Five For Your Radar: Fontaines album, Waterstones readings, Tenzing...
John FitzGerald reads at Waterstones in Cork; right, Fontaines DC release their new album.
The biggest Irish band since U2’s heyday release their fifth studio album, which features their first collaboration as they hook up with Spanish singer Rosalia on the single Where is Gone?. Ahead of two shows at Slane Castle in 2026, Fontaines DC are set to go stratospheric. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says frontman Grian Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”
Launched in 2018, Irish Book Week is a celebration of bookshops, books, and writers, with events taking place in beloved literary spaces around the country. Waterstones in Cork City will host four nights of events, headlined by the launch of Cork poet John Fitzgerald's new Gallery Press collection on October 22. The Cork launch of graphic novel , a One City One Book event featuring Filly author Rosamund Taylor and poet Billy Ramsell, and a double launch of new Irish-language titles from Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh and Darach Ó Scolaí will all also take place.
“Tenzing’s the man who’s climbed higher than any human’s climbed before,” we hear in the trailer for this titular Apple original film. It might come in handy as it tells the story of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s (Tom Hiddleston) historic 1953 ascent of Mount Everest. Directed by Jennifer Peedom, who has made films and documentaries on other adventuring from cave diving to mountaineering, boasts critical acclaim and a stellar cast including Willem Dafoe and Irish actress Caitríona Balfe.
A concert to celebrate the arrival of Cork Opera House’s Steinway B. Alongside the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra, conductor John O’Brien, and pianist Ciara Moroney, the concert will feature a host of Cork players and soloists across many musical genres and styles, including Jack O’Rourke, Dylan Howe (Hánt), Lucia Evans, Emma Nash, and Ross Scanlon. The organisers say the piano’s arrival signals "a real commitment to our future as a renowned music house and the ambitious programming that will follow".
Belfast-based Aisling Ghéar premieres a new Irish-language adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's at The Everyman before embarking on an all-island tour. Set in contemporary Belfast during Oireachtas na Samhna, the production reimagines the classic story through the lens of language, identity, and cultural belonging. Directed by Nuala Ní Néill, it explores who gets to claim ownership of the Irish language in modern Ireland.
