Culture Night 18 Sept 2026

Friday 18 Sept was one of the best days of 2026 to be in Belfast.

Reminiscent, in a much smaller way, of last month's hugely successful Fleadh Cheoil, our trad music festival (1), the anticipation of more cultural novelties sounded highly promising from Culture Night's PR material.

Heeding the excitement generated by the news of loads of free events (not just in Belfast but across the whole island), I plumped to fit in a couple of free top quality gigs that were easily accessible from where I live.

One of the bonuses of hearing about them comes from sharing good news with friends.  A notable by-product is that, almost inevitably, those conversations often reveal other events, ones that normally come with the word "unmissable" attached.  

A particular friend, for example, with whom I was sharing Culture Night news, told me about a 2-part war movie about the infamous General DeGaulle.  It had received great reviews.  So, before heading to my first Culture Night gig, I diverted to the QFT cinema to see "DeGaulle: Résistence."  

Her recommendation was indeed accurate. It was so good, in fact, that I made an immediate booking to see part two ("DeGaulle: Liberté") three days later.  Two films intended to provoke creative thoughts and to compare events now with the world of 80 years ago.

Afterwards "Cathy's Call" was my early evening Cuture Night event.  Taking place in the less than obvious venue of Grand Central Station in central Belfast, fans were instructed in performing Kate Bush's dance moves using her wonderful 1978 "Running up the Hill" song.  Upon my arrival, the first person I saw was a yoga class pal who, with her friends waved at me frantically from the distance.  Next the three girls changed into glamorous red dresses to match my red cycling gear.  

A few minutes later a couple of hundred of us were trying to follow the professionals' instructions on the dance's moves, section by section.  This was no place to be self-conscious; instead the go-to setting was to let it flow, and enjoy the crack.  The next day, I was surprised (maybe also unsurprised) to see a short video posted by a regional newspaper (2).  Perhaps we would go viral in due course.

After the dancing lesson, I made my way across the city to find Belfast First Church, the venue for three recitals being given by our accomplished pianist Ruth McGinley.  The programme listed her for three performances, each lasting roughly 30 minutes, and each one presenting different repertoire.  I arrived just in time to hear her final recital, when she played pieces by the contemporary composer Nicolas Einaudi.  She included his top defining popular work, entitled "Experience." 

A packed house enjoyed Ruth's verbal introduction and warmly applauded her pianistic excellence. 

What a day Friday was in retrospect - a hard-hitting movie, a dance extravaganza, and a piano recital.  Where we live, arts events again bring people together in positive ways, as the summer's Fleadh had exemplified, to be good for community relations - never mind their benefits for the arts themselves (3).

This afternoon (Tuesday 22 Sept),  I will attend another free event.  Because of when it popped up on my phone last week, I thought was a Culture Night event.  In fact, whereas it takes place in the same venue as the Kate Bush dancing gig at Central Station, it is a normal one-off other event.  

At 4 pm, the full Ulster Orchestra, hosted by Translink and accompanied by the ancillary staff of the orchestra - possibly with an eye on the imminent start of the upcoming 2026/27 season (4) - will entertain an appreciative crowd of rail and bus passengers waiting for their connectons and simultaneously be inspired by 25 minutes of glorious classical vibes at no cost to listeners.  

The Ulster Orchestra under the baton of new Principal Conductor Anna Handler playing Beethoven at Grand Central Station Belfast 22 Sept 2026

Good value for money and quality doesn't come any better than these events.  

And what an emphatic advertisement all of them provide for the city of Belfast as a place of 100,000 warming welcomes.

 

© Michael McSorley 2026

 References

1. https://michaelmcsorleymusic.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-festival-of-music-2026-fleadh.html

2.  Facebook post 19 Sept 2026 video clip    https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1H5aA4pBp4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

3.  BBC News !8 Sept 2026 Ross McKee Culture Night hoping for fleadh boost as it returns to Belfast Culture Night hoping for fleadh boost as it returns to Belfast https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck3rezwzx3p9o 

4. https://www.ulsterorchestra.org.uk/2026-27-season-brochure/

Two new films

Recent bank holiday visits to the cinema compel me to recommend a couple of new movies. It would be rude and impolite not to.

