Arena

Week of 11.05.2026 

Monday 11.05.2026 –  

  • Author John Banville on Gulliver’s Travels 300 year anniversary 
  • The Blackwater Valley Opera Festival (BVOF) 2026 features the renowned conductor Tom Creed and the talented singers Gavan Ring and Amy Ní Fhearraigh. 
     
  • Sylvia Gribaudi on the Dublin Dance Festival 2026 which will  be a major contemporary dance celebration, running from 30 April to 16 May 2026 

Tuesday 12.05.2026 –  

  • Marc Atkinson Borrell  and Matthew Malone on the play An Ideal Husband  which will be at the Gate 
  • “Once We Were Punks” is a documentary directed by Frank Shouldice who will join Rick to talk about the film that premiered at Galway Film Fléadh on July 9. The film follows a punk rock band from Bailieborough, led by Justin Kelly and David Meagher, who formed in the late 1980s. 
  • Mike Pickering  

Wednesday 13.05.2026 

  • Junior Brother is the stage name of Ronan Kealy, an Irish alternative folk singer-songwriter from County Kerry. 
  • Lucy Caldwell, The Northern Irish writer explores music and family, memory and duty in a collection of tales entitled ‘Devotion’ 
  • Victoria Smurfit and Lisa McGrillis on their new season of the Disney hit ‘Rivals’ 

Thursday 14.04.2026  

  • Film reviews   
  • China Moses ontheir performance at the West Wicklow Chamber Music Festival on May 23, 2026, at the Tramway Theatre in Blessington, Wicklow. The event will feature a selection of her greatest hits, from albums old and new, and will be accompanied by the jazz band ‘Classical Soul’. 

Friday 15.05.2026 

  • TV reviews.  
  • Album reviews.