There’s a lot of expectation going into a John Carney movie - he’s done such good stuff in the past, with Begin Again and Once, even Sing Street. This is right up there with the good ones - gorgeous Irish people living difficult lives and trying to connect with each other through the medium of music.

I just finished reading the Bono memoir Surrender and it felt like exactly the right time to invest in this Disney original documentary. It’s really good. It takes a while to get going and you have to sort of get on board with the fact there isn’t a huge point to this documentary. There’s no over-arching theme. It’s just Dave Letterman bumbling into a city for the first time, getting shown around by amazingly creative musicians, and learning more about where U2 have come from, where they think they are and where they might be going next.

It’s taken me a while to get through this. I read a physical copy of this book and although that’s not my preferred format, it worked for this one. This is long and uncompromising, Bono has things to say and he’s going to say them in his own way and in his own time. He works through some difficult things, but always comes out the other side with a lesson learned.

This was a much heavier book than I was expecting - and somehow, despite starting with two attempted suicides, it just seems to get darker and darker as the story goes on. Poor Christine seems to be surrounded by people determined to kill themselves, and takes it all upon herself to fix everyone. It was a good read, and I liked the bits with Christine’s family - they were a lot of fun and I would have liked to have more of those - but otherwise it was just left me feeling quite down.

We need to talk about Bad Sisters. This Apple TV+ show had all the hallmarks of being a promising comedy-drama, coming from the creative mind of Sharon Horgan and being firmly based in and around Dublin. The first episode was intriguing and instantly had me hooked and the show honestly just got better and better until an extremely satisfying and cathartic finale.

Aww, this really was a lovely book. It was a super simple story that had plenty of drama but still somehow felt as though it was gently drawing you along the story of Evelyn. She goes to the big city after a break up and finds a brand new life that she would never have predicted for herself - running and restoring an authentic old pub back to its old self. Quite a lot of the story is just how the pub gradually comes back to life which is nice. The sad twist towards the end, of course, adds a bit of jeopardy but I never doubted for one second that it would all end happily. Which it did, and then some!

John Carney’s Dublin movies are really good, and I wonder it’s taken us this long to watch this one. The music is obviously fantastic, and it’s nice to see a different side to Dublin rather than the more glamorous and Guinness-soaked side. It was relaxing and chilling, and a nice story.

This was a good film, very much in the same vein as the other John Carney ones, although not as good as Begin Again, I’d argue. It was intensely eighties, and portrayed an Ireland that is sometimes hard to fathom, but I did enjoy how the main kid kept adapting his look as he watched more and more pop videos.

I was planning on publishing another update to my Adventures in Netflix series, but was waiting until I’d watched one more series of something. Unfortunately, any Netflix watching I had planned has been delayed as I’ve become totally obsessed with Red Rock – an Irish police drama that airs on the BBC during the daytime, the iPlayer whenever you want, and I believe on Amazon Video as well. It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Dublin in our household, so the concept of a soap based in the Dublin area was quickly my favourite thing. At first, I was just enamoured by the scenery and the accents, but I soon became caught up in the story as well. A few inter-twining plots make up this soap, with your traditional Romeo and Juliet love story, alongside a particularly creepy grooming storyline as well as cops going bad, family loyalties and plenty more.

Mr C has been wanting me to watch this for a while but my background in music wasn’t good enough to make it worth while. With my album adventure upping my musical knowledge, we figured now was as good a time as any. I was nervous about the film, as I am with any that I know people have expectations about, but as soon as I realised it was set in Dublin, I was keen.

Whilst pounding the streets of Dublin, we stumbled across a section of disused quay that was being redeveloped. An impressive theatre sits on the waterfront, whilst out on the waves, a rig has been set up to allow enthusiasts to wakeboard. I love these little spots where there would otherwise be no particular use for the water, and there’s not enough room to get up to speed with a boat. Rig up a pulley system, install a couple of ramps, and you’ve got some real potential.

To celebrate finishing my latest batch of exams, Mr C and I took a dash across the water to Dublin - a place we both love. A spot of sight-seeing, with ominous rainclouds overhead. It is Ireland, after all. The Spire of Dublin. As well as the occasional sight, we tasted the local wares. Our waitress brought us the wrong food and the wrong drinks, but eventually we got what we came for.

Having really enjoyed the book behind the film Limitless, I was interested in what else Alan Glynn had written. This one takes the form of a sort of action/thriller, a crime novel that doesn’t really focus on investigating the crime itself, but unravelling an entire conspiracy surrounding a new building complex, politics, and all that jazz.

Well. Where to begin? Overall, it wasn’t the worst film ever. I wasn’t expecting great things, but it got better as it went on. The real problem came from the fact that in the first five minutes all of my Bono and Edge illusions were shattered when I learned their real names, and you can’t really get over something like that in time to watch and enjoy the rest of the film.

A romantic comedy that was both awful and brilliant at the same time. The Irish guy was really, really awesome and likeable despite his grumpiness. The situations they found themselves in were completely unreasonable, and made no sense. She had loads of time to get there and made life harder for herself. But otherwise they wouldn’t have fallen in love, so who can argue?