Neither film has a Hollywood production.  Instead both are international, both are strongly rooted in music (if in different formats), and both films share the ability to enhance life in different ways.

One is set in historic and beautiful Venice.  The other's setting is in the picturesque and contemporary west of Ireland, like another example of the country's burgeoningly sucessful film industry.

Music resonates with everyone for various reasons.  The main and deeply personal one arises from being brought up in a family business based on music - sales of records in all musical genres, record players, musical instruments.  This together with being raised by a mother who played the piano daily where we lived over the shop - these influences combined to mean that I was surrounded by music morning noon and night growing up.

There was even an educational element.  My first encounter with Shakespeare was his play Twelfth Night, a mainstay of our Junior Certificate course.  Its opening lines spoken by Duke Orsino of Illyria, a man consumed by his passion for the melancholy countess Olivia, are among the bard's most famous, easily becoming embedded in my susceptible lyrical subconscious (1) in quotations such as

    "If music be the food of love play on. Give me excess of it...." 

Primavera, meaning the season of spring, is an Italian film with subtitles for English.  It is based on the exhilerating music of Antonio Vivaldi.  His fame back in the day (and equally in the modern era) emerges as the composer of the Four Seasons.  Last year marked its compositional 300th anniversary, no less.  

The Italian novelist Tiziano Scarpa produced a prizewinning book (2) imagining an affair between the composer and a beautiful violinist, one of his female pupils at Venice's Ospedale della Pieta.  His novel inspired Primavera the film.

In addition to the inclusion of various compositions by Vivaldi, the movie presents a drama set in an 18th century Italian church that doubles as an orphanage for young women who perform in its orchestra.  While trying to avoid spoiler alerts, it will be unsurprising to feel that the dated attitudes of the then authorities to vulnerable (and talented) women.  They leave a lasting impression in the telling of a compelling story. 

Trad is an Irish movie filmed in Donegal and Galway whose title refers to traditional (or folk) music and is set in the modern era.  It has won the audience award at the 2026 Galway Film Fleadh.  

From their home in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area), again we have a gifted fiddle player as she and her brother join a troupe of wandering musicians seeking adventure and musical exploration.  In ways the scene is slightly reminiscent of chaotic hippie living in the 1960's, but with a more productive outcome.

The movie's acting gravitas comes from the addition of established Irish actors including Aidan Gillen, Sarah Greene, Peter Coonan and Ann Skelly.  The music takes pride of place, while presenting audiences with a highly accomplished and exhilerating celebration of Irish traditional music and dance.  

Escapism at its finest.  In the current era, what better activity than to observe and to hear creative geniuses making positive things happen.  A wonderful advertisement for our musical and acting talent.  What is there not to like.

© Michael McSorley 2026

References

1. www.Shakespeare-online.com/twelfthnight

2. Tiziano Scarpa "Stabat Mater," winner of 2009 Strega Prize, Italy's top literary award for prose fiction

Novels, Shakespeare, films and Oscars

At the height of the film awards season one question is - what would the movie industry do without the creative genius of novelists and others, not forgetting the great bard himself?

I've recently finished reading "Guilty by Definition," the new novel written by Susie Dent (1).  It marks the author's welcome debut into fiction following an illustrious 30-year career explaining the nuances of words and language.  This includes her high profile role as resident word expert on Channel 4's Countdown programme.

To experience the author's expertise and seamless ability switching from non-fiction with her gripping story about etymologists and lexicologists using their teamworking skills to unravel crime was, perversely, a joy to discover.  Etymology is the scientific study of the origin history and structure of words, analysing how meanings and forms change over time; and lexicology focuses on the vocabulary, structure, and usage of words, analysing formation, origin, meaning and how words relate to each other. 

Suffice it to add, with no plot spoilers, that the long deceased bard of Stratford (no mean wordsmith himself) plays a key role in the engrossing drama. Family relations more accurately.

It's impossible to avoid the coincidence between this novel and the blockbuster movie "Hamnet."  Awards achieved include best picture and best actress at the Golden Globes and similarly at the British Academy Film Awards, as well as nominations for eight Oscars.  These include best picture, best director and best actress.  

