Tonie Walsh (58) says he’s been making a show of himself his whole life, but at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, he’s getting up on stage to do so.

Denyse Woods was born in Boston, but has been living in Cork for almost 30 years, and is based in Inniscarra.

Today is International Jazz Day. To mark the occasion, Jonathan deBurca Butler asked some well-known fans and musicians about their love of the genre.

Des O’Driscoll meets Joe Kelly, one of the organisers of It Takes A Village music weekender in Trabolgan

Eileen O’Shea is from Killarney but has been living in Cork for the past three years. She is programme and events manager at St Peter’s on North Main Street.

River Matthews is a singer/ songwriter from Surrey, and tours Ireland next week with dates at Fred Zepplins in Cork (Wed); Roisin Dubh, Galway (Thurs); and Whelan’s in Dublin (Fri).

Jay Z no longer just puts out albums. Every new release from the self-proclaimed greatest rapper alive is an event — which we are expected to assess not as a mere collection of songs but a happening of major cultural significance.

As holiday season kicks into gear, a number of broadcasters and authors tell Jonathan deBurca Butler which books they’ll be packing in their suitcase.

Ken Griffin is originally from Dublin, but has lived in New York for the past 23 years. Formerly of Rollerskate Skinny, his latest band is August Wells. They play the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh tonight.

Úna Ní Fhlannagáin is a harpist and harp teacher based in Co Galway. She recently won the Seán Ó Riada Gold Medal for harp in a competition broadcast live from Cork on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta.

Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh is an Irish language poet from Tralee, Co Kerry. She co-presents arts show Imeall with Tristan Rosenstock on TG4 on Thursdays.

Radie Peat is a musician and singer from Artane, Dublin. 

Despite success with previous productions, John O’Brien’s new opera wasn’t granted the funding for an extended run, writes Cathy Desmond

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CLARA Rose Monahan is a woman of many parts. However, the golden thread uniting her many different roles is music.

Carmel Winters is a Kanturk-born playwright and filmmaker. Her new play, Not Being Me, is in development with Gare St Lazare, and will be read on July 22 in Ma Murphy’s, Bantry, for the West Cork Literary Festival. The reading is presented in association with The Everyman, Cork where the play will be produced later this year.

Ellie O’Byrne had fun in the sun — and the mud — at the weekend festival in Ballinlough Castle

Madonna has defended the revealing dress she wore to the Met Gala in New York, saying it was a “political statement as well as a fashion statement”.

The Menu couldn’t be happier than to hymn the praises of the Cork Coffee Weekend.

A bit of background music can be thoroughly enjoyable while eating — but can it also enhance the taste of the food?

Nina Simone may be a dinner party staple, but there is also a deep and darker side to the singer, says Ed Power

Idris Elba writes and directs King For A Term on Sky Arts, Thursday, Idris Elba as Dad and Omar Agyei as Akuna.

MAURICE SEEZER is a songwriter, film music composer and founding committee member of the Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival.

Ray Senior tells the Irish Examiner about his 1978 Porsche 911 and about the first time he fell in love with the 911 range.

ORLA Kirwan acts on reflex and does things on the spur of the moment. Which isn’t at all like Sorcha Furlong, who has played Orla on the RTÉ soap Fair City for the last 15 years.

Brendan Cleary was born in Carrickfergus and now lives in Brighton. He has published eight collections of poetry and is editor of the journal The Echo Room.

There was a lot of controversy about Martin Luther King movie Selma at this year's Oscars, mainly the fact that it was left out of most award categories.

It opened with a sigh, continued with a groan, and quickly it became apparent that RTÉ Radio 1’s new — or at least reconditioned — signing was in the soup.

You may not be able to catch the St Andrew’s Day celebrations next week, but there is never a bad time to visit Edinburgh, says Denise O'Donoghue.

I’d be lost without music. My taste in music is wide and ever-expanding. 

Hot licks, boogie woogies, and jive-talkin’ Janes — it has to be the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival.

Joan Wasser, who records as Joan As Policewoman, is going her own way with a new, groovy, soulful sound, says Ed Power.

OVER the years, there have been many odes to the city that never sleeps.

LIKE a continuous loop, Damien Dempsey can’t separate his song-writing from singing. “Both come quite naturally. I can’t image one without the other,” he says in his hallmark Dublin accent.

Conor McKeon and his 24-piece band are to play the National Concert Hall on November 19 in aid of Turning The Tide of Suicide (3Ts), it has been announced.

Comedian Tommy Tiernan has a great skit about NASA, and about the space race that culminated in the moon landing in 1969.

CATHY Kelly, 46, is a top-selling Irish fiction writer who at one point out sold Dan Brown and JK Rowling.

Atheists in a church? Giving thanks, singing and celebrating? What’s going on? Katy Harrington finds out at a new Sunday Assembly for Atheists

Chart star George Michael declared it was “great to be alive” as he made a triumphant return to the stage in Vienna after fighting for his life 10 months earlier.

After Erbie Underwood overdosed last month at 18, his mum was determined his story would have a positive outcome, says Joe McNamee

Camille O’Sullivan performs contemporary songs with emotional depth on her new CD, Changeling, writes Carl Dixon.

A schoolboy who sang Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good' is still favourite to win 'Britain's Got Talent'.

The ‘Britain's Got Talent’ judges will be wowed by a young poet and her boa constrictor on tonight’s show.