Voters in the Rebel County have a big choice to make before casting their vote after a set of candidates in tune with their grassroots was unveiled today.

Johnny ‘Fang’ Murphy, frontman with Cork group The Stargazers, tells Ellie O’Byrne about the cultural milestones on his musical journey.

Richard T Cooke is involved in organising the Music at the Maldron free gigs by Jimmy Crowley and others as part of the Mother Jones Festival in Cork, until Sunday.

Five things to watch out for the week ahead

As Jimmy Crowley and Lankum join forces for a gig, Marjorie Brennan delves into the fascinating history of the wartime ballad they both perform

Dubbed ‘the voice of Cork’, he started collecting Cork folk songs in the late 1960s and early ’70s when it was neither fashionable nor profitable.

A tribute concert to set dancer Timmy 'The Brit' McCarthy took place tonight at The Oliver Plunkett bar in Cork.

Jimmy Crowley has started a new folk club in his native city, writes Pet O’Connell

Dawn Masses and Easter fires are being held at a number of ancient Christian graveyards and sites in Co Kerry tomorrow, in commemoration of St Luke’s account of the finding of the empty tomb of Jesus “at early dawn”.

The musicality of the Cork accent has a captivating charm which is to the advantage of harmonising swing trio The Stargazers, writes Ellie O’Byrne.

When Ford opened a UK plant in Dagenham in 1931, so many men from Leeside got work in the Essex town that it became known as ’Little Cork’. Cork balladeer Jimmy Crowley remembers his family links to it.

The family behind one of the country’s oldest independent book shops will celebrate 100 years in business today with an eye on the next chapter of their remarkable story.

With 50 years of performing behind him and a glowing endorsement from a celebrity fan, Brendan Shine is still loving life as an entertainer, writes Ed Power

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Des O’Driscoll looks at five things to do in the world of arts and culture this week.

Jimmy Crowley’s book on the songs of Cork is the latest instalment in his longterm love affair with the culture of his hometown, writes Dan Buckley

The Verve were clearly not describing Billy Idol when they said the drugs don’t work.

Are you looking for things to do during the week? We have a few suggestions that might suit you.

Our weekly guide to 'arts and cultural' events around Ireland.

Broadcaster and rugby pundit George Hook has agreed to line out as grand marshall for the St Patrick’s Dayparade in his native city.

Rail commuters standing on platforms at Kent Station, Cork, could have been forgiven for thinking they’d gone back in time yesterday as several people milled around in period dress.

The Cork Folk Festival provided a feast of great music and good fun, writes Eoin Edwards

1 Adare to Survive

For fear we may never see his likes again, should we not seek a sample of Christy Moore’s DNA and put it in a time capsule?

Cork folk group Stoker’s Lodge, led by Jimmy Crowley, are reuniting after 30 years, says Jo Kerrigan

The songs you have to work hard at are not real songs at all.

Highlights of next week’s festival

CELEBRATING the workers’ rights activism of Cork-born firebrand, Mary Harris, The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival takes place in the Shandon area of Cork city from Jul 30-Aug 1.

FOR a man who is regarded as quintessentially Cork, thanks to his ’70s rendition of The Boys of Fairhill, it comes as a surprise to hear that the genteel county of Kent is one of Jimmy Crowley’s favourite places to hang out.

A Cork woman who became a byword in the campaign for miners’ rights in the US is to be honoured in a special festival in her native city next month.

Raymond’s Restaurant, Distillery Walk, Midleton, Co Cork; tel: 021-4635235, raymonds.ie

Well-known traditional accordionist Dan Herlihy will be honoured at the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival in Castleisland, Co Kerry, this weekend.

THE LAST time I faked an interest in football, I was eleven years old.

Hundreds of fans are set to throng a well-known Cork pub from Friday for a weekend of leprechaun tales, ballads and sean nós singing.

John Spillane’s new album reveals a softer, less quirky side. But he still eats rashers and drinks Beamish, he tells Carl Dixon

Joe McNamee profiles a song composed in honour of the visit by Queen Elizabeth II — Come Up To Gurrane Lizzie Windsor

ADRIAN MAGUIRE’S Anshan Dreams followed his win in a maiden at Tipperary with a smooth success in the INH Stallion Owners’ EBF Novice Hurdle at Cork yesterday.

GOOD Time Donie can cheer up punters no end by landing the William Hill EBF Maiden Hurdle at Downpatrick today.

CLOSE to the long shadows of one of Cork city’s oldest pieces of architecture, the 13th century Red Abbey, is Margaret Street, where houses built in the old city marsh area are still standing proud, 250 years after construction.

THE West Kerry gaeltacht retreat of singer-songwriter Jimmy Crowley is for sale as he prepares to swap Kerry’s moody landscape for the bright lights under an American sun.

Festival puts wind in Waterford’s sails, writes South-East Correspondent Neans McSweeney.

IT’S another world as far as children of today are concerned — a place apart with smoke curling from the chimneys of thatched houses, horses ploughing and homely women in aprons baking bread.