Hamnet the movie is based on the bestseller novel written by Irish author Maggie O'Farrell (2).  Her book, like that of Susie Dent, depends crucially on a connection with William Shakespeare.  Both stories, in their own ways, connect by serendipity to a different one of the Stratford bard's family relations.

Given the resounding success of Hamnet the movie, opportunities may appear for promoting Susie Dent's book further.  For instance, what are the chances of Guilty by Definition being adapted to make a grand appearance on our cinema screens?   And if so, why not follow Hamnet's successful employment of Irish acting talent to articulate the bardic message?  A coincidence of storyline might again also suit with the addition of Irish acting story-tellers.

In saying this, I'm aware of another coincidence (admittedly non-Shakespearean) raised last month (3) between Robert Harris's excellent novel "Precipice" about releasing state secrets in 1914 and the political impacts in the U.K. of America's recent release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.  Harris's 2016 novel "Conclave" had also been adapted to become an award-winning movie in 2024.

A further dose of intrigue in the close relationships between film scripts and novels comes from a revelation this month by a leading Irish author and Booker prize-winner John Banville.  His example is all about this process done the other way around.  He describes the detail behind the writing of his latest novel (4).  More specifically, the author explains the discussions that led to his earlier writing some years ago of a film script which, more recently, he has adapted (rather than see his work waste) to become a crime novel, Christine Falls. 

More generally, expanding on growing Irish success in recent years, the continuing influence of Ireland in the Oscars merits special mention.  On the eve of the 2026 ceremonial, media attention has been sharply focused on the Californian event both in Britain (5) and in Ireland (6) - evidence of constructive collaboration across the board.  For example, 

• Hamnet's 8 nominations include Jessie Buckley for best actress and Paul Mescal for best supporting actor, as well as the book's author Coleraine's Maggie O'Farrell with her nomination for adapted screenplay;  
• Richard Baneham from Dublin is nominated again following Oscar awards at two previous ceremonies, on this occasion for his visual effects on Avatar: Fire and Ash; 
• John Kelly's comedy drama The Retirement Plan is nominated for best animated short film (7); 
• Element Pictures founded in 2001, has had 5 films nominated across 30 Academy Awards with 6 wins. This year Element are nominated in four categories for work on Bugonia, nominated for best film, starring Emma Stone; and 
• Wild Atlantic Pictures, another Irish film production company, are nominated for original screenplay and for best actor (nominee Ethan Hawke, with Irish actor Andrew Scott a central cast member), WAP being co-producers of the American comedy-drama Blue Moon (8). 

And the Oscars go to Jessie Buckley for best actress and to Richard Baneham for best visual efffects.  Congratulations to all of the winners and to all of the nominees (9).

© Michael McSorley 2026

References

1. "Guilty by Definition" Susie Dent Zaffre paperback edition 2025 UK

2. "Hamnet" Maggie O'Farrell Tinder Press 2020 paperback

3. https://michaelmcsorleycurrent.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-leaking-of-uk-state-secrets.html

4. Irish Times 7 March 2026 Weekend Essay by John Banville  I Decided to Invent a Pseudonym.  "Christine Falls" John Banville Faber and Faber One Dublin One Book choice for 2026  www.dublincityofliterature.ie

5. BBC News 15 March 2026 Oscars 2026 Celebrities arrive on the red carpet 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c62gjznlr0jt

6.  RTE News 15 March 2026 Glitz and glam as stars walk the red carpet 

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2026/0315/1563595-glitz-and-glam-as-stars-walk-the-oscars-red-carpet/

7. BBC News NI Matt Fox 15 March 2026 Meet Ray - he only wanted to retire, now he might win an Oscar  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr459z25reko?app-referrer=deep-link

8. The Guardian Review Peter Bradshaw 16 Oct 2025  Ethan Hawke is terrific in Richard Linklater’s bitter Broadway breakup drama  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/16/blue-moon-review-ethan-hawke-richard-linklater-broadway-hart-rodgers?CMP=share_btn_url

9. RTE News Oscars 16 March 2026 - the complete list of winners 

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2026/0315/1563608-oscars-2026-the-complete-list-of-winners/