Latest news with #RobynByrne
Irish Daily Mirror
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ireland's darts teams take aim for Six Nations glory
As we know from others sports, Ireland's close ties and proximity to the UK can be a help as well as a hindrance. It's certainly the case in darts, where our top players have easy access to the big tournaments in the UK, but are pretty much now swallowed up by that system. It's why Irish players looking to gain a tour card on the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC ) circuit - and a chance to rub shoulders with the big boys - must do so through the UK qualifiers. Yet the rest of our EU counterparts get to play their own PDC Q School qualifiers in Germany. As Cork's former World Masters champion John O'Shea recently pointed out, Ireland's darts players are much a part of the EU as those from Germany, Holland or Poland. O'Shea also reckons this is why Ireland gets overlooked by the PDC when they put together their increasingly popular World Series of Darts fixtures each year. The World Series sees the top eight players in the PDC, including the likes of Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen, take on the top eight players in Asia and Europe in front of huge crowds in places like Bahrain, Vegas and Copenhagen. O'Shea believes there is no doubt it would be an automatic sell-out here if the PDC brought their best eight players to take on Ireland's best eight in front of an Irish crowd. Five players who would certainly be in contention for that Irish eight would be WDF World Champion Shane McGuirk of Monaghan, Stephen Rosney of Offaly, Waterford's Dean Finn and Paddy Quinn and Donegal's Gerard McGlynn. Add in the serial winners Robyn Byrne and Katie Sheldon of Dublin and Donegal's Denise Cassidy and you would have an eight there that would give the PDC boys a good run for their money! All eight will get the chance to prove their worth this weekend when they compete for the Republic of Ireland men's and ladies teams at the Six Nations in Wales, against teams from the host country, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. Success is never far off for Irish players at these tournaments, with McGlynn the reigning Six Nations singles champion, while Robyn Byrne is the current Europe Cup singles champion. It's been a great week for darts on this island as it is, with the Northern Ireland pair of Daryl Gurney and Josh Rock winning the PDC World Cup of Darts last Sunday night. The outpouring of emotion from the two was a sight to behold and just shows how much it means to them. Derry man Gurney is a class player and PDC major winner in his own right, but young Antrim man Rock really is something special. It surely won't be long before we see him in the PDC Premier League. And while PDC supremo, Barry Hearn, is at it, he really should think about Ireland for a future World Series of Darts event.
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Queen of the Meadows review: A compelling, exciting exploration of memory, loss, renewal and the supernatural
Queen of the Meadows Project Arts Centre, Dublin ★★★★☆ Robyn Byrne is an award-winning dance artist based in the midlands. After graduating from Northern School of Contemporary Dance, in England, Byrne returned to Ireland in 2018, gaining recognition as a regular presence in productions by Junk Ensemble, Emma Martin and Philip Connaughton. The artist began developing her own vision in 2020 with O Before I. An evocative piece of filmed dance featuring her mother, Olive, it delved into their personal relationship as a way to reflect on maternal bonds more broadly. Two years later Byrne produced Glimmer, a dance installation that merged AI technology, music and movement. Performed by the propulsive Róisín Harten behind the glass of a commercial shopfront, the work indicated the shape of Byrne's evolving choreographic sensibilities The project also marked the beginning of her artistic partnership with the director Rachel Ní Bhraonáin , which continued with Mosh , from 2023, a heavy-metal-inspired performance involving five dancers and a drummer. READ MORE Byrne conceived Queen of the Meadows after the death of her grandmother, who trusted in folkloric habits such as knocking on wood for luck and using cobwebs to cover cuts and grazes. Themes of memory, loss, renewal and the supernatural filter through this new performance, in which Byrne's regular collaborators are joined by a new face, in the performer Susanne Engbo Andersen. The Danish dance artist, whom Byrne met at Northern, helped her develop the show's choreography, holding work-in-progress events at Dublin Dance Festival and Tanztendenz, in Munich, before this premiere at Project Arts Centre. Queen of the Meadows, created by Robyn Byrne and performed by Robyn Byrne and Susanne Engbo Andersen Queen of the Meadows, which is at Project as part of Live Collision International Festival , begins with a shrouded object slowly rotating in a pool of warm light. With each turn, sheets of diaphanous wrapping uncoil from it as hazy chords, strings and keys oscillate through the air, buoying the audience as they find their seats. When the show begins in earnest the mysterious object has already divested itself of several layers. We realise that beneath the muslin webbing are two people, and so the shroud, which carries connotations of death and burial, takes on a new meaning. Contrasting with its initial funereal impression, it is more like a chrysalis, or amniotic sac, from which the dancers emerge. Wriggling across the stage, these hatchlings perform a postpupation dance that slowly matures and gathers strength. Queen of the Meadows, created by Robyn Byrne and performed by Robyn Byrne and Susanne Engbo Andersen Byrne and Andersen are an excellent duo, highly attuned to one another. Each brings a distinct movement aesthetic to bear, the variation in their styles and capacities compellingly producing moments of disjunction and flow. In one particularly notable episode the performers skilfully reference signature music-video dance movements, though these forms degrade almost as soon as they appear. A brilliant final phase sees Byrne and Andersen engage heads, necks and spines in an intense rhythmic sequence, haloes of hair following the looping movements. Then a crack appears in the background, lightning-like across the stage, revealing a new world beyond. As the show closes, it raises the tantalising possibility of a second birth.
Irish Daily Mirror
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Playing darts for Ireland at the World Cup is an honour - but it comes at a cost
WHEN you think about darts, South Korea certainly isn't a country that would immediately spring to mind. Yet such is the reach and ever growing popularity of the game, that all roads will lead to the Asian country this September for the 2025 WDF World Cup. The choice of this year's host country is all part of a plan to promote darts in regions where it might not have been so popular before. With China just producing their first ever snooker world champion in Zhao Xintong, how long will it be before Asian players take over on the oche too? For Ireland's part, our Ladies team are the reigning WDF World Cup champions and they will be in no mood to hand that title up when they rock up in South Korea in September. Three of the team that won the World Cup in 2023 - Robyn Byrne, Katie Sheldon and Aoife McCormack - will be back for another crack at it and will be joined by Donegal's darting stalwart Denise Cassidy. Under the expert eye of Galway man, Kevin Devaney, this team will be one to be feared again for sure. The Men's team isn't half bad either, with Ireland's number one, Offaly's Stephen Rosney, joined by reigning WDF Six Nations Singles champion Gerard McGlynn of Donegal and the Waterford pair of Dean Finn and Paddy Quinn. Quinn certainly reckons they will have what it takes to compete against the very best in the world, starting with the WDF Six Nations Cup in Wales next month. Meanwhile the Irish Youths teams will also be strongly represented at the World Cup. The Boys team will be made up of the WDF Europe Cup winning captain, Aidan O'Hara of Tipperary and Carlow's rising star Jack Courtney. They will be joined in Korea by the Girls pairing of Zoe Burke and Rachel Ivers, from Laois, who will no doubt pose a threat to all the big teams at the competition. While the opportunity to represent their country at a World Cup will be a huge honour for all 12 players involved, it does come at a huge cost. The Irish National Darts Organisation (INDO) will be looking at shelling out the guts of €30,000 to get their teams to South Korea. As a voluntary organisation, that is going to entail a fair bit of fundraising on their behalf, with an idonate fundraiser now up and running to help with the costs. To donate, please click on the link below.
