My highlights of 2025: Eamon Carr, Stefanie Preissner, Kevin Barry, and others pick their favourites
Eamon Carr, Kevin Barry and Stefanie Preissner share their 2025 highlights.
New to The Traitors, I enjoyed the intrigue, the knowing nonchalance of host SiobhƔn McSweeney and the familiar Meath landscape where I played as a child.
Will Gompertz explores how artists, from throughout history, view the world differently in 31 ways in See What Youāre Missing. Insightful, anecdotal and provocative.
Polymath David Byrneās Who Is the Sky? album is thrillingly optimistic. Clever songs, super arrangements and enthusiastic delivery.
In the early days of Horslips, we had ELPās album Pictures at an Exhibition, but I hadnāt heard an orchestra perform Mussorgskyās suite until October when the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland delivered in spades at the NCH Dublin.
For a joyous communal experience that uplifted people across the community, there was the astounding four days in which Troy Parrott scored five balletic goals that rescued the hopes of a sporting nation.
- Eamon Carrās Pure Gold: Memorable Conversations with Remarkable People is published by Merrion Press.
The Walsh Sisters ā Iām obviously biased because I wrote it and am in it, but even the viewing figures and online response show us that it captured the hearts of Irish people and will hopefully do the same when it hits BBC1 on February 14th.
KPop Demon Hunters was my hit this year ā my kids love it and we absolutely love the soundtrack.
My Friends by Fredrik Backman. I love his writing so much and only got around to it this year, but I lapped it up and will read anything the man ever creates.
I've been obsessed with Lily Allen's new album since it dropped. It's refreshing to see a woman not be reserved or cagey about her heartbreak. Why should we be the bigger person, if someone acts appallingly, be appalled.
I went to a screening of the Irish language film Aontas ā and was so impressed and gripped. I love the growing revival of Gaeilge that seems to be happening.
I couldn't wait for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale to be released. Nothing happened in this film. It was a film about nothing. Obviously, Dame Maggie Smith wasn't in it either. She was sorely missed, but if they make a Downton film every year for the rest of my life I'd happily watch them.
Ken Follett is one of my favourite authors. He released a new book this year, Circle of Days. It was years in the making. It's a fictional take on the building of Stonehenge 2,500 years ago, with communities of people, woodlanders, herders and priestesses, swirling around. Itās a stunning novel.
Lily Allenās West End Girl album is like a play in lyrical format. I've never experienced anything like it. Itās like listening to someone's diary. I'm so glad she's back and getting the attention the album deserves. Not only is the music super, but the lyrics are insane. It's a brilliant album.
Kingfishr did a surprise pop-up gig at Electric Picnicās Today FM Sound Garden. Iāve never seen an atmosphere like it. Kingfishr are huge, rising stars. This has been their year. To see the crowd at their gig was incredible. It was electric.
Katy Perry went to space this year. It was huge at the beginning of the year then everyone forgot about it. Every time I play her on my show, I have to mention it: āYou know she went to space this year.ā I find that bizarre. Sheās no business being in space.
I loved All Her Fault, the thrilling and starry adaptation of the Andrea Mara bestseller. And I went all in on the truly unmissable Traitors Ireland.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere about the making of Nebraska was understated but brilliant. It quietly floored me.
Every Jane Casey book is an event but The Secret Room, the twelfth in the Maeve Kerrigan series, was a perfect reward for fans and had me in floods of tears.
Eileen Walsh was unforgettable in The Second Woman during Cork Midsummer Festival. One of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Rhiannon Giddensā superb version of Paul Simonās American Tune (at Cork Opera House during Sounds From A Safe Harbour in September) gave me goosebumps.
I saw Sirat recently at the Cork Film Festival and while it wasnāt the best movie Iāve caught this year it was definitely the most striking. It opens loudly at a rave in the Moroccan desert and gets progressively heavier.
Helm by Sarah Hall is a wild, polyphonic biography of a ābastard windā that haunts the Cumbrian fells. Beautifully written.
The Second Woman at Cork Opera House was quite something ā Eileen Walsh playing the same scene with 100 different actors over 24 hours. Fascinating experience.
Sorry, I canāt pick just one! Great records from Snowpoet, Brandee Younger, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, SML, Tunng, Sean Mac Erlaine & CaoimhĆn OāRaghallaigh, Makaya McCraven and Sam Amidon.
James Holden and Waclaw Zimpel took us on a wonderful, mind-expanding adventure at the Triskel during the Cork Jazz Festival.
