Niall McCabe has earned a reputation as one of Ireland’s finest singers and songwriters. Born on Clare Island, Co. Mayo, the island native’s style and voice are unquestionably his own. More recently, Niall has been lending his unique voice to Irish trad-fusion band Beoga, touring Ireland, Europe and the USA, while also playing support for Ed Sheeran, Foy Vance and Johnny Swim. McCabe’s eagerly anticipated solo album is set for release in Spring 2022.

Mika Moret is a Brazilian photographer, filmmaker and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland. Mika started taking self-portraits over a decade ago and now uses her artform to explore the body, which allows her to get in touch with her own self love and identity. Mika’s last photography exhibition ‘Seeking’ was a smash hit with images from her Body, Dress and Dream collections.

Lily O’Shea (b. 1997) is an artist and writer based in Cork concerned with political questions surrounding the contemporary labourer. Lily’s work utilises performance, sculpture, and text to expand on the materiality of precarity while foregrounding various anxieties endured by the modern-day worker. Recent work explores the issue of sustaining an art practice while experiencing burn out, the effects of hyper-productivity and its ability to drain one’s creative resources. Lily’s research draws from reality TV, mailing lists, fiction and unfinished artworks to explore potential strategies against burnout.

Melanie McGrath (b. 2001) is a student of Fine Art at MTU’s Crawford College of Art and Design. Within her current practice Mel looks at the urban space, and the different cultures within, reading the marks left behind in the city as a palimpsest and bringing this mark making into her own work. This is her first exhibition.

Emma Price is a fantasy enthusiast and a firm believer in science. Emma likes to see things in a more ethereal form with underlying elements of something sinister, with vanity also always unfortunately getting a say in things; she likes works to be fashion forward and visually captivating.

Benjamin Walsh is a freelance Video Editor and Camera Operator from Tipperary. Having studied Advanced Film and Television Production at St. John’s Central College, Cork, he has since worked on a number of short and feature length films working in the Camera and Editorial Departments. This is his first exhibition of artistic works.

Ayşegül Kaycı was born in Istanbul in 1984. She graduated from the Department of Photography at Izmir Dokuz Eylul University in 2019. The same year, she was admitted to a Master of Arts in Photography at the same university. She is currently working on her master’s thesis titled “The Impact and Role of Contemporary Photography on Raising Environmental Awareness”.

Maureen Considine graduated from the Crawford College of Art in 2006. In 2008 she completed an M.A. in Modern and Contemporary Art at University College Cork. She is currently a PhD candidate working on the memorialisation of the experiences of survivors of Catholic residential institutions in Cork, supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel. Her works have been selected for numerous exhibitions nationally and her practice is multi-disciplinary with an emphasis on lens-based art.

Sylvia O’Connor loves "playing" with Flowers and Foliage. She finds it really therapeutic. Syliva has been building her floristry skills for the past number of years and she gets to share those skills with others through her work in hosting classes and workshops in community settings. Her new-found passion for foraging and creating with what she finds in nature has ignited a spark to move toward sustainable floristry.

John Corkery was born in 1967 in Cork city and has been painting as a full time artist since 1995. Although he graduated in 1990 with a degree in chemical engineering, he paints full time from his studio at Outlaw Studios, Cork city. His favourite medium has been oil on canvas and he also enjoys the medium of drawing. He has exhibited extensively over the last number of years.

1000 Beasts is the alias of Cian Sweeney, an Irish producer/artist who collaborates with different artists on every track (they are the "beasts" behind the name) to make soulful, indie pop and hip hop inspired tracks. His production work has seen him garner over 20,000,000 streams on Spotify for collaborators’ songs and his own artist project. He is a platinum selling producer thanks to his work on the hit song 'Fake Fine' by Robert Grace. Arguably one of the most prolific producers to come out of Cork in years, 1000 Beasts is releasing his debut album 'Naruda' on April 1st.

Sascha Roos is a dyslexia specialist and author of At Home with Dyslexia: A Parent’s Guide to Supporting your Child (Little Brown). See: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/sascha-roos/at-home-with-dyslexia/9781472140654/

Sascha is originally from Cambridge, and has been supporting people with dyslexia in Cork for the last twenty years.

