The Five Lamps Arts Festival returns, enjoying its fifth year as one of the main festivals in Northside Dublin. Celebrating the Five Lamps landmark and surrounding community, this festival will be showcasing a range of art forms including literature, dance, opera, traditional music, visual art and theatre.

From 16^th April to 27^th April there will be many highlights from the reading of Dubliners to a photographic exhibition of Dublin’s Dockworkers which opens 18^th April in Marino College, followed that evening by the great indie sounds of The NORTHSEA BAND. In Liberty Hall Theatre 19^th April Drawing Opera’s mezzo soprano Liz Ryan will entertain the crowd with songs old and new. Catriona McKay (Scottish Harp) and Chris Stout (Shetland Fiddle) mark their upcoming groundbreaking collaboration with playwright Niamh Gleeson and singer Cliona Cassidy in a concert to launch the North Strand Opera .

O Diamond Diamond, thou little knowest what thou hast done. Curated By Alison Pilkington & Martin Leen. As part of the Five Lamps Festival visual art program and in response to Dublin as City of Science in 2012 this exhibition brings together a group of artists whose practice embraces, rejects or simply contemplates science and scientific methods to produce work that explores the uncertainties of the universe, the ambiguities of scientific evidence as a way of knowing the world and humanity’s search for its place in the world through the sciences.

The show addresses how art and science regularly converge in diverse and exciting ways to produce new forms of knowledge and meaning through art.

Exhibiting Artists:

Cora Cummins, Stephen Loughman, Aideen Barry, Kathryn Maguire, Fiona McDonald, Jonathan Hunter, Cliona Harmey, Susan MacWilliam, Debbie Jenkinson, Tracy Hanna, Sarah Doherty, Marie Farrington, Deirdre Hegarty.

History enthusiasts can follow local history and folklore expert, Terry Fagan, who leads a walking tour from Connolly House at the Five Lamps through the infamous Monto district. Artist Kathryn Maguire will lead a cycle along the canal to view the art work at Croke Park which was inspired by mathematician Hamiliton.

For children there is a wonderful puppet show in Charleville mall Library with Puca Puppets and Charlie and the Big Friendly Twits, a fast paced show by Livindred Theatre Company. Niamh Shaw presents her fascinating show That’s about the size of it where she asks What if you could see, every choice, every dream, every possible outcome of your Life?

The garden being created on the derelict site in Dunne Street by artist Aoife Desmond underpins the hopes of the festival committee, that this area will continue to bloom with the arts.

The festival runs from the 16^th April to 27^th April finishing very aptly with Ray Yeates Dublin’s new Arts Officer in The Parting Glass by Dermot Bolger, and is based in venues and public spaces that surround the famous Five Lamps landmark.

Supported by Dublin City Council’s Arts Office, Croke Park and Marino College of FE City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (CDVEC), the Festival is run by volunteers eager to promote the arts in the Five Lamps area of the city and create a cultural event that embraces and encourages the development of local talent. Check this website for a full programme!

Get your culture socks on and visit Northside Dublin’s Five Lamps Arts Festival!