It matters that Ireland is an island. That makes its past and present different from many other countries – The Irish Times
July 1972. I was 11 years old. In a country tense with uniformed killings and violent recrimination, my…
Sebastian Barry: ‘My mother was interesting, extravagant. It was difficult to be a child of such a person’ – The Irish Times
If the divided loyalties and complex identities of his forebears gave Sebastian Barry the key subject and the…
Snap happy: Irish photographers on the story behind their favourite photographs – The Irish Times
Millions of images are now taken every moment. Photos snapped on smartphones, some cherished, some posted, but most…
Ireland’s coastline – erosion in Wexford: ‘There’s nobody protecting my land for me’ – The Irish Times
On a sunny summer morning, Kelly’s Hotel in Rosslare Strand is a hive of activity. Staff are turning…
Hundreds of Irish writers set to share millions of euro after €1.31bn Anthropic settlement – The Irish Times
Hundreds of Irish writers are set to share millions of euro following a €1.31 billion settlement of a…
New arguments against abortion surface in a ‘retro’ Kieran Cuddihy Liveline show – The Irish Times
Heated arguments about abortion, earnest debates on Irish unity, paeans to footballers from Ireland performing heroics at the…
New arguments against abortion surface in a ‘retro’ Kieran Cuddihy Liveline show – The Irish Times
Heated arguments about abortion, earnest debates on Irish unity, paeans to footballers from Ireland performing heroics at the…
I am off my phone and in the world
On a recent trip to Hay-on-Wye, a small market town in Wales, my phone suddenly becomes no more…
Hamnet’s Maggie O’Farrell: ‘I turned down an OBE because I didn’t want British Empire as part of my name’ – The Irish Times
Maggie O’Farrell shows me a picture of her great-great grandfather, Tomás, standing behind a British redcoat and a…
No ‘Tolkien’s Epic Pooh’: Top books list is rage bait but it’s of the highest quality – The Irish Times
Over the past week it has seemed impossible to move for fatheads pontificating about The Guardian’s “100 best…
Books from Louise Kennedy, Donal Ryan, Sebastian Barry and more – The Irish Times
The new novel by Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell will be her most Irish yet. Land (Tinder Press, June)…
Brendan O’Connor wears his RTÉ Radio 1 crown lightly as the new pretenders arrive – The Irish Times
It may be a fleeting reign, but right now Brendan O’Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday and Sunday) is…