Perceptions of playwright and director Martin McDonagh, in Ireland at least, occupy a strange and unfortunate place. As regards many second generation Irish, we can be as ambivalent about them as they are about us. When he achieves successes, such as when he won an Academy award for Best Live Action Short Film or when he received a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination for 'In Bruges' in 2008.

This is a powerful story, which combines a classic murder story with political plots that involve Muslim extremists and the Catholic ring wing in the Spanish city of Seville. It is the third novel by Robert Wilson that features the Spanish detective Javier Falcon. In 'The Hidden Assassins' Falcon has to investigate a mysterious murder and at the same time an explosion that demolished a block of flats in another part of the city. Are they connected?

You may have heard of 'Hardy Bucks', but then again you may not have. It probably depends on your age profile and how much you watch YouTube. Over the past year a bunch of lads from Co Mayo have become a genuine Irish internet phenomenon. Earlier this year they won RTE's online Storyland competition, so the Hardy Bucks are hoping their creation can make it onto the small screen.

The ESB Substation in Caroline Street is the unusual setting for this concert by Eduardo Niebla, hailed by many as a world class virtuoso flamenco jazz guitar maestro who is currently recording his new album and will present this live on a 10 date concert tour of Ireland. Incredibly, his new album is his twenty third of a long and varied career.

Thursday 4 February
What: Haiti Fundraiser Cajole and Bully, The Vital Spark + others
Where: Cyprus Avenue
When: 8pm

Jennifer Batten first became known when she rose from the guitar underground, and the guitar magazines promptly began chronicling her savvy musicianship and highly original approach to the electric guitar in print in the '80s. At one point Batten was in six different bands, playing everything from straight ahead rock, to metal, fusion, and funk.

Cork's biggest Valentine's party will take place on Friday 12 February at 8pm at the Savoy Theatre and it will be free! "We have a simple plan", says Jackie, Marketing Manager at the Savoy Theatre. "We want to offer all Munster singles an enchanting night out where they get to mix and mingle with other like minded singles and meet people they wouldn't normally meet in their everyday circle."

Francesco Turrisi presents this latest evolution of his Tarab ensemble, which has become eloquent in its linking of modal jazz to traditional music from across Europe. Over the course of 2010, the group takes on a major project and will devise new music over four cycles, each with a very special guest artist, starting in Cork with Iranian tombak master Pedram Khavar- Zamini.

DFA heavyweight Shit Robot plays a one off intimate gig in one of the city's newest music spots. Numbers at the gig will be limited to 100 people capacity only. One of the DFA originals, Shit Robot cut his teeth as a DJ in NYC through the ‘90s and early 2000s alongside the likes of James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and Luke Jenner of The Rapture, curating renowned nights like Plant.

The great Russian composer Shostakovich is the worthy subject for a one man show performed by Jack Healy. Shostakovich was twelve at the time of the Russian Revolution and lived right throughout the Stalin era. In 1936 he became the focus of Stalin's wrath when the dictator walked out of his opera, 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' in a rage. This was followed a few days later by a damning but unsigned 'review' in Pravda which seemed to intimate that Shostakovich would soon be either missing or in prison.