On my radar: CMAT’s cultural highlights

The Irish musician on her favourite traditional pub, converting to the cult of baseball, and gigs in a western movie set

Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, who performs as CMAT, was born in Dublin in 1996 and grew up in nearby Dunboyne. She formed a band at 18 but quit after three years and later reinvented herself as a solo artist blending country music with pop and other influences. Her 2022 debut, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, won the RTÉ Choice music prize for Irish album of the year. The Observer described her follow-up Crazymad, for Me as “one of the finest” albums of last year – “about as much fun as a record about a toxic power imbalance can be”. CMAT plays the O2 Forum Kentish Town on 16 May and Sheffield’s Kelham Island Museum on 18 May.