@irishmj

Culture Night / Oíche Chultúir celebrates and promotes culture, creativity and the arts throughout the island of Ireland. Beginning back in 2006 as an initiative between Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Dublin City Council, it started with 40 bars and venues in Temple Bar, before spreading out across Dublin City in 2007.  In 2008 Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford came onboard and, since then, Culture Night has continued to grow across Ireland. In 2012, Culture Night spread its wings abroad with nights in London, Leeds, Newcastle and Liverpool. And that's a brief history of Culture Night.  You can read more about it here . That all leads me on to last night's festivities in Maynooth University in Kildare.  I was invited along to photograph a night of poetry, prose and music in the John Hume building. Host for the night was award-winning poet and acclaimed playwright,  Colm  Keegan .  Joining him on the night were Fiach Moriarty , Béibhinn Thorsch , Tia Burke , Cathal Culliney a

The 4 of Us first appeared on my radar way back in 1989 when they had a string of hits with Drag My Bad Name Down , Washington Down and, of course, Mary , all from their debut album  Songs for the Tempted . In 1992 they released their follow up album, entitled Man Alive , which featured their first UK Top 40 entry, She Hits Me . And then, well, their third album was scrapped, and things went quiet for the next 5 or 6 years returning with Classified Personal in 1999 and have gone on to release another 7 albums since then, most recently with 2015s Sugar Island . Anyway, that's enough of the history lesson.  Last night they were in the Moat Theatre , Naas, so I obviously went along! The set lasted two hours and, in those 2 hours, we were treated to a fantastic night of songs and the stories behind the songs giving a fascinating insight into Northern Ireland in the early 70s. Post show, both Brendan and Declan stayed behind to meet, what seemed like, the whole audience, with selfies

I think this is the last festival of my summer festival season, I think... Taking place only a stones throw from my front door, the Wild Food Festival has been running since 2014 (I think) and every year, the music side of it has grown. The festival had a new home this year, it's moved to a large, enclosed car park just off the main street.  This gave it a much more music festival feel.  Food stalls around the the perimeter, a bar located at the back and the largest stage yet at the festival was located at the far end of the venue. I think it worked out pretty well. So, who played, or more importantly, who did I see live?  Well, let me show you. This is Day 1: Bunoscionn Kovanta Tia Burke And this is Day 2: Abbaesque Paddy Casey and Saoirse Casey Megan O'Neill Gemma Cox