Declan O'Rourke set for Kilkenny return, plays Watergate Theatre in March

A favourite around these parts, Declan O’Rourke is set for a return to Kilkenny and to the Watergate Theatre in early 2022.

As part of a 12-date tour and with latest album Arrivals in tow, O’Rourke lands at the Watergate for a performance on Saturday 5 March.

Tickets go on sale this Thursday morning from 10am via ticketmaster.ie and venue box offices.

O’Rourke is an artist known as a consummate performer who captivates audiences time and time again whether commanding the stage alone with a guitar and a microphone, accompanied by a fifty-piece orchestra, or surrounded by a band.

The most emotionally raw and affecting album of his career, Declan’s latest album Arrivals was produced by Paul Weller.

Recorded over six days at the Black Barn studio in Surrey, Arrivals sees O’Rourke present his art in a different yet wholly distinctive manner. The sound is stripped back to his soulful and resonant voice, the virtuosic acoustic guitar playing for which he’s renowned and only the occasional sparse arrangement of strings and late-night drums bringing colour and light to the LP’s ten tracks.

Weller, a fan of Declan’s songwriting for some years, also adds his multi-instrumental abilities to the recordings, including a beautiful piano accompaniment to the closing track.

The Pawnbroker’s Reward, O’Rourke’s forthcoming literary debut, has been announced for release 29 October this year via Gill books — A work of historical fiction, the much-anticipated novel comes in the wake of the artist’s widely acclaimed, award-winning record Chronicles Of The Great Irish Famine.