50 people to watch in 2026: From film and music to arts, activism, sport and more

MUSIC

By Nadine O’Regan

Reggie

Since the Talk of the Town remix, everything has changed for Dundalk rapper Reggie. Photograph: Alex McDonnell

Nigeria-born, Dundalk-raised rapper Reggie had a life-changing moment in 2025, when producer Fred Again remixed his song Talk of the Town, and invited Reggie to perform it on stage with him at the RDS in Dublin.

“It was monumental,” Reggie says. Now 26, Reggie first started making music in Dundalk at 14, and began releasing his drill-influenced original material at 17.

Since the Talk of the Town remix, everything has changed. “It’s a dream come true,” he says. “My Instagram DMs have been flooded. My Spotify streams are mental – right now, we have three million monthly listeners, which is insane.” Straight after the RDS show, Reggie disappeared back into the studio. He has new collaborations “Irish and international” planned for release in 2026, management in London, and more shows on the horizon.

Burglar

In January, Burglar will unleash a new single, Lovey, and complete their debut album

If there’s pressure on Willow Hannon – daughter of The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon – to live up to the achievements of her award-winning, chart-topping, musician father, you can’t hear it on indie act Burglar.

Formed in 2021 while at Trinity College Dublin, Burglar comprises Hannon and Eduardo Pinheiro, who was born in England and raised around the punk rock scene in his hometown of Goiânia, Brazil. When Pinheiro (23) moved to Dublin with his aunt and uncle, his first impression of music in the capital was “watching Sing Street when I was 15” and wanting to be just like the band’s lead character.

There’s a woozy, Strokes-y feel to Burglar’s first EP Unlucky, released last summer. “We get loud now and then but only for choruses,” Pinheiro says. In January, Burglar will unleash a new single, Lovey, and complete their debut album, with a headline tour across Ireland planned for February.

Florence Road

Florence Road is named after the road in Bray in Co Wicklow where the four members met as 12-year-olds at school

They’ve supported marquee names including Olivia Rodrigo and Wolf Alice, signed to Warner, and their fans already have a nickname for themselves: the “Flo-Roadies”. The future is looking bright for Florence Road, named after the road in Bray in Co Wicklow where the four members met as 12-year-olds at school.

Big on TikTok, where their fish-eye videos have gone viral, last June they played Hyde Park in London to 65,000 people supporting Rodrigo, and in March they will support The Last Dinner Party in north America.

It’s a long way from their early days in Coláiste Ráithín, where they performed Hozier covers, encouraged by their teachers. All aged 20 or 21, they’ve already attended the Brit Awards as guests and their hooky, earworm songs are star-quality. They will headline the Olympia Theatre in May.

“It doesn’t feel real,” says frontwoman Lily Aron. “It’s the kind of moment you imagine for years.”

Thanks Mom

Influenced by Olivia Rodrigo and Nirvana, Thanks Mom are currently working on a new EP

“It’s been amazing to see the crowds grow,” says Erica Lee of Thanks Mom. “It’s a lot of young, cool people and because I write the songs, the biggest thing for me is hearing people sing the words back: that gives me a feeling in my heart that’s insane.”

For the Kildare four-piece, the biggest obstacle in front of them for the past few years has been their Leaving Certs. This year, finally all members will have finished school, leaving them free to concentrate on music.

Influenced by Olivia Rodrigo and Nirvana, they’re currently working on a new EP. “It’s acoustic guitars and loads of percussion and really layered, so I’m excited about that,” says Lee. The band name is a sincere ode to the efforts put in by Lee’s mother on their behalf. “I really love my mom, she’s great and she helps out a lot. She’s literally our chauffeur.”

Ria Rua

Ria Rua's debut album arrives on February 27th

The name Ria Rua (Red Queen) isn’t just a catchy moniker, it’s a clapback to the taunts Clare Martin of Ria Rua endured as a redheaded kid in Meath. “I had loads of nicknames and I hated my hair, then I turned it on its head,” she says.

