Darren Kiely – The Space Between Dreams Tour at Cork City Hall & 3Olympia Theatre Dublin

Cork singer-songwriter Darren Kiely has announced a pair of shows in Cork City Hall on 7th October and the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin on Saturday 10th October 2026.

Darren Kiely’s journey with music has always been driven by something pure. When he picked up a guitar for the first time as a teenager in a small town in Co. Cork, he did so with the hopes of simply being able to play along to the songs he loved. As he sharpened his skills, he started to push himself further, setting himself new challenges – learn a full cover, play a gig, then, eventually, see if he could write his own song. Throughout this years-long process, passion and natural curiosity spurred him on. “It was never like, ‘I’m gonna do this full time’ or ‘I want to play stadiums’,” he recalls. “It was just one thing led to the next challenge or the next step.”

It’s that mindset that has led Kiely to his current position – one of the first artists to be signed to Sony Music Nashville’s non-country imprint, Free Flight Records, and winning legions of fans with his emotionally rich, folk-infused music.

Kiely’s upcoming music continues his knack for making distinctive folk-pop with something to say. ‘Find It In You’, a driving, uplifting song that finds him reassuring a partner who’s not ready for a relationship that he’ll wait for them: “Whenever your walls fall down and it’s love that you need / I hope you can find it in you to find it in me,” he shares.  The contemplative ‘Married On My Phone’ deals with the relatable experience of witnessing someone you used to know going through big life milestones via your phone screen. “I saw someone I knew from years ago had got married via Instagram and I was just thinking, ‘Isn’t it crazy that you see significant events of people you’ve lost touch with [like this]?’ What happens if, one day, you end up seeing the person in your current relationship get married on Instagram?” For Kiely, that song is so different to anything he’s written before – and intentionally so: “I just wanted to hit the nail on the head of all the modern things I don’t really like.”

‘Old And Grey’, meanwhile, harks back to his youth of playing traditional Irish music – experiences that still occasionally peek through in his music today. Midway through, it surges with a swell of group vocals, intertwining with a melancholy fiddle melody to create something poignant and powerful. “I don’t sing Irish folk songs really, but I wanted to have a song that feels like it could be playing in a pub back home, and I really want to play that fiddle part live,” he says.

These songs are a testament to an artist who has always refused to get complacent or let his music become stagnant. They expand his sonic tapestry, pushing him into new pockets of sound while keeping his core DNA intact. “I’m not a band that has the same sound for every song,” he says. “It can sound like different things. That’s one thing that I think has changed in how I’m writing music now – it’s me, but there’s a different sound. I think that’s important.”

No matter how much success Kiely has achieved so far – from gaining traction from his early self-released singles to a recent sold-out headline tour – he’s remaining true to those pure intentions he started out with. As he continues to push himself forward and give himself new challenges, his ambitions are staying humble. “I just want to sing songs that I believe in,” he says. “Songs that people can sense that I care about them and what I’m singing is really authentic and honest.”

Darren Kiely

Plus Special Guests

The Space Between Dreams Tour

Cork City Hall, Cork – Wednesday 7th October 2026

3Olympia Theatre, Dublin – Saturday 10th October 2026

Tickets €33.15/€36.15 (Cork) & €35.15/€38.15 (Dublin) (Inc booking fee and venue restoration levy where applicable) on sale Friday 24th April at 10AM from Ticketmaster.ie. Bookings Subject To 12.5% Service Charge Per Ticket (Max €10.50)