Danielle Sheehy is an artist and educator working in Cork. Her work is hosted in the collections of the Office of Public Works, Microsoft, Bewleys and Macquarie University. She is the illustrator for At Home With Dyslexia: A Parent’s Guide to Supporting Your Child, published by Little Brown Books, and currently runs an education programme for adults with disabilities in the East Cork area.

Shauna Hill is an assistant psychologist and advisor to students with Specific Learning Difficulties at the Disability Support Service at University College Cork. After graduating from the University of Limerick with a Masters in Psychology (1:1), Shauna now supports over 500 students registered here at UCC.

Tom 'Tucker' Mulcahy is an extraordinary guitarist, musician and educator, as well as being a renowned tailor. Tom gave his Masters presentation titled ‘What has music got to do with dyslexia?’. He found different ways and tools with the use of technology for learning music with dyslexia. He has given multiple presentations including for Music Generation and ETB. For more on Tom ‘Tucker’ Mulcahy see https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20203622.html

Stuart Neilson is a statistician and author who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 2009, at the age of 45. His images explore autistic portrayals and reactions to sensory stimulus and motion, particularly in public spaces, and complement his written work.

Kieran McCarthy is an elected member of Cork City Council and is an Irish delegate member of the European Committee of the Regions (COR).  For the past 22 years, Kieran has written a weekly heritage column in the Cork Independent ‘Our City Our Town’ which has addressed the local history of Cork City and its surrounding region and written 27 books dedicated to Cork.

Historically The Cork Shawlies were a group of tenacious female traders of the Coal Quay synonymous for their black shawls.  Their legacy is kept alive by the current award-winning shawlie group (The Cork Shawlies) who don the traditional headgear and accoutrements and by singing spirited renditions of old-fashioned trading songs in honour of the formidable women who went before them. 

Founded in 1993, the aim of the Cork Singers’ Club is to promote traditional Irish songs that live in the minds and hearts of the people of Cork.  They also encourage the composition of new songs irrespective of genre. Singers and listeners are invited to join them every Sunday at 6pm in An SpailpÍn Fánach on South Main Street.

Members: Bill Daly, William Hammond, Jim, Walsh, John Murphy, Máire Ní Chéileachair, Máire Ní Laoire, Mick Buckley, Pádraig Varian, Tom Long, Joe Murphy

Inma Pavón received a First Class Honour in the MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the UL in 2003, later receiving an MPhil from UCC (2015-2017). She was selected for the ICNWP’07 (Irish Choreographers New Work Platform 2007) under the mentorship of Wendy Houstoun (UK Choreographer). She also facilitates workshops at The Glucksman Gallery in UCC. Inma continues her most recent collaborative project titled 'Isolation' in collaboration with Multidisciplinary Artist Robert Monaghan (Ire), which has been selected at LOOP Barcelona 2019 & 2020.

Victoria Jalcon studied social work at University Salamanca and is currently completing an MA in Gender Violence at University Valencia. Her passion for dance began in her childhood, and since then she cannot imagine her life without dance.  

Helena Palmer is a homegrown Corkonian and lover of all things movement and culture. Music is her muse for many things, moving, healing, creating, being. She is a healer at heart and a spirit wanderer.

Peter O’Sullivan is a musician, performer, and composer from Waterford and a recent graduate of the MTU Cork School of Music with a specialisation in performance and composition. Peter has performed extensively with local Irish artists both domestically and abroad in recent years and in some cases aided in their composition and songwriting process.

Alex Gough is an Irish Drummer, Rapper and Producer based in London and blazing a trail for Irish Hip-Hop internationally. With concerts across Europe and music in everything from Fortnite to BBC’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, Gough shows no sign of taking his foot off the pedal. It is this combination of creative restlessness and undeniable talent that makes Gough an exciting proposition, even if he is far too modest himself to admit it.

Jack Corrigan is a multi-disciplinary artist working with sound, video, performance, power drills, rotting fruit and anything else he can get his hands on. A founding member of the Cork based art collective Hausu and working outwards from the core of his ‘Actualacid’ moniker, the artist weaves through various mediums attempting to bend formats to his will rather than meet anything halfway from subversive stage performances to music videos comprised of recut A.I generated YouTube clips.

