Thunderclap Murphy

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Live Ambient Performance at So Say So #28

Thunderclap Murphy in a linen jacket leaning over the instrument table in the Community Garden at Wexford Arts Centre, guitar and saxophone on stands against the stone wall, audience at the edges of the frame

Thursday 30 July 2026 Start 7:00 pm

Cornmarket, Wexford, Co. Wexford

So Say So #28 in the Community Garden at Wexford Arts Centre on 30 July 2026: an evening of poetry, storytelling and live ambient music, hosted by Stephen James Smith and co-billed with Helen of Troj.

Thunderclap Murphy played the Community Garden at Wexford Arts Centre on the evening of Thursday 30 July 2026. It was So Say So #28, free to attend, and the second of two Wexford performances that day.

The garden had opened only that June, and the walls carry mosaic butterflies made by local workshop groups. The set-up went under the pergola against the stone, with keyboard, acoustic guitar, alto saxophone, flute and a ribbon microphone. Festoon lights were strung overhead, and the evening light was still on the wall.

Thunderclap Murphy playing keyboard at dusk under the festoon lights, a vintage ribbon microphone, guitar and saxophone around him against the stone wall
Helen of Troy reading at the microphone while Thunderclap Murphy plays at the instrument table, guitar and saxophone on stands against the stone wall and the audience seated in front
Helen of Troy reading from a page at the microphone while Thunderclap Murphy plays flute beside her, the audience seated in the Community Garden
The So Say So host speaking at a microphone on the left while Thunderclap Murphy stands at the keyboard on the right, the audience seated between them
Thunderclap Murphy beside a vintage ribbon microphone at dusk, lit warm against the blue stone wall and pink flowers of the Community Garden
Helen of Troy speaking into a microphone in the Community Garden at Wexford Arts Centre, green hair and a blue and black eye-pattern jumper, stone wall and festoon lights behind
The So Say So host at the microphone in the Community Garden at Wexford Arts Centre, the seated audience beside him and the instruments on stands under the pergola
The So Say So host reaching out to Helen of Troy as she leaves the microphone, the audience applauding behind them

The bill

So Say So is curated and hosted by the poet Stephen James Smith, who presented the night. Berlin word artist Helen of Troy shared the bill. The series ran that summer under Ireland’s EU Presidency Culture Programme, with support from Culture Ireland and Wexford County Council.

Thunderclap Murphy at the microphone during the soundcheck under the pergola, guitar and saxophone on stands against the stone wall of the Community Garden
Close-up of a small keyboard on a patterned cloth among the instruments on the table, with ivy in the foreground
Close-up of the keys of a gold alto saxophone among ornamental grasses

Photographs by Niamh Ní Fhoghlú.

Earlier the same day he played the first Ambient Book Club at Wexford Town Library, and he returned to the Arts Centre for So Say So #29 on 28 August.

Live ambient music for arts centres runs to about ninety minutes. See what an arts centre booking involves, or make a booking enquiry.

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