Next stop on our tour of the regional scenes is the old country, where the run-up to Christmas looks like a session with no last orders. Derry’s finest are doing a 50th-anniversary lap of the island, Damo is moving into Vicar Street, a Lankum voice goes solo and Kíla hit 40.

The Undertones are taking the 50th anniversary tour round the whole island: Cyprus Avenue in Cork (November 5), Bank Lane in Waterford (November 6), the 3Olympia in Dublin (November 7), Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick (December 3), Róisín Dubh in Galway (December 4) and the Set Theatre in Kilkenny (December 5). Then comes a Christmas Weekender at Belfast’s Limelight (December 19 and 20, Terri Hooley on the decks) and two homecoming nights at Derry’s Millennium Forum with Skids (February 19 and 20, 2027). Teenage kicks, half a century on.

Damien Dempsey has booked the biggest Christmas residency of his career: seven nights at Vicar Street on December 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 and 23. Expect the classics plus songs from June’s Holywell, a Top 3 album of old songs learned at family singsongs, his take on “A Pair of Brown Eyes” included.

Lankum’s Radie Peat releases her debut solo album, No Human Tongue Can Tell, on November 13 through Rough Trade. It’s nine tracks, mostly traditional songs she describes as “songs of female struggle, suffering, strength and endurance,” and the homecoming show is at Vicar Street on November 20. Not punk, but heavier than most things that are.

Hot Press once called Kíla “complete lunatics” on stage, and 40 years on from a Dublin schoolyard they still are. New single “Cé A Chum,” a tribute to the late Raidió na Gaeltachta broadcaster Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí, is the title track of their next album. They play the Purty Kitchen in Dublin (October 24) and Púca Festival at Halloween, then throw the birthday bash, Féile Kíla, at the National Stadium on January 22, 2027, with the Paul Frost Brass Band.

And in Cork, Joe Bonamassa: The Spirit of Rory gets its world premiere at the Everyman on November 18 as part of the Cork International Film Festival. It follows Bonamassa’s 2025 Cork shows playing Rory Gallagher‘s Irish Tour ’74 set, and there’s a Q&A with Dónal Gallagher after the screening.

Coming through town

• Brighton’s Levellers bring the Levelling The Land 35th anniversary tour to Mandela Hall in Belfast (October 22) and Vicar Street in Dublin (October 23), with The Meffs in support.
• The Waterboys close Púca Festival at the Púca Big Top on Sunday, November 1, with Hothouse Flowers and The Whistlin’ Donkeys also on the bill.
• Tiree’s Skerryvore bring the Beautiful Mistakes album tour to the Limelight in Belfast (December 10) and The Academy in Dublin (December 11).