Kareen Salcede was born in France to parents from Guadeloupe and Dominica, raised between Paris and The Caribbean. She started her dance journey back in Paris where she was part of a ‘GwoKa’ and ‘Bélè’ band, (traditional Caribbean rhythms from Guadeloupe and Martinique) as a dancer, a drummer, and a coach for 14 years before landing in Cork.

Eimear Ryan is the author of the novel Holding Her Breath (Sandycove, 2021) and a forthcoming book of essays about sport. She is a co-founder of the literary journal Banshee and its publishing imprint, Banshee Press. From Co. Tipperary, Eimear now lives in Cork city.

Cork City Samba Band is a percussion group formed by friends Darragh O'Connor and Rob Hamilton in May of 2012. With over 20 percussionists, their jam-packed fast-moving set features funky hip-hop, high tempo drum ‘n’ bass and bouncing house rhythms, along with Brazilian Rio-style samba grooves and African influenced north Brazilian beats like Maracatu and Afro-bloc. The band have played several festivals around Ireland including Indiependence, Townlands Carnival, Cork Jazz Festival and Cork Opera House.

Jonathan Carey is an emerging artist, currently studying at Crawford College of Art and Design. Jonathan specialises in oil paintings and portraits. He is passionate about portraying social and cultural issues through visual art. 

Matthew Xavier Corrigan is a songwriter, producer, poet and artist from Cork City, Ireland. His work across disciplines has led to performances at festivals around Europe, music in major media and collaborations on everything from plays and theatre to art installations and exhibitions.

Ruairí De Búrca is a sound designer and composer based in Cork. Ruairí's practice spans sound design, live performance, audio visual installation, improvisation, composition and beyond. Having completed his BA in Music & English in 2019, he received an MA in Experimental Sound Practice from University College Cork in 2020. Ruairí's work investigates the malleable relationships between sound and movement, and the interconnecting worlds of improvisation, technology and live performance, with a focus on immersion and exploration. He performs and releases music under his own name, as well as part of the improvised music group Trá Pháidín.

Originally from Wexford, David began his dance training in Cork at Coláiste Stiofán Naofa. Following two years of dance training in Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, and Modern he went on to receive a full scholarship with Cambridge Performing Arts at Bodywork in England. He studied full time for three years in Musical Theatre and Dance. From there he went on to choreograph a number of shows in the Cork Opera House. David now works as a choreographer in a number of performing arts schools around Cork.

Geoff Gould is a L.A.M.D.A graduate with more than 20 years directorial experience. Geoff is originally from North Cork and is the founder and Artistic Director of Blood in The Alley Theatre Company and The West Cork Fit-up and Blackwater Valley Theatre Festivals. Between 1996 and 2001 Geoff was the artistic director of the Everyman Palace Theatre Cork and while there he directed The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge, The Deadman’s Beard by Micheal Lovett, both of which toured nationally. Other directing credits include: Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Home is the Hero by Walter Macken, When I Was God by Conal Creedon (Bewley’s Café Theatre), The Madder Market (Theatre Norwich) and Religious Knowledge.

Irene Kelleher is an actor and published playwright. Her first play, Mary and Me, toured extensively to critical acclaim and is also an RTÉ produced radio play. It has subsequently toured to London, Scotland and had its US Premiere in October 2020. Gone Full Havisham, Irene’s second play, enjoyed sell-out runs in the Cork Midsummer Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and in Bewley’s Café Theatre. Her third play The Misfit Mythology was produced by the Everyman as part of their Play it by Ear Audio Dramas. Irene is currently one of the writers in this year’s Irish Theatre Institute’s Six in the Attic. Irene's most recent play Wake, directed by Geoff Gould, was staged as part of the 2021/2022 Fit-Up Festivals. Theatre Credits Include: Maria in Stars in the Morning Sky (Belgrade Theatre) Sharon by Katie Holly and Kitty Kiernan in A Great Arrangement. FILM & TV CREDITS INCLUDE: Game of Thrones (HBO) Joanna in The Other Lamb (Subotica & Rumble) , Reign (CBS).

