A strange electricity runs through Ireland this week. We’re talking U2 choosing the Ukraine invasion anniversary to launch Days of Ash, a comeback that dodges comfort and aims straight at conscience. We’re also watching a street musician rewrite the ladder: Allie Sherlock turns busking into a world tour while Dermot Kennedy and Glen Hansard strip their sets down to wood, wire, and breath. The thread tying it together is intimacy—a demand for music that feels touched, not polished.
Step into the festival fields where nostalgia shakes hands with rebellion. All Together Now balances Pulp and Underworld with the fierce, Irish-language hip-hop of Kneecap, staging a culture clash that feels more like a culture merger. Forbidden Fruit sharpens the modern edge with dance-forward headliners. On screen, the new Peaky Blinders film borrows Ireland’s darkest timbres, with Grian Chatten and Lankum’s drone-heavy folk turning industrial grit into a global soundtrack. Even the indie trenches buzz—new singles, a Belfast goodbye for Virgins, and Horslips’ classic honored five decades on—proof that legacy and novelty are learning to breathe in the same room.
Beyond stages and screens, the search for something solid gets literal. St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral closes for a €25 million restoration, a vote for place in an age of feeds. Bible sales spike to decade highs, fueled by TikTok creators and a Gen Z hunger for structure. Ancient stone lifting surges back, mapping the countryside with feats you can’t fake online. Then comes the ethical jolt: a secret heritage tax scheme trading public access to private art for tax relief. Is pragmatism preserving treasures, or are we pricing our own memory? We chew on that while saluting a legend—Katie Taylor plans one final fight at home—and marveling as a million fans gather around rugby’s campfire. The GAA wrestles with calendars and Casement Park, proof that even our oldest institutions are trying to move without tearing the thread.
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Script compiled and read with voices from NotebookLM
