First Fortnight is currently calling for volunteers for our January 2019 festival, when for the first time, we will be hosting the European Mental Health Festival. One of our long-time volunteers, ...

The First Fortnight festival is hosting the European Festival of Mental Health 2019 and so we have been checking out diverse artists from Europe living, working and perfoming here. Otso Kasperi Mie...

AFOG Show is a variety show comprising music, comedy, spoken word and poetry, with a mental health and existential theme throughout. AFOG stands for ‘Another F*ing Opportunity for Growth’ – and the...

RUTH Hunter is a comedian and contributor to the Headstuff site, where she Hunter-gathers (geddit?) fellow comics for friendly online chats. She hosts a regular stand-up night in the Workman’s Club...

FIRST Fortnight’s Sean Cooney is gearing up for the Cycle Against Suicide on April 28 as part of the Mental Health European Network of Sports (MENS) project, an initiative to promote awareness of t...

For those who took part in the first Pieta House Darkness Into Light in 2009, it may just seem like yesterday… but when you consider that the then 400-strong contingent has now become a 180,000 per...

EARLIER this year Mayo singer-songwriter Maria Kelly released her AA side EP ‘Dark Places/ ‘Small Talk’ in which she explores topics of mental health, depression and social anxiety. The raw qualiti...

The No Normal is a new Cork-based web chat show, and host Richie O Connell interviews people about their mental health and how it affects their career, creativity and life in general. Richie is him...

Electro-pop duo Le Boom must be one of the most talked about acts in Ireland right now. If you’ve experienced the infectious energy of one of their live sets, in a sweaty club or from a festival st...

Rosie Carney has that rare gift of communicating both the bleakest pain and wondrous joy in simple human terms. The lyrics above, which form part of her recent track ‘Thousand’ recorded with Lisa H...

OUR own Sean Cooney tells how how keeping fit has helped him appreciate and improve his own mental health.

Fears is the solo project of the 25 year-old musician from Dublin, Constance Keane. Earlier this year she released “h_always”, written during her time spent in St Patrick’s Mental Health Services w...

Lisa Loughrey is a Kildare singer songwriter, formerly a member of six-piece alt-folk outfit The Mariannes, whose solo project has taken flight with an EP, Plans and Schemes, launching in the Vinta...

It’s 5.30pm on a Wednesday evening and pretty clear that most people have banished all thoughts of tomorrow in favour of today’s summery pint. Quinton Campbell is squinting through the late May ray...

The gentle rhyme of Sarah Conway’s staggering poem ‘Never Give Up‘ allows the words to flow like a fairy tale. Within the piece though, lies a life story which reveals itself in uncompromising enti...

The power of social enterprise shines through! First Fortnight are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a place on the Social Enterprise Development Fund Accelerator Programme. This prog...

Hannah Mamalis is a prolific comic, writer and performer who is very active on the comedy and theatre scene, as well as a regular at the Edinburgh Festival. Some of you will have caught her acclaim...

CAMILLE LUCY ROSS – actor, writer and artistic director of Brazen Tales Productions is a previous First Fortnight Fringe Award winner (our annual award for an outstanding festival production with m...

Marise Gaughan brings her show Drowning to the Fringe and its set to be one of the stand-outs of the festival. The topic alone stops you in your tracks. In 2014, Marise’s father killed himself. Her...