Latest news with #GalwayInternationalArtsFestival
Irish Independent
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Galway Races 2025: Share your best photos from race week
The 2025 Galway Races kicked off on Monday and runs through to Sunday. Share your best photos with us! Today at 09:43 One of Galway's most iconic weeks has arrived, the Galway Races, hot on the heels of the Galway International Arts Festival. With seven days of craic, racing, and fashion now underway, we're calling on racegoers to submit their best photos to the Irish Independent. Whether it's the glamour of Ladies Day, the thrill of Galway Plate Day, the creativity of Sunday's Mad Hatters competition, or simply the electric atmosphere around Ballybrit, we want to see it all.
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Visual art reviews: David Mach's exploding cottage impresses at Galway Arts Festival
Galway International Arts Festival David Mach, Burning Down the House, Festival Gallery, William Street David Mach has become something of a regular in Galway, this being his fourth major show at the International Arts Festival in twenty years. The Scottish artist likes to work at scale, and his installation this year is a huge sculpture of an exploding cottage called Burning Down the House. No explanation is given for the explosion; all the viewer is presented with is the work itself, a 3-D model of a traditional stone cottage that one can walk around and see from all sides. A sofa, a television, a fridge/freezer and the front door blown off its hinges are clearly discernible amidst the debris and bursts of flame. The explosion has clearly come from within the building, which suggests it might have been a rural meth lab, or a bomb factory, in which the process of creation has gone drastically wrong. One of David Mach's pieces at Galway International Arts Festival. It's an intriguing piece of work, one that inevitably recalls Cornelia Parker's Cold, Dark Matter: An Exploded View, for which the artist invited the British Army to blow up a shed, but goes beyond it again in terms of its theatricality and impact. Burning Down the House is augmented by an exhibition of Mach's 'coat hanger' sculptures, striking figurative pieces constructed entirely of wire. The Thief depicts a nine-foot human figure suspended from the ceiling; Spike (The Cheetah) captures a big cat mid-prowl; while Arms I-IV is, as its title suggests, a series of human arms in various poses. All are covered in spikes, simultaneously inviting the viewer to look closer while ensuring that they can only come so far. This is art that could, quite literally, poke your eye out. Conor Moloney & John Conneely, Funeral for Ashes, Festival Printworks Gallery, Market Street Conor Moloney and John Conneely's Funeral for Ashes is a hugely enjoyable immersive installation, in which the viewer is invited to stand in the midst of processed film images, inspired by the native Irish ash tree, projected on the walls and floor of the exhibition space. An outline of the viewer then appears amongst the projections. Funeral For Ashes. One visitor took the experience to extremes, standing on his head, to the delight of the children present. As a project intended to draw attention to the demise of the ash, it is perhaps less successful than it is as a participatory artwork. Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive, Tactile Tunes, Aula Maxima, University of Galway Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive's Tactile Tunes installation at the Aula Maxima at the University of Galway is a series of sculptures that produce sounds as one engages with them. Touch a series of seashells, and they each create a jingle. Stroke a rock form, and it produces a deep bass drone. The overall effect is mesmeric. Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive, Tactile Tunes. Cassidy is a local artist, and her work with Arts Alive, a community-based arts programme for adults with intellectual disabilities, deserves every support available.
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Mary Coughlan review: Ride On among the highlights of triumphant homecoming show in Galway
Mary Coughlan, Heineken Big Top, Galway International Arts Festival , ★★★★★ Mary Coughlan's return to her native Galway for the 40th anniversary of her debut album, Tired and Emotional, reminds us of why she is such an enduring national treasure. Her voice is rich, authentic, and very much her own, her charisma undeniable. She kicks off with Steve Bogard and Barbara Wyrick's Damn Your Eyes, a jazzy number she inhabits with ease, crooning 'I can do what I want/I'm in complete control.' What follows in a show co-presented by the festival and the Róisín Dubh venue is a wonderful set and a series of salty anecdotes about the times she has been barely in control, or out of control completely. She recalls her arrest for drunk driving in Galway, on the eve of her departure for Dublin in the first flush of her national fame. At the station, she sneaked out, reclaimed her impounded car and drove home to her going away party. Judge Garavan, who subsequently let her off with a six week suspension, is long departed, but receives a rousing cheer in the festival tent. Mary Coughlan on stage in the Heineken Big Top at Galway International Arts Festival. Coughlan pays tribute to Erik Visser, the Dutch musician who supported her early career, and is now laid low by Parkinson's disease. She also has warm words for the songwriters whose work she has covered so powerfully over. She recalls how she and Johnny Mulhern were doing a newspaper crossword one morning after a gig when they spotted an article about an ice-cream vendor who sold heroin on the side. That gave rise to one of his hardest hitting songs, The Ice Cream Man, and one of her finest performances of the night. She introduces Jimmy McCarthy's Ride On by recalling a conversation she once had with the writer, who admitted that the song is not really about horses, but Ireland, and a character 'with eyes wild and green' who joins the IRA. Another McCarthy composition she has made her own is Ancient Rain, on which Richie Buckley plays a majestic saxophone solo. Coughlan brings out two guests in the course of the evening; Jack L, with whom she duets on his own Rooftop Lullaby and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and Ultan Conlan, with whom she performs his track, The Lumberjack. Jack L joins Mary Coughlan on stage in Galway. Photo: Andrew Downes, Xposure As befits a homecoming concert, the mood in the tent is warm and convivial. At one point, Coughlan asks the Galway West Independent TD Catherine Connolly to stand up and proclaims her 'the next President of Ireland.' The cheers Connolly is met with suggest her bid for the Áras will have massive support. There are songs one is delighted that Coughlan chose to include in her set, such as her 'first ex-husband' Fintan Coughlan's Double Cross, and those one wishes she had chosen to perform, such as Mulhern's Magdalen Laundry, or her take on Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit. But it is enough to see her in such fine fettle, aged 69 and seemingly able for anything.
