Six For Your Radar: Kevin Bridges in the Marquee, The Odyssey hits cinemas...
Kevin Bridges is in the Marquee in Cork, while Matt Damon stars in The Odyssey.
Christopher Nolan finally got his hands on Oscar — twice — thanks to 2023's . If that was a three-hour journey, his new film is, well, a three-hour . Deemed by early critics and co-star Tom Holland to be a personal story for Nolan, he brings Homer's legendary ancient Greek tale to life on the big screen. The story follows Odysseus, king of Ithaca, on his long, perilous journey home after the Trojan war, where he faces mythical monsters, vengeful gods, and impossible odds as he strives to reunite with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Matt Damon heads up a long and starry cast.
The boutique festival Love is a Stranger returns to Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons, this weekend after its inaugural outing in 2025. Put on by the same people behind Another Love Story in Westmeath, there are all the usual trappings that a festival needs these days, from dinner and cocktail experiences to saunas. Music wise, international DJs Move D and Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy will keep the dancing going long into the night, amid a healthy dose of local acts, from newcomer Jean Pack to troubadour John Spillane. There’s also a midnight ambient interlude with RTÉ Lyric FM's .
Scotland’s comedy powerhouse Kevin Bridges returns to Cork for two shows to close out the 2026 slate of Live at the Marquee. His past tours have drawn over two million fans across the globe — his latest is , and features some of his comedy pals in Chris Kent and Andrew Ryan on Friday and Ryan and Evaldas Karosas on Saturday. The event will be a phone-free experience: Upon arrival at the venue, all phones, smart watches, and accessories will be secured in individual Yondr pouches to be opened at the end of the event.
This year’s West Cork Literary Festival winds up after a week of page-turning events. It concludes at the Maritime Hotel with Liz Nugent and Clonakilty’s finest Louise O’Neill in conversation with the Irish Examiner’s Esther McCarthy. They’ll be discussing their new novels, and At 5pm at Bantry Library, Oona Frawley and Katie Goh discuss their memoirs, and broadcaster John Suchet’s goes In Search of Beethoven at Marino Church at 6.30pm.
Gwenno Mererid Saunders is an acclaimed Welsh-Cornish musician, singer, and songwriter known for her electronic pop music and for releasing albums in Welsh and Cornish languages. Formerly a member of indie pop group The Pipettes, she is on tour around Ireland this week: She’s in the Savoy in Cork on Friday, Kasbah Social Club in Limerick on Saturday, heads to West Cork and De Barra’s in Clonakilty on Sunday, and wraps things up at the Galway International Arts Festival on Monday. Her fourth album , released last year, is glorious.
Cork actor and performer Alice Barry has written and stars in the one-woman play . It’s based on a true story: On April 7, 1926, Violet Gibson, an Irishwoman, fired on Mussolini in the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome — an act that grazed the dictator’s nose and reverberated across Europe. Dublin-based trad artist Lisa O’Neill wrote a song about it in recent years and now the story makes it to the Cork Arts Theatre stage. Performances at 8pm each night, with lunchtime shows at 1pm on Thursday and Friday.
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