There is no doubt whatsoever: Jack Lukeman aka Jack L has a great voice. It straddles four octaves and operates in a variety of keys, acrobatically. “One of the most distinctive and recognisable voices in Irish music over the past 20-odd years,” is how he is introduced at the start […]
Culture
Offering the best of professional dramatic performance, this year’s Fit-Up Theatre Festival runs from July 8 to August 3, in towns, villages and islands all over West Cork. With a nod to the tradition of Fit-Up theatre of the 1950s, the West Cork Fit-Up Theatre Festival has been providing rural […]
The increasingly popular Skibbereen Arts Festival returns this summer (July 25-August 3) with an incredible programme of world-class local, national and international acts. A major coup for the festival this year is the debut West Cork appearance by the legendary English musician Richard Thompson, described by the LA Times as “the […]
In March I wrote a column encouraging people to take part in a public consultation process, for a project aimed at reviving a neglected part of Clonakilty. The public consultation was to inform an Integrated Urban Strategy (IUS) for Kent Street (the street the library is on), identifying how public […]
As always in Summer, the art galleries and arts centres of West Cork are blooming: there are wonderful exhibitions to be seen in Cnoc Bui (Union Hall), Working Artist Studios (Ballydehob), Uillin (Skibbereen), Blue House Gallery (Schull), and Gallery Asna | Clonakilty Community Arts Centre (Clonakilty). This will be the […]
It’s May 2025. The sky is grey. A singer stands under a porch in Bandon. His hands move masterly across the neck and body of his guitar. Chords well-played. But it’s the sound, the melody and the soaring lyrics of his song that give it wings and lift it above […]