HAPPENINGS

Fingal Festival of History

The second annual Fingal Festival of History, a week of history talks and events organised by Fingal Libraries, takes place from Saturday, September 22 to Saturday, September 29. Fingal County Council’s library team, collaborating with community groups, historical societies and residents with an interest in history, have put together an engaging and diverse programme for the festival.

This year’s programme includes ‘History at the Castle: Ireland 100 years ago’ – a day of talks on Saturday, September 29 in historic Swords Castle. Talks and events will also take place in library branches. For the full festival programme, contact your local library branch, or visit fingal.ie/libraries/ or Facebook page: @FingalLibraries.

Admission is free to all talks. Please book your place by emailing Library.Events@fingal.ie Pictured at the launch are Susan Lovatt, CE of Fingal, Paul Reid, Betty Boardman, Mayor of Fingal, Anthony Lavin and Lillian Whelan. PHOTO: Conor Healy

Dublin Vegfest

Vegfest is back bigger and better than ever for two days on September 22 & 23 at Griffith College Dublin Campus, South Circular Road, Dublin 8.

Ireland’s largest vegan food and lifestyle event is a celebration offering the best vegan food by local producers, lifestyle talks, demos, cruelty free products, exhibitors, non-profits, charities and animal rescues.

Hang out eating great food in the food village, try natural ethical products, learn about plant based health benefits or enjoy a talk at a super friendly gathering.

Great Dublin Bike Ride

The Great Dublin Bike Ride will be held on September 23 catering for all abilities from novice to expert.

This event offers 70km or 105km routes and it will be a flagship event in Ireland for the European Week of Sport.

Up to 7,000 riders will set out from Merrion Square and it’s open to anyone over the age of 16. See www.greatdublinbikeride.ie for details.

New Music Dublin

This rescheduled festival will open with two free events on Culture Night and continue with a packed schedule of the best of Irish and International New Music.

Highlights include Continental Drift, a concert that celebrates two contemporary composers. The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will perform Unsuk Chin’s Šu – for Sheng and Orchestra with virtuoso Wu Wei and the world premiere of Kevin Volans’Gol Na mBan San Ár – for Uilleann Pipes and Orchestra, with David Power on September 22 at 7.30pm.

The festival also reschedules Sir James McMillan (pictured) who will conduct the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Irish Chamber Choir who perform his monumental Stabat Mater.

For more information and bookings go to www.nch.ie.

Stop/Over

On The Quays, a New York City-based production company, will present the world premiere production of Gary Duggan’s ‘STOP/OVER’, a swift new play about rekindled friendship, as part of the 2018 Dublin Fringe Festival. 

Directed by Nicola Murphy, and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, FringeLab, and The Lir Academy, the production will run from September 12-23 on the third floor of The Chocolate Factory (26 Kings Inn Street).http://www.fringefest.com/festival/whats-on/stop-over

STOP/OVER invites audiences to reinvent their past, live in the moment, and at least for one night, forget about the future as we follow a young Irish couple literally and imaginatively on a journey through New York City from café to club to gallery, through bedrooms, subway stations, dreams and hallucinations.

Leprechauns

The origins of Michele Horrigan’s exhibition, ‘Where Does The Law Stand With Leprechauns?’ date from 1938 when the artist’s aunts, then young children growing up on the foothills of Knockfierna in Limerick, were mistaken one day for fairy folk.  

Soon, buses of sightseers arrived in the local town, all on the hunt for supernatural phenomena in ditches, behind trees and up on the slopes of the nearby hill. The story persisted and crowds continued to arrive.

Working with a diverse group of collaborators, Horrigan’s exhibition is as much an experiment probing unexplained and mysterious thoughts than any definitive viewpoint.

It takes place at The Lab Gallery, Foley Street, Dublin 1, and runs until November 4.

Beezie

Beezie Gallagher was, for 60 years, the sole resident of an island on Lough Gill, Co Sligo. Born in the 1870s and orphaned in her teens, Beezie’s wisdom, robust humour and fierce independence gained her a reputation as a healer, wise woman and witch. In Sheila Flitton’s renowned solo play, Beezie returns telling of her youth, her friendship with the young WB Yeats and her brief marriage in middle life. She relives the crisis of her old age, when the Great Freeze of 1947 left her marooned and starving. The joy of her rescue turns to tragedy as she is consigned to the County Home. Beezie opens in Bewley’s Café Theatre on September 25 and plays till October 13.

From Ballots to Bullets: Ireland 1918-1919

Pictured at the launch of the National Library of Ireland’s new exhibition, ‘From Ballots to Bullets: Ireland 1918-1919’ at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 are Senator Ivana Bacik and Director of the NLI, Dr Sandra Collins. This exhibition charts two turbulent and defining years in Irish life, leading to the birth of the Irish Republic through the NLI’s rich holding of photographs, newspapers, posters, postcards and advertisements. It’s free to visit, and open seven days weekly

Curious Creatures

Armadillos, anteaters, neon flying squids and a boa constrictor are just some of the exotic animals that feature in the new ‘Curious Creatures – Frans Post & Brazil’ exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland. 

Running until Sunday, December 9, ‘Curious Creatures’ features 34 rare and remarkable drawings and paintings of Brazilian animals and landscapes, some of which have never been seen before in Ireland.