Greetings from Safe Harbour
Joanne McNally has the Opera House on Friday and Saturday with the show she is about to film for Netflix.
Wunderhorse play City Hall on Wednesday, straight off a Belfast date. The Tallest Man On Earth is at Live at St Luke's on Thursday, a top pairing of artist and venue.
Emma Langford marks ten years at De Barra's, A Streetcar Named Desire returns to The Everyman, Neil Delamere plays Coughlan's, and fEast opens in Midleton on Tuesday.
This is our pick of what's on this week. As always for a full event list check out the link at the bottom of the email.
Let's dive in 👇
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Joanne McNally: Pinotphile
Friday 28 and Saturday 29 August · Doors 19:00 · Cork Opera House
Pinotphile is the show McNally films in New York later this year for what becomes the first standalone Netflix special by an Irish comedian, which makes these two nights a look at the material before the rest of the world gets it. The set works through situationships, revenge, frenemies and rejection, and she has got sharper as the rooms have got bigger rather than softer. Both Cork dates are gone. Returns surface on Twickets and the Opera House exchange, and they go within minutes.
The Tallest Man On Earth
Thursday 27 August · 20:00 · Live at St. Luke's
Kristian Matsson has built twenty years on a grainy voice, a guitar tuned somewhere unusual, and an ability to hold a room without a band. He has been adding banjo and more recently violin, but the format has not really changed and does not need to. St Luke's is a converted church on a hill in Montenotte and there is no better room in Cork for one person and one instrument. Eight o'clock, and get there early for a decent seat.
Wunderhorse
Wednesday 26 August · 19:00 · Cork City Hall
Jacob Slater's band have gone from small rooms to City Hall in about two years, on the back of Midas and a live reputation that does most of the selling. They played Custom House Square in Belfast the night before and Sheffield at the weekend, so Cork catches them mid-run and properly warmed up. City Hall is a strange, grand room for a band this scruffy, which is exactly why it will work.
Emma Langford Trio
Thursday 27 August · 20:00 · De Barra's Folk Club, Clonakilty
Ten years on and still at the Feckin Music Tour, which is Langford's own title and tells you the tone. De Barra's is the room every Irish songwriter wants on their CV, and the trio format gives her space that a full band would fill in. Clonakilty is worth the drive and De Barra's is worth the Clonakilty.
Open Deck Night #39
Thursday 27 August · The Liberty Bar
The thirty-ninth of these, with Childish Lambino, which is a decent run for a night built on letting people who aren't booked DJs get on the decks. Underground Ovation have kept it going long enough that the standard has risen.
Smash Hits
Friday 28 August · 19:00 · Cyprus Avenue
A Friday night at Cyprus Avenue built entirely on songs you already know, which is a low bar cleared with enthusiasm. There is no shame in it and the room commits. Straightforward Friday.
The 502s
Monday 31 August · 19:00 · Cyprus Avenue
Orlando's beach-folk five-piece, all banjo and mandolin and relentless good cheer, on the Nonsense All Night tour. They are in Limerick the following night, so Cork gets first go. Bank holiday Monday and the sort of gig that is impossible to be in a bad mood at.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Thursday 27 August · 19:30 · The Everyman
Tennessee Williams back at The Everyman after last week's run, in a play that survives almost any production because the writing carries it. Blanche DuBois either works or the evening collapses, and there is nowhere for a cast to hide in a house that size. The Victorian interior suits the heat of it.
Batman Returns
Saturday 29 August · 19:00 · Triskel Arts Centre
Triskel's Tim Burton season reaches the strangest entry in it, a Christmas film about grief and penguins that Warner Bros. never quite forgave him for. Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman is still the best performance in any Batman film. Watching it projected inside a deconsecrated church on Tobin Street is a joke that improves the film.
Billy Longwood's Residency
Until Sunday 30 August · Triskel Sample Project Space
The last week to see Longwood's residency work in the Sample space before it closes. Residency shows are a chance to see what an artist made with time rather than to a brief, which is a different proposition entirely. Free, small, and ten minutes from the main Triskel building.
Kiki's Delivery Service
Friday 28 August to Thursday 3 September · The Arc Cinema
Miyazaki's film about a thirteen-year-old witch starting a delivery business, screening in Japanese with subtitles rather than dubbed, which is the version worth seeing. It is the gentlest film Ghibli made and secretly one about burnout. Multiple showtimes daily.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Friday 28 August to Thursday 3 September · The Arc Cinema
The twenty-fifth anniversary re-release, back on a proper screen for the first time in most of its audience's adult lives. Whatever you think of what came after, Chris Columbus made a film that understood it was about a boy finding out he had somewhere to go. Multiple showtimes daily.
Trainspotting
Monday 31 August to Wednesday 2 September · Cork City
The 4K restoration lands in Cork for its thirtieth anniversary after a run in Belfast. Thirty years on it plays less like a provocation and more like a document, and the Iggy Pop and Underworld cues still do exactly what Danny Boyle built them to do. Evening screenings.
The Dog Stars
Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 August · The Arc Cinema
Two days of afternoon and evening showtimes for the adaptation of Peter Heller's post-apocalyptic novel, which is more about a man and his dog than about the apocalypse. Short run, so this week or not at all.
fEast 2026
From Tuesday 1 September · Midleton
East Cork's food and drink festival opens with a launch party at the Midleton Distillery Experience, running through the week to a street festival that pulls over thirty thousand people. The week's programme is built from one-off dinners and events hosted by the region's restaurants and producers rather than a marquee full of stalls. Book the individual events early, the good ones close fast.
Flight Night at Cork & Pint
Tuesday 25 August · 18:00 · Cork & Pint
Four five-ounce pours from any of twenty-three taps, which is the correct way to work out what you actually like rather than committing to a pint of something regrettable. Six o'clock, and the staff will talk you through it if you ask. Tuesday well spent.
Teen Trad Group
Friday 28 August · City Library, Grand Parade
A traditional music group for teenagers to play together, free, in the Grand Parade library. Getting teenagers into a room to play trad with other teenagers is harder and more valuable than any amount of formal tuition. Instruments and some ability assumed.
Nellness Pilates and Wellness Morning
Sunday 30 August · 11:00 · Marina Market
Pilates, lymphatic drainage and yin yoga in a converted warehouse on the docks, followed immediately by the entire Marina Market food hall, which is either a contradiction or good planning. Eleven o'clock on a bank holiday Sunday. Book, it fills.
Neil Delamere
Sunday 30 August · 18:30 · Coughlan's
Delamere in a room the size of Coughlan's is a rare thing, given the venues he normally plays, and small rooms are where he is at his sharpest because the crowd work is the best part of the act. Half six on a bank holiday Sunday. Sit near the front only if you want to be involved.
Stand-Up Comedy Club Primetime
Saturday 29 August · 20:30 · The Roundy
The Roundy's regular Saturday night bill, which has been quietly reliable for years without ever making a fuss about it. Half eight, cheap, and central enough to be the start of the night rather than the whole thing.
Secret Magic Show
Tuesday 25 August · 19:00 · Kino Events House
A magic show at the Kino where the details are deliberately withheld, which is at least thematically consistent. Close-up magic in a small room is a genuinely different experience to seeing it on a stage. Seven o'clock.
For a full overview of all events on this week in Cork check out our event listings page
UNTIL NEXT WEEK
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