Westmeath Arts Office is delighted to announce Imagining Common Grounds, a special Culture Night 2026 event that marks the official launch of both this year’s Culture Night programme and Westmeath’s contribution to Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

As part of the programme of events, Westmeath singer-songwriter Peter Doran will perform on the Market Square, Mullingar from 8pm.

Peter Doran is an ancient soul, who for over two decades, has plaited words and melodies with an encyclopedic knowledge of the psychogeography of his surrounds. All the world is Running on a Mystic Code, the pinnacle of Peter’s six albums is unveiled to the public with lead single Never Say Goodbye, accompanied by a fine maritime themed Josh Wagner-directed video. The song is a spellcasting liturgical hymn doused in sea shanty alchemy, peppered with the superstitions of timeworn mariners. Knotted around verses of sailor lore & superstitions are feverish hallucinations of “four lions on a leash, too strong to hold, too wild to keep,” and heady dreams of “waves crashing over the beast.”