Ria Rua emerged as a drummer (she has drummed for Jiggy and Emma Langford on tour) and still alternates between drums and guitars on stage while singing, but these days Ria Rua is a fuller proposition live, including Chris Schuette on bass and Chloe Corcoran Hanlon on a second drumkit. With lyrics like “how can I legally dump you in a ditch?”, Ria Rua’s punchy approach is winning airplay on indie stations like 8Radio.

You can’t hear Ria Rua on Spotify – she won’t use the service – but raucous songs like It’s a Hit and Lovesick are worth tracking down. Her debut album arrives on February 27th, with a launch gig in Whelan’s in Dublin the night before. Fans of Nine Inch Nails and Sonic Youth should beat a path.

FASHION & BEAUTY

By Deirdre McQuillan and Simone Gannon

Lucy Arbuthnott

Model

Lucy Arbuthnott was spotted by a modelling agent from NotAnotherInt in Dublin at 16

Tall with long red hair, Dubliner Lucy Arbuthnott, aged 21, from Booterstown in Dublin, a final year law student at Trinity College, has had a successful year as a model walking for Valentino, Issey Miyake and Hermes (where she had to carry a red saddle on her head) at Paris Fashion Week, as well as for Marni in Milan.

She also featured in a fashion cover shoot for the How To Spend It magazine in the Financial Times in February. “That was super cool,” she says. A keen sportswoman at school in Mount Anville, she was spotted by a modelling agent from NotAnotherInt in Dublin at 16, and her first job at 17 was for Create in Brown Thomas.

In her first year at TCD in 2023 she signed up with agencies in London, Paris and Milan, and her modelling career has developed ever since alongside her studies. “[Modelling] was brutal at first, but now it’s a lot more fun,” she says. The youngest of three from a family of scientists, she was always interested in law, and in her final year of study she is focusing on how it relates to medicine. On an Erasmus exchange at Bocconi in Milan, a guest lecturer talking about intellectual property litigation in the fashion world gave her another perspective on how her two passions intersect.

“I am going to give modelling a proper shot, and when I am not studying (for her solicitors exams), I can model and when I am not modelling, I can study.”

Caolum McCabe

Fashion designer

Caolum McCabe describes himself as an emotional and conceptual designer, who wants to put more magic into fashion

Caolumn McCabe’s 16-piece debut collection “Persona” in September, inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film, marked the 27-year-old Newry designer as one to watch. With its innovative silhouettes, wayward silk knitwear, oil slicked pieces, pearlised button tweed décor and hand dyed slip dresses, it was a tour de force from a talented creative who cuts, sews and pattern drafts, and believes the “touch of hand is really special”.

A love of fashion was inherited from his grandmother who was a dressmaker, and his tutors at the Arts University Bournemouth worked with McQueen and Galliano. After graduation he spent time with Vivienne Westwood and designer SS Daley (recipient of the LVMH prize) in London before returning home to reconnect with his heritage.

A job in a local hospital helped him pay for fabrics for his self-funded show. He describes himself as an emotional and conceptual designer, who wants to put more magic into fashion. He is careful about his next steps. “We won’t rush because this is something we dreamed up for a long time. There will be a chapter two collection.”

Hollie Marie Gallagher

Fashion designer

Hollie Marie Gallagher: 'I’m excited about opportunities in my underestimated county of Donegal'

From Donegal, Hollie Marie Gallagher’s family ties to weaving are strong; the clothes in her Dare to Howl avant-garde fashion brand collection, in collaboration with Magee, merge Irish heritage materials with slow fashion principles and challenge fast fashion culture.

Her redefinition of the traditional Irish cloak, and her curvaceous oversized silhouettes in tweed and taffeta from her graduate collection at ATU Donegal, made a strong statement, marking a new direction for a heritage textile from a young local designer.