I Swear stars Robert Aramayo. Itās set in the 1980s about a guy with Touretteās syndrome and how it impacted his life. Itās brilliant.
I went to see Cabaret in Londonās Kit Kat Club, a really gorgeous, immersive piece of theatre. It was amazing.
Cormac Begley at the National Concert Hall. To see someone so young keeping Irish music like that alive is really important. Heās brilliant.
I didnāt get to see Sonya Kellyās adaptation of Katriona OāSullivanās Poor at the Gate Theatre. I was raging ā I couldnāt get a ticket for love nor money. Theyāre coming back next March so I have my ticket.
Being invited over to the Irish embassy in London to read an extract from my book, Nanny, Ma & Me, for Bloomsday was really cool.
Lots of wafty, ethereal, droney stuff going around, and not all of it mesmerising. Some fine records, though, like Maria Somervilleās Luster ā it sounds like The Cocteau Twins Head to Connemara, which is a very good thing.
Bugonia was a heap of crack and had some lovely performances. A long-awaited return-to-form for Yorgos Lanthimos, his best since The Lobster.
Japanese torture camps, a near-fatal kayak accident and the genocidal history of Tasmania come together in Richard Flanaganās memoir Question 7, a genuine belter of a book.
Listening to a gang of Newfoundlanders playing bagpipes, scraping fiddles and singing Kris Kristofferson songs in a former Orange Lodge in Woody Point on a late August Friday night ā there were moose on the road outside.
I went to the launch of Cillian Murphy's new movie Steve. Heās a teacher in it. It has some of the best acting Iāve seen.
Iām all about self-help this year. I recently read The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. It's very good. It's all about how you live. If you want to be happier, stop looking for approval.
Seeing Don Wycherley play Paddy Armstrong of the Guildford Four in The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong at The Everyman Theatre was mind blowing. I know very little about what happened in the Troubles. It brought you through every range of emotions and held your attention. It had so much tension. The most powerful piece of theatre I've seen in 10 years.
I went to Milan to see Jean Batiste. He has exceptional musicality. He was trained classically, but he can take Bach and make it into something else. He can mix it with Thelonius Monk and then bring it to India. He has an unbelievable stage persona and ability to orchestrate music.
I would have liked to have seen Macklemore at Corkās Virgin Media Park this summer. I couldnāt get away. We can't do everything we want to do.
The Uncool about Cameron Crowe, the film director of Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire, was a journalist as a teenager with Rolling Stone. He toured with the Eagles, David Bowie, Yes. It's his biography at that time.
Brendan Gleeson in The Weir at the Olympia in Dublin. It was brilliant to see that play again. It stands the test of time. Itās a modern classic. The power of good storytelling.
There's an excellent album, Lux, by a Spanish singer RosalĆa. It's an interesting mix of techno and classical. She's worked with a full orchestra and all these different collaborators. Bjork is on it. This album she's created is extraordinary.
Sienna Spiro, a young British singer-songwriter, at The Everyman this year as part of the Guinness Jazz Festival. Her music is popular in the charts. She has an Amy Winehouse kind of jazz voice. The Everyman was packed to the rafters with young people. It was a buzzing night in Cork.
The opening ceremony of Sounds from A Safe Harbour festival was like a pagan rave at Elizabeth Fort ā with pagan imagery, techno music. Cillian Murphy was there. It was an extraordinary collision of art, music and spoken word. Mary Hickson, the festival curator, is a powerhouse.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa Fan is a short novel. Itās about an old lady looking back on her life in rural China and how Chinese women communicated in this secret, written language made up to communicate amongst themselves without men. It's really beautiful.
A piece of music Iāve been listening to a lot this year is Robert Schumann's Scenes from Childhood. Each piece is a minute or two long. The world is so busy. Sometimes I would just listen to this, and it's like a little bubble of beauty and calm and reflection.
I saw an amazing concert in the Philharmonie de Paris ā Martha Argerich, a pianist. She played a Schumann piano concerto. She's one of the most incredible musicians alive. She's in her eighties, but still incredible. It was with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Lahav Shani was conducting. There wasn't half a second where my mind started to drift. It was incredible, just beautiful music.
This summer I went to an art exhibition in Porquerolles, an island off the south of France, which is a big nature reserve. This old farmhouse has been converted into a beautiful, modern art gallery. Youāve to take off your shoes when you go in. They limit the amount of people, so it's a really calm, quiet experience. The exhibition I saw was inspired by the sea. It was a beautiful experience.
The OrtĆŗs Chamber Music festival will be held in venues around Cork city and county, February 21-March 1, 2026.Ā Ā
