Tonight marks the fifth Culture Night in Dublin and around the country. In honour of the celebration, IPN has picked five literary and cultural events that are worth checking out. My favourite proramme overall is Words On The Street, but I’ve only chosen two of them for this top five just to ensure there’s some variety (with some small amount of cheating)!

1: Drama on Dublin’s Bridges
James Joyce Bridge – Humorous presentation of Joyce’s characters by Paul O’Hanrahan 5.30pm, 6.30pm, 7.30pm (20 mins)

Sean O’Casey Bridge – Pieces from Shadow of a Gunman and The Plough and the Stars performed by Oddie Braddell and Dylan McDonagh, directed by Simon Hubbard. 5.30pm, 6.30pm, 7.30pm (20 mins)

Samuel Beckett Bridge – Play, Act Without Words and Beckett poetry performed by Cathal Quinn, Melissa Nolan, Caoimhe O’Malley, Tiernan Kearns and John Merriman, directed by Cathal Quinn. 5.30pm, 6.30pm, 7.30pm (20 mins)

2: A Literary Liffey River Cruise
Call Temple Bar Cultural Trust at 01 677 2255 or email info@templebar.ie to book.
(25 mins) Departing from the Landing Station at the Sean O’Casey Bridge on Custom House Quay.
Enjoy storytelling and readings as you take a trip on the Spirit of the Docklands boat:
5pm & 5.30pm – Readings for children aged 6-9 years by Karl O’Neill
6pm & 6.30pm – Storytelling by Jack Lynch
7pm & 7.30pm – Storytelling by Jack Sheehan

3: The Gutter Bookshop
Cow’s Lane | Temple Bar | Dublin 8 | Ireland | 01 6799206
Is offering an expanded Poetry Night including storytelling, music or other types of performance in a very special Open Mic Night from 6pm until 8pm. If The Gutter isn’t near you, check out this list of reading events.

4: Vintage Irish Book Cover Exhibition
Mary’s Abbey, Meetinghouse Lane, off Capel Street from 6-9pm
Niall McCormack, of the wonderful Vintage Irish Book Covers Blog, Hitone, has organized an exhibition of Irish book cover design from the late 20s up until the 1970s. It will include a lot of covers which he has yet to feature on the blog. There will also be a projection of photographs entitled “Life thru my mobile phone” and music by Barry McCormack from 8.30. Sounds excellent!

5: National Print Museum
Beggars Bush Barracks, Haddington Road, Dublin 4 | 01 660 3770
From 6–11pm printers will demonstrate different aspects of the hot metal era, type will be set by hand alongside practical demonstrations of the Linotype and Monotype and many other machines in the collection. This is definitely cool!