The Music Of What Happens

This one-hour, one-off event will feature new writing and improvised music, with writers from The Stinging Fly and Banshee responding to music by multi-instrumentalist and composer Seán Mac Erlaine. Mac Erlaine will then perform improvised musical responses to the writing – an artistic dialogue that thrives in the ether between different creative forms.

Seán Mac Erlaine’s work intersects folk, free improvisation, jazz, experimental and traditional music. His most recent album (with Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh) is Old Segotia, and he has been lauded by The Irish Times as ‘consistently one of the most interesting and adventurous musicians of his generation’. Chetna Maroo is the Booker Prize-listed author of Western Lane. Billy Ramsell is the author of three poetry collections, with his latest (Render) published by Banshee Press in June 2026. Thomas Morris is the award-winning author of the story collections We Don’t Know What We’re Doing and Open Up. Mary Dunne is an emerging writer from Westmeath, whose work can be found in ROPES and Banshee. 

The Stinging Fly and Banshee are both independent Irish publishers, with literary magazines that publish two issues a year, as well as books. Both publishers have garnered international reputations for publishing the best of Irish and international fiction, poetry and essays.

Artists 
Chetna Maroo, Billy Ramsell, Mary Dunne, Thomas Morris, Seán Mac Erlaine

Literature programme supported by Cork Midsummer Festival and University College Cork – partnering to create a unique strand of events that feature cross artform collaborations, performance and conversation