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music · Saturday 18 July 2026 · 7:00pm 
Candlelight: Tribute to Fleetwood Mac at Aula Maxima UCC
At Aula Maxima, University College Cork · University College Cork, College Road, Cork
At Aula Maxima, University College Cork · University College Cork, College Road, Cork
Fleetwood Mac’s songs have always carried a particular weight - the kind that makes people stop mid-conversation and listen. This candlelight concert strips them back further still, handing the whole catalogue to the Munster String Quartet and setting them loose inside one of Cork’s most beautiful rooms. It is a genuinely different way to hear music you thought you already knew, and the Aula Maxima makes the experience something that a conventional concert hall simply cannot replicate.
The Munster String Quartet play a 60-minute set drawn from twelve Fleetwood Mac songs: Rhiannon, The Chain, Landslide, Go Your Own Way, Songbird, Dreams, Gold Dust Woman, Everywhere, Gypsy, Don’t Stop, Little Lies, and Never Going Back Again. There is no support act - the quartet walks out, the candles are lit, and that is the show. Seating is arranged in zones (Premium, A, B, and C) on a first-come-first-served basis within each zone, so arriving early is worth it. There are two shows on the night, at 7pm and 9pm.
The venue itself is the Aula Maxima at University College Cork, a Tudor Gothic Revival hall designed by Deane and Woodward and opened in 1849. It seats around 228 people and has hosted everything from the inaugural UCC ceremony to TEDx and an Irish cabinet meeting. The stained glass, carved stonework, and high timber roof mean candlelight here does something genuinely dramatic.
UCC sits on College Road, about a ten-minute walk from Cork city centre - head south-west from St Patrick’s Street through the university gates. Bus routes from Cork Bus Station serve the area, and the university is well signposted from the main approach roads into Cork (N20 from Limerick, N25 from Waterford, N22 from Killarney). On-campus parking is available, and there are pay car parks nearby on Wilton Road and at Jurys Inn on Western Road. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
Cork city rewards a slow evening - the English Market is a short walk away, and the bars and restaurants along the Lee quays are easy to fall into before or after a show. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to Aula Maxima, University College Cork in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.