Comedy of the week:
The Hardy Bucks play Cyprus Avenue on Tuesday 9 February at 9pm. Tickets are €10.
Their brand of humour is modern in its docu-drama style and very rural in its depiction of the lives of two best friends, Eddie Durkin and Billy 'Buzz' McDonnell. Set in the fictional town of Castletown, the show follows Eddie and Buzz and their mates around town.

The RTE Vanbrugh Quartet performs Mozart's alluring String Quartet No. 16, Shostakovich's emotive string quartet No. 7 and the dramatic first quartet from Beethoven's popular Razumovsky quartets. Now in its twenty-third concert season, the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet is one of Europe's most successful quartets, internationally recognised for its beauty of sound, clarity of texture and integrity of interpretation within an unusually wide and varied range of repertoire.

He is forever to be associated with one chapter of his comedic life; Fr Ted. It's not the worst thing to be identified with - it put his name on the map - but Ardal O'Hanlon just wants to move on. It's twelve years since the last episode of Fr Ted was made, but far from fading in people's memories, if anything, it has become more popular than ever. Ardal can't escape it; his three children and their friends love it.

The Ballincollig Winter Music Festival kicks off this month with gigs running from 28 to 31 January. Featuring acts such as Altan, Mundy and Liam O Maonlai, a host of traditional and contemporary musicians will perform. The festival officially starts on Thursday 28 January at the main venue, the White Horse Inn, West Village with a Dermot Byrne, Bríd Harper and Alec Finn concert, at €15 per ticket.

Several months ago Cork had the pleasure of seeing 'The Lonesome West', the third play in Martin McDonagh's 'Leenane Trilogy'. Now, in reverse order, we have the chance to see the multi award-winning first part of the same trilogy. 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' showcases Martin McDonagh's trademark bleakly comic touch and tells the tale of the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain, lonely woman in her early forties, and Mag, her manipulative, ageing mother.

Thursday 28 January
What: Burn Us Both with Fingersmith and Trev Moran
Where: Cyprus Avenue
When: 9pm

Much feted company CoisCéim Dance Theatre celebrates 15 years of award-winning productions by opening 2010 with a double bill of work in Cork. 'As You Are' is directed by long-time CoisCéim dancer Muirne Bloomer who is making her CoisCéim directorial debut and 'Faun', directed by CoisCéim artistic director, David Bolger.

Think your band is as groundbreaking as Radiohead, or as genre bending as Animal Collective, or even just a great live band like Chic? Then prove it by submitting music to IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation). They have announced a call for entries for the 2010 IMRO Showcase Tour.

Cobhite Maeve Higgins is another talented Corkonian lured away to the big smoke. Perhaps we in Cork should start a petition to get her back… for now though, Maeve is returning for one of her welcome comedic visits to Cork to play the Firkin Crane in February. She is to get her cheeky chops around the cares of the world the when her 'Blabbing Away' show hits the Firkin Crane on Saturday 6 February.

Much feted Malcolm Middleton returns to Cork with his 'Long Dark Night' tour this week. He released his fifth solo album, 'Waxing Gibbous' – his third in as many years –last year to a ripple of critical applause. The album's release was preceded by news that it'd be Middleton's last solo effort – at least for a while, allowing the songwriter to take a break from such concerns and focus on other musical projects.