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music · Sunday 26 July 2026 · 8:00pm 
Bressie (Niall Breslin) at Mallow Arts Festival
At St James' Church of Ireland · St James Place, Mallow, Co. Cork
At St James' Church of Ireland · St James Place, Mallow, Co. Cork
Niall Breslin - known to most as Bressie - closes out the Mallow Arts Festival on the final Sunday of a five-day programme that runs through the town each July. This is not a loud stadium night; it is a considered, intimate performance from a man who has spent the last few years making music that sits somewhere between piano composition, memoir and meditation. If you know Bressie from his Blizzards days, expect something quieter and more personal. If you know him from his mental health writing and podcasts, you will recognise the same honesty translated into sound.
Bressie’s recent live work centres on his album The Place That Has Never Been Wounded, a collection of piano-led compositions with atmospheric strings and ambient detail. He has described it as “part musical breakthrough, part philosophical treatise, and part autobiography” - music that gives shape to things he finds hard to put into words. Live shows in this run have blended the instrumental pieces with spoken word reflections, so the evening has a contemplative feel rather than a high-energy set.
The setting amplifies that quality. St James’ Church of Ireland in Mallow is a Gothic limestone building that dates from the 1820s and holds around 350 people. It has been used for concerts and Culture Night events for years and its warm acoustic suits chamber music, folk and singer-songwriters particularly well. The same venue hosts Sean Keane on Friday 24th and Dr. Strangely Strange on Saturday 25th, so there is a full run of late-summer evening concerts in the same space throughout the festival week. Bressie on Sunday 26th is the closing night.
Doors are at 8pm. The show is expected to run to approximately 10pm.
Mallow sits on the main N20 road between Cork city and Limerick, roughly 35km north of Cork. The train station is central and is served by Irish Rail on the Cork-Dublin line, making this a practical trip from Cork city in under half an hour, or from Limerick in around an hour. If you are driving from Cork, the journey is straightforward on the N20; parking in Mallow town centre is generally available on the surrounding streets in the evening. St James’ Church is a short walk from the main square on Thomas Davis Street.
Mallow has a market town feel with a good few pubs and restaurants worth stopping in before or after the show, and the week of the festival brings extra activity into the town. There is more to see in Mallow and across Co. Cork.
Heading to St James' Church of Ireland in Mallow? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Mallow area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.