Things To Do: Get to grips with evolution, go to the market, read a few letters

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Info Dump Sessions: Evolution

Over the past few weeks, A4 Sounds has been organising a series of “info dump” talks, titled I forgot anteaters exist, in which a different person is invited to share their knowledge on a topic of their choosing.

Essentially, it is an opportunity to indulge one’s journey down digital rabbit holes, and this week, the chosen subject is evolution.

Led by Jordy Smith, the scientist, not the professional surfer, this “info dump” will look at how evolution is more than just “gene flow, founder effects, and rates of substitution".

Smith will look at evolution as a biological, social and political phenomenon, and dig into the theories of evolution and their historical origins, often being tied to racist and colonial ideologies.

Smith will be stepping up to unload his thoughts at 7.15pm, before the floor is later opened to the audience to chime in.

To book a spot, visit the event page here.

Don Letts

On Friday night, DJ, filmmaker, and cover star of Sniffin’ Glue issue seven, Don Letts is in town.

Arguably one of the most influential DJs in the British punk scene during the mid-to-late 1970s, Letts’ first splash was as a selector in the short-lived Roxy Club in Covent Garden, providing the scene with a reggae and dub soundtrack.

Over the course of those 100 days, before the club closed, Letts also became a key documentarian of the movement, filming gigs on Super 8, and releasing 1978’s The Punk Rock Movie.

During the same time, he became a key collaborator with the Clash, shooting a majority of the band’s music videos, before going on to form Big Audio Dynamite with the group’s guitarist Mick Jones.

In later years, he helmed documentaries including The Clash: Westway to the World and the criminally underrated Punk: Attitude, which charted the evolution of the genre on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 2009, he has been hosting the weekly BBC Radio 6 show Culture Clash Radio.

Suffice it to say, he’s played quite a crucial role in British music over the past five decades, and it would be worth your while to head up to the Sugar Club at 11pm on Friday night to see him in action.

Tickets are available here.

Down the Market and TradFest 2026

On Sunday, the Irish Film Institute will be hosting a special lunchtime screening of director and author Dave Tynan’s short film Down the Market as part of TradFest 2026.

Created by Tynan and producer Samuel Dennigan, the film is a sung and spoken elegy for the closed Smithfield Fruit and Vegetable market, which Dublin City Council moved wholesalers out of years ago, closed, and then, last September, began the process of renovating.

Shot over the course of a single day in February 2023, the film features interviews with third-generation traders Justin Leonard and Margaret Hanway, as well as songs by Barry Gleeson, Anne Buckley, and the group Landless.

Down the Market will be screening at 12.30pm on Sunday, 25 January. Tickets are free, but booking is required.

The film is being shown on the final day of TradFest 2026, which kicked off on Wednesday.

Among the other (not yet sold-out) highlights on the bill is a retrospective of actor Stephen Rea at the Millbank Theatre in Rush, an exhibition about the Irish nationalist revolutionary Thomas Ashe in the Lusk Community Centre, and the Skerries Folk Circle’s latest singing session on Sunday.

Rising folk sextet Madra Salach will also be launching their debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age at the Abbey Tavern in Howth tomorrow night (Friday, 23 January) at 8.30pm. And to be frank, it’s a miracle those tickets haven’t sold out yet. So, before you browse the full-line-up here, secure one of those first here, because I’m only 75 percent sure this isn’t an error in the festival website.

NIVAL Taster – Letters From the Archive

Over in the National College of Art and Design on Monday, the National Irish Visual Arts Library is organising the latest in its lunchtime talk series.

Each installation in this ongoing monthly series highlights a different aspect of NIVAL’s collection, offering glimpses into the materials they preserve.

This month’s session is Letters from the Archive, hosted by artist Eve Parnell. Among the materials that will feature in the discussion are correspondences between the Women Artists Action Group (WAAG) and the anonymous artist collective Guerilla Girls during the early 1990s, letters from painter Evie Hone to Mainie Jellet, as well as those from the Cultural Relations Committee, an expert body of leading figures in Irish cultural life appointed to advise the Minister for Foreign Affairs between 1949 and 2005.

The talk will be on at 1pm in the Nival Reading Room, at NCAD.

Seachtain Saoirse don Phalaistín

Beginning on Monday, 26 January, Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar is running Seachtain Saoirse don Phalaistín, a curated week of celebrating cultural resistance and Palestinian art.

Seachtain Saoirse don Phalaistín – or Freedom for Palestine Week – will be intentionally held on the cusp of Imbolc, the season of new growth in the Celtic calendar, and will be running until 31 January.

Headlining this year’s bill is Return to Palestine, a new theatrical drama co-produced by the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Freedom Theatre, a community-based theatre and cultural center in the Jenin refugee camp. The story follows Jad, a Palestinian born in America who is visiting the state for the first time in his life.

Directed by Micaela Miranda and devised together with the ensemble of graduate actors from The Freedom Theatre, the drama draws from stories shared within the Jenin refugee camp and city,as well as the Dheisheh refugee camp, Mufaqara and Jabalia Camp in Gaza.

Return to Palestine will run from 28 to 31 January.

Also on the line-up is Palestine: Peace de Resistance, the award-winning show by comedian Sami Abu Wardeh. Examining issues like resistance and identity, Wardeh’s comedy looks at the point “where silliness collides with survival”, asking whether “resistance can be funny”.

That will be showing on Monday and Tuesday (26 and 27 January).

Across the week, Project Arts Centre will also be hosting a critical conversation on active resistance with Ahmed Masoud, the writer, director and founder of PalArt Collective, a performance by musician Ahmed Eid and a workshop with artist Fatin Al Tamimi exploring traditional Palestinian embroidery among other events.

For more information and to book tickets, visit the event page here.

Are you disabled and looking for work?

AHEAD and local authorities have teamed up to offer 23 job opportunities exclusively available to disabled applicants.

Jobs are available across a nationwide spread of county councils, including Fingal, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, Dublin City and South Dublin. To apply, click the button below. Applications are welcome until 4 February.

Click here for more information, and to apply!

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Save Stephen's Green

While the owners of St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre makes a bid to re-design the building, the Save Stephen’s Green campaign has launched a new petition calling for the centre to be recognised as a protected structure.

As part of this campaign, the group has also put out an open-call for works of art, film, photography or writing relating to Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

If you would like to submit any work, please fill out the form here, and the petition can be signed here.

Damhsa

On Sunday, 25 January, Flux Studios on Chatham Row is holding a new Sunday daytime dance party. Led by DJ R.Kitt, Damhsa will be a party focused on dancing, because there aren’t many daytime dance parties happening in the city right now.

Kicking off at 2pm, R.Kitt will be going deep into his record collection for a marathon seven-hour set.

Tickets are available here.

Tallaght Toastmasters

On Monday, 26 January, Tallaght Toastmasters will be meeting in St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre in Kilnamanagh.

It is an opportunity to build your confidence and leadership skills in an encouraging environment. New members are welcome, and the first visit is free.

For more information, visit Tallaght Toastmasters’ Facebook page here.