Things To Do: Ponder a move to Wexford, celebrate independent publishers, reflect on failure, prepare for a busy Friday

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Our recommendations – no sponsored content, or adverts, just stuff we like.

Stinging Fly launch, Digital Hub

This evening, up at the Digital Depot on Thomas Street, The Stinging Fly journal will be launching its Winter 2025-26 issue at 7pm.

Titled "The Climate Issue", this latest edition of the literary journal will, among a myriad of other works, feature fiction by June Caldwell, Liadan Ní Chuinn and Nandini Rawat, poetry by Zoë Brigley, Karan Chambers and Tom Nutting, and non-fiction from Alice Cappelle, Ella Gaynor and Philip Ó Ceallaigh.

As part of the launch, there will be a roundtable discussion on climate, asking “where do we go from here?” and featuring Dr Nessa Cronin, Saoirse Exton, Pádraic Fogarty, Catherine Cleary and Kenneth Keavey. A few contributors to this edition of the journal will also be in the Depot to give readings of their poetry and prose.

Doors open at 7pm, with the readings starting at 7.30pm.

Admission is free. To reserve a spot, or to buy the new issue, visit their website here.

Street to Studio: Minaw Collective

Also this evening, Minaw Collective, the all-female street art collective, is holding a new group exhibition at the Flux Gallery on Chatham Row.

Street to Studio presents new works from members, which were created in studio settings and highlight how muralists adapt their practice when moving away from the scale and ephemerality of outdoor walls. On the bill for this latest show are Anna Doran, Claire Prouvost, Em Blake ESTR, Friz, Holly Pereira, KinMx, Klo Wi, Loki PookaDubh, MyfanwyNia, Novice Jess, Signs of Power, Zippy, and Zurdie. 

The opening reception is at 6pm. Admission is free, and the exhibition will run through the weekend until Sunday at 5pm.

For more information, visit Minaw Collective’s website here.

Small Press Fair

Tomorrow, the Dublin Small Press Fair is coming to Pearse Street Library.

The two-day event is a celebration of small-scale publishing in Ireland, which will be showcasing books as well as book-adjacent work from about thirty small and independent presses, literary magazines, book binders, book artists, zine makers and more.

Beginning on Friday, 29 November, there will be an evening preview of the fair with sales and a panel discussion. Among those on the bill are Will Dady from Renard, Eimear Ryan from Banshee and Brendan MacEvilly from Holy Show, with poet, pacifist and fabulist Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe moderating the discussion.

That starts at 5pm, before you are welcome to browse and buy any publications between 6:15 and 9pm. Then, all day on Saturday 29 November, you will be able to drop into the library to buy a few more books between 10am and 4pm. At 4:15pm there will be a closing panel discussion, titled Young Blood: Class x Masculinity in Contemporary Poetry. This panel will feature Charles Lang, Rafael Mendes and Matthew Rice, with Eoin McNamee as the chair.

There is currently a waiting list on tickets for the two events. But, if you keep an eye out here, and hit the refresh button every couple of minutes, something might come available.

Emily LaBarge and Mark O’Connell

If, however, you cannot secure a ticket to one of those panel discussions – or you are feeling particularly ambitious – writers Mark O’Connell and Emily LaBarge will be in conversation over at Books Upstairs.

Canadian author LaBarge is in town to talk about her new book, Dog Days, which blends memoir, essay and cultural criticism to reflect on the way we tell stories, while drawing on the works of authors and artists like Vivian Gornick, Richard Burton and Sylvia Plath.

Tickets are available here.

And, in case you are wondering, it is a fourteen minute walk from the Small Press Fair to Books Upstairs. If you really care about the written word, this should be perfectly doable.

Rural Pursuit!

Friday is doing a lot of the heavy lifting this week.

Up at Richmond Road Studios in Phibsboro Tower, artists James Kirwan and David Booth are opening their new exhibition: Rural Pursuit!

Both Kirwan and Booth are former alumni of the studios, back when they were located on Richmond Road. But, in more recent years, while the studios moved across the city, they relocated down to Wexford, which is a county that isn’t Dublin.

Rural Pursuit! draws on that on that move, with the pair coming together to give “a succulent slice of their urban to rural experience.”

The exhibition opens tomorrow between 6pm and 10pm, but you will be able to see the show over the following week. Anyone who intends to visit it after Friday is advised to get in touch with the studios in advance so that they can arrange to let you in.

If anyone has the stamina to hit all three of these events, please reach out to us with verifiable proof of attendance, and we will give you an honorary mention in the Noticeboard section, acknowledging your devotion to both the newsletter, and to culture as a whole.

A Litany of Failures, Volume V

Let’s take the pressure off a little bit, and recommend something that isn’t time sensitive.

Since 2016, musicians Danny Carroll, Stevie Lennox and Paul O’Connor have been putting out compilation albums that celebrate the Irish music scene’s more experimental and DIY facets.

Titled A Litany of Failures, the series has, in the ensuing nine years, featured a staggering array of inimitable voices, including Rising Damp, The Bonk, Elaine Howley and Search Results, as well as a healthy dose of hidden gems from the likes of Junior Brother and Gilla Band’s Dara Kiely (under the moniker of Fifty Years of Hair in volume three).

Back in October, Carroll, Lennox and O’Connor put out their fifth volume of the compilation, including a few names familiar to Inquirer readers like pôt-pot, E the Artist, Robbie Stickland and Róis.

As part of the release, Carroll and co have also put out a twenty-four minute documentary, filmed in both Limerick and Dublin. Directed by Iarla McKeon, A Litany of Failures plays out like a comedic remake of the Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin documentary Chronicle of a Summer, with Carroll approaching the album’s various contributors to discuss a moment in which they failed.

You can watch that here in your own time. There’s no rush.

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Noticeboard

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Block The Bridge

On Saturday, locals in Chapelizod will be protesting the BusConnects changes in the village.

At 11am, protestors will meet at the village square and march through Maiden Row to Chapelizod where they intend to block traffic for one hour.

As part of the protest, councillors Ray Cunningham and Madeleine Johansson will be speaking alongside members of the community.

Locals have also launched a petition which can be read here.

Nature and Nurture

On 29 November, members of the arts collective Scéal Jill Kelly and Nunce McAuley will be opening their new exhibition Nature and Nurture at Ardgillan Castle.

Inspired by the location of their studios on the demesne between Balbriggan and Skerries, the show will continue until 14 December.

The opening this Saturday is at 2pm and admission is free.

Don’t Fence Me In, Flux, 3 December

Dublin University Photography Association (DUPA) is holding its annual December exhibition next week in Flux Studios.

Don’t Fence Me In celebrates the power of diversity, self-expression and resilience, and will be showing on 3 December between 6:30 and 9pm.

Entry is free. For more information, follow DUPA on Instagram here.

Islander Architects, Power to Renovation

Islander Architects is looking for support for their European Citizen’s Initiative ‘Power to Renovation’ in Ireland.

The idea is to make the renovation and transformation of buildings the new norm instead of demolition as a way of ensuring a fairer, more local building industry, saving energy and resources and preserving memories and stories.

To support the initiative, sign the petition here.

Islander Architects also currently have an exhibition about this at Charlemont Square, which closes this Sunday. For more information, visit the Irish Architecture Foundation website here.