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Restaurant review: ‘Overall I am disappointed by the food, which simply doesn't pack as much flavour as it should'
From dull prawns to a gimmicky dessert, the menu and service at JP McMahon's new Galway Japanese fail to impress our critic It's the Galway International Arts Festival, the busiest two weeks of the year in a city never short of an excuse for a pint or a party. Shop Street is thronged with luvvies who haven't seen each other in a while embracing luvvily, while legions of tourists carrying bags of tat follow their pole-carrying leaders. Festival goers on their way to and from performances and exhibitions and gigs follow no one other than the person who might be able to finagle them into the Druid double bill of Macbeth and Riders to the Sea, this year's hottest ticket. The queue outside the Gothic-style Middle Street church, for what I assume to be an exclusive cultural happening, turns out to be for a funeral instead. Even in the midst of all this culture, life and death go on.
Irish Daily Mirror
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Sophie Ellis-Bextor surprises newlyweds by 'gate-crashing' County Mayo wedding
A chart-topping artist was spotted gatecrashing a wedding, much to the joy of the newlyweds. The unexpected encounter between the hitmaker and her impromptu audience has since gone viral on TikTok, with footage of the event thrilling members of the public. The upload dubbed the star as the "best wedding crasher ever". Not only did the star's surprise performance earn praise, but also her singing voice. Viewers of the video were taken aback by how fantastic the Murder on the dance floor singer still sounds. The party at The Lodge at Ashford Castle, County Mayo was elevated when Sophie Ellis-Bextor turned up for a rendition of her 2001 hit. The songwriter, who is set to release her new album Perimenopop later this year, made a surprise appearance at the wedding. A post from Jennifer Gillespie captured the moment Ellis-Bextor showed up for the wedding. Jennifer would later say it took a "serious bit of wedding luck" to get Ellis-Bextor, who just happened to be performing at another wedding in County Mayo, Ireland, at the time, involved. One TikTok user asked: "How does one get their wedding to be crashed by Sophie Ellis-Bextor?" Jennifer responded: "Right place, right time and a serious bit of wedding luck." Jennifer continued to say Ellis-Bextor was "such good fun" and her "kind" gesture has been well received by the public. She added: "Sophie topped off the most perfect day. Huge thank you to everyone at The Lodge for helping make my sisters day so magical!" Admirers of the performer have subsequently commended her for turning up and singing at a wedding unexpectedly. One person commented: "Every time I see any clips of Sophie Ellis-Bextor singing live she sounds phenomenal. "She has a beautiful, pure voice. I'm not what you'd call a big fan but I guess I am now as every time I hear her I think she's fantastic! It's so effortless. Congratulations to you guys too!!" Another commented: "She's amazing live I've been lucky enough to see her a few times. Faultless. Met her Saturday at Newbury." Sophie Ellis-Bextor surprised a wedding and the attendees were delighted (file) (Image: Getty Images) A third joked: "Currently planning a wedding. I want to know how exactly to plan the Sophie Ellis-Bextor surprise gig segment of the evening." Jennifer revealed additional details about how Ellis-Bextor came to be at the wedding, explaining that the vocalist was attending a different celebration at the same location. She commented: "She was staying in the hotel and had just played at another wedding in the castle! She had also played Galway International Arts Festival during the week." In another response, Jennifer continued: "Sophie was playing at another wedding in Ashford Castle that night and staying in The Lodge, one of the guests spotted her in the lobby singing along when her song came on and asked her to come out and sing which she was kind enough to do. She made the bride and grooms night."
