GRAPEVVINE STARTED IN A BOOKSHOP IN KINSALE IN 2024.
GRAPEVVINE STARTED IN A BOOKSHOP IN KINSALE IN 2024.
GRAPEVVINE STARTED IN A BOOKSHOP IN KINSALE IN 2024.
The idea was simple: bring together the best in Irish storytelling, spoken word, theatre and comedy and give them a room worth playing to. The first event sold out. Almost every one since has too.
The idea was simple: bring together the best in Irish storytelling, spoken word, theatre and comedy and give them a room worth playing to. The first event sold out. Almost every one since has too.
The idea was simple: bring together the best in Irish storytelling, spoken word, theatre and comedy and give them a room worth playing to. The first event sold out. Almost every one since has too.
WHERE IS TODAY'S SEANCHAI?
WHERE IS TODAY'S SEANCHAI?
WHERE IS TODAY'S SEANCHAI?
In old Irish communities, the seanchaí held a particular kind of authority. Part historian, part lore-bearer, part entertainer, the seanchaí was the person a community turned to for its culture. They carried the genealogies, the local history and the moral instruction of an entire community in a single role. That figure, in its traditional form, has largely disappeared. But the function the seanchaí served hasn't gone anywhere. Society has changed. Culture has changed. But the human need for someone to hold a group's attention, to make sense of shared experience, and to give shape to a community through story, has not. Grapevvine exists to trace that figure into the present. We're not trying to recreate the seanchaí of the past. We're asking where that same impulse shows up now, in comedy, in spoken word, in theatre, in the modern art of stand-up and storytelling. The storyteller of today might be a comedian finding the truth inside a joke, a poet stunning a room into silence, or someone sharing a memory that's entirely unique to them. The form has changed, but the function hasn't. That's what we're here to explore.
In old Irish communities, the seanchaí held a particular kind of authority. Part historian, part lore-bearer, part entertainer, the seanchaí was the person a community turned to for its culture. They carried the genealogies, the local history and the moral instruction of an entire community in a single role. That figure, in its traditional form, has largely disappeared. But the function the seanchaí served hasn't gone anywhere. Society has changed. Culture has changed. But the human need for someone to hold a group's attention, to make sense of shared experience, and to give shape to a community through story, has not. Grapevvine exists to trace that figure into the present. We're not trying to recreate the seanchaí of the past. We're asking where that same impulse shows up now, in comedy, in spoken word, in theatre, in the modern art of stand-up and storytelling. The storyteller of today might be a comedian finding the truth inside a joke, a poet stunning a room into silence, or someone sharing a memory that's entirely unique to them. The form has changed, but the function hasn't. That's what we're here to explore.
In old Irish communities, the seanchaí held a particular kind of authority. Part historian, part lore-bearer, part entertainer, the seanchaí was the person a community turned to for its culture. They carried the genealogies, the local history and the moral instruction of an entire community in a single role. That figure, in its traditional form, has largely disappeared. But the function the seanchaí served hasn't gone anywhere. Society has changed. Culture has changed. But the human need for someone to hold a group's attention, to make sense of shared experience, and to give shape to a community through story, has not. Grapevvine exists to trace that figure into the present. We're not trying to recreate the seanchaí of the past. We're asking where that same impulse shows up now, in comedy, in spoken word, in theatre, in the modern art of stand-up and storytelling. The storyteller of today might be a comedian finding the truth inside a joke, a poet stunning a room into silence, or someone sharing a memory that's entirely unique to them. The form has changed, but the function hasn't. That's what we're here to explore.
Our Mission
GRAPEVVINE WANTS TO EVOLVE IRELAND’S STORYTELLING TRADITION BY CREATING A COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS AND AUDIENCES COMMITTED TO THE POSSIBILITIES OF MODERN STORYTELLING
GRAPEVVINE WANTS TO EVOLVE IRELAND’S STORYTELLING TRADITION BY CREATING A COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS AND AUDIENCES COMMITTED TO THE POSSIBILITIES OF MODERN STORYTELLING
GRAPEVVINE WANTS TO EVOLVE IRELAND’S STORYTELLING TRADITION BY CREATING A COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS AND AUDIENCES COMMITTED TO THE POSSIBILITIES OF MODERN STORYTELLING
A crossroads for the spoken arts, Grapevvine platforms seanchaithe, comics, writers, poets and performers from across the Irish cultural landscape. Folk tales and confessions. Scripted or off the cuff. The funny, the shocking, the strange and, occasionally, the things you were never meant to hear.
A crossroads for the spoken arts, Grapevvine platforms seanchaithe, comics, writers, poets and performers from across the Irish cultural landscape. Folk tales and confessions. Scripted or off the cuff. The funny, the shocking, the strange and, occasionally, the things you were never meant to hear.
A crossroads for the spoken arts, Grapevvine platforms seanchaithe, comics, writers, poets and performers from across the Irish cultural landscape. Folk tales and confessions. Scripted or off the cuff. The funny, the shocking, the strange and, occasionally, the things you were never meant to hear.
YOUR HOST
YOUR HOST
YOUR HOST
DANIEL GALVIN
DANIEL GALVIN
Founder and Storyteller
Two-time Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award recipient. Performed at Electric Picnic, All Together Now, Cuirt International Literary Festival. Featured in the Irish Examiner, The Moth, The Arts House, Poetry Is Dead Podcast.
Two-time Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award recipient. Performed at Electric Picnic, All Together Now, Cuirt International Literary Festival. Featured in the Irish Examiner, The Moth, The Arts House, Poetry Is Dead Podcast.
Say hi
DANIEL GALVIN
Founder and Storyteller
Two-time Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award recipient. Performed at Electric Picnic, All Together Now, Cuirt International Literary Festival. Featured in the Irish Examiner, The Moth, The Arts House, Poetry Is Dead Podcast.
Say hi
WHAT'S WITH
THE NAME?
Nobody quite agrees on where the phrase "heard it through the grapevine" comes from. Some trace it to ancient Greece and Rome, where grapevines were trained along trellises dense enough to disappear into, a place to whisper something you didn't want overheard. Others connect it to the Civil War-era grapevine telegraph, the secret network used to pass news between plantations, whispered from person to person and impossible to trace. There's a theory it comes from the name of a tavern in Greenwich Village where Union officers and Confederate spies drank side by side and talked too much. And some say it was simply neighbours exchanging gossip over the backyard fence, as they always have. We love all of these theories, but who knows which one is true. That willingness to believe, to let a good story carry you somewhere, is what makes Grapevvine special.
WHAT'S WITH
THE NAME?
Nobody quite agrees on where the phrase "heard it through the grapevine" comes from. Some trace it to ancient Greece and Rome, where grapevines were trained along trellises dense enough to disappear into, a place to whisper something you didn't want overheard. Others connect it to the Civil War-era grapevine telegraph, the secret network used to pass news between plantations, whispered from person to person and impossible to trace. There's a theory it comes from the name of a tavern in Greenwich Village where Union officers and Confederate spies drank side by side and talked too much. And some say it was simply neighbours exchanging gossip over the backyard fence, as they always have. We love all of these theories, but who knows which one is true. That willingness to believe, to let a good story carry you somewhere, is what makes Grapevvine special.
what’s happening
READY TO COME TO A SHOW? SEE WHAT’S ON.
READY TO COME TO A SHOW? SEE WHAT’S ON.
READY TO COME TO A SHOW? SEE WHAT’S ON.