Éadaoin O’Donoghue is a playwright based in Cork City. She graduated from Jacque LeCoq Theatre School, Paris, in 2010. Her debut play Heart of a Dog was produced by The Everyman (Cork) and The Civic Theatre (Dublin) and was part of The Dublin Theatre Festival 2021. Her second play Hail to the Great Wave! was produced by Corcadorca in 2021 and directed by Pat Kiernan. Commissioned by Cork Midsummer Festival, she wrote the lyrics for Lilith, a song cycle about Adam’s first wife in the Garden of Eden, performed in 2019 and again in 2020 at Cork Opera House. She likes to create stories that are anarchic, fun and otherworldly.

Al Dalton is a freelance director, writer and production manager. 

Previous direction and production credits include works with; Cork Opera House, Graffiti Theatre Company, CIT Cork School of Music, Cork Midsummer Festival, Conflicted Theatre, Corcadorca Theatre Company, Bombinate Theatre, Gaitkrash Theatre Company, Lantern Productions, Laura Perrem, Farna Theatre Company, Urdang Academy of Musical Theatre (London) and Strive Theatre.

Lauren Gullery is a rock musician, permaculture designer, horticulturist, and naturalist. She runs Seaside Squirrel, a small craft venture with sustainability at its core. The vision for Seaside Squirrel is to promote a shift to a circular economy model and assist in the regeneration of natural habitats. Lauren creates handmade products that address the waste problem and encourage sustainable habits. She combines skills of jewellery making, hand stitching, machine sewing, and crochet, with reclaimed materials and natural textiles, and offers a range of accessories such as reusable pads, decorative home decor, and stylish garments. She also nurtures native herbs in a little garden in West Cork, which she processes into small batches of luxurious natural skincare.

Caoimhe Marron is a UCC Masters student of Plant Biology. She likes to crochet and make jewellery out of beach findings from around the Irish coast (such as sea glass and shells). She tries to make her products as sustainable as possible, sourcing as many of my supplies as she can from local/small businesses.

Róisín Nic Cnáimhín is a PhD student at the UCC Archaeology Department specialising in the analysis of animal bones. When she is not doing PhD work she loves to craft, particularly embroidery & cross stitch, with some of her pieces being inspired by her archaeological background.

Megan makes jewellery using a mix of vintage and upcycled components, glass, semi precious stones and freshwater pearls. Saltwater Design started as a way to bring joy and creativity into her life after a difficult year, and with each piece, Megan aims to bring a little bit of that joy to you too! Megan loves using bright colours and interesting shapes and textures to create special and unique pieces, many of which are one-of-a-kind or limited edition.

Justine Lepage, also known as Loucoffee, is a French artist based in Cork. She specialises in whimsical and colourful illustrations, both watercolour and digital. Her work has been exhibited at St Peter's Cork and GOMA gallery of modern art in Waterford. She likes to draw gnomes, humans, and animals wearing party hats. 

After finishing his degree in Contemporary Applied Art, and specialising in large scale sculpture, Cian had no idea how he was going to continue with the work or find the space to keep working in large scale.  So after numerous friends and family encouraged him to go smaller and start making jewellery, Cian finally caved and has been obsessed with it ever since.

Stevie G is an Irish DJ who works at Cork’s RedFM and he is a regular feature at music and arts festivals throughout the country. He is one of Irelands best known DJs and is regarded as a pioneer when it comes to spreading music such as hip-hop, soul and afro-beats here. He is also a community activist who worked at the Cork Migrant Centre in Nano Nagle Place for 4 years from 2017, spearheading a number of music and arts projects with teenagers from Direct Provision and the greater migrant community of Cork.

He currently runs the New School,  promoting new music talent, and Everybody Dance, a platform that aims to promote more inclusivity into the music scene for people with special needs and intellectual abilities. On RedFM, his Black on Red show won best weekly music radio show at the PPI awards in 2002 and Stevie has gone on to do documentaries on a number of musical figures, including Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and A Tribe Called Quest. He has a weekly music column in Echolive running since 2003, and he was most recently a judge at the Choice music awards (2020). Stevie co-ran an audio visual exhibition about Sir Henrys nightclub in UCC in 2014 and he was project manager on the My Generation visual arts project at Cork City Library with the Glucksman in 2020. He also hosts the Stevie Wonder[s] podcast, which was recently recommended by the Irish Examiner as one of the best new music podcasts of 2021. Stevie currently teaches music to young people with a number of different projects and he is also the Diversity and Inclusivity facilitator with Corcadorca theatre company in Cork.