidst the tumult of political upheaval, Jack and Nora Clitheroe are ‘like two turtle doves always billing and cooing’, much to the ridicule of their bustling neighbours. But when Ireland calls, Jack must choose between love for his wife and duty to his country. Heartbreaking, disturbing and very funny, The Plough and the Stars is an historic play that every generation needs to see. At this time of national crisis, when the principles and ideals of the proclamation and the founding of the Republic are, more-than-ever, under consideration, it is an important play for the Abbey Theatre to present once again. Director Wayne Jordan brings the fresh perspective of a new generation to this iconic play.