Peter Costello
Artist Gerard Byrne pictured with Turning Corners book on
Ashfield Road, Ranelagh. Photo: Richie Stokes. 
This now essential event is marked tomorrow with events of all kinds all over the cities, towns and counties of Ireland. For all the data about culture night, go to info@culturenight.ie. Wherever you live, whatever you care for, there will things for you in the programme.
In my immediate location I am taken by the exhibition and book launch Turning Corners by a local, very local artist indeed, Gerard Byrne. His paintings of corners of Dublin, old and new amount to a wonderful assembly of topographical images quite out of the common, which will be even more important when a human-scaled city is a thing of the past. His wonderful recording eye will be even more highly treasured in years to come, so why not now? Well worth half an hour of anyone’s time on the night in question. The “Gerard Byrne Studio” in Ranelagh can be reached at gerardbyrne.com.
But Culture Night is all about the local, your own place, and as such every year is a major eye-opener and mind filling experience for many, many thousands, and for their children. How well I remember when I was involved with it, the excitement of the children to experience quite new things and new ideas. This year it will be a great mental and spiritual boost to the nation. So it is a pity that more Church related groups do not enter into the spirit of the night, and share their culture.
