A wealth of arts on meagre funding

IN the arts, January is a quiet month. Yet last week, I saw two major plays, Druid’s production of Dion Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn and the revival of Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara.

Unusually, I didn’t attend a gig, but I viewed six art exhibitions, including two I really liked, Vera Klute’s ‘Deadweight’ at the RHA, in Dublin, and Amanda Dunsmore’s video installation, ‘David’, at the Crawford Art Gallery, in Cork. And I saw Martin Scorcese’s new film, The Wolf of Wall Street.

I’m not boasting about my social life. The point I’m making is that, even in a quiet month, there is no end of arts events worth attending. And this is the lull before the festival season, which, in my life at least, extends from February to November, though that is only because I don’t get along to the Temple Bar Trad Fest in January.