http://www.ireland.com The Irish Times' Weekend Top Stories en-ie Copyright 2008, ireland.com. The Irish Times 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 daily 2 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/ http://www.ireland.com/feeds/rss/rss_logo.gif Search for articles on ireland.com QUERY00 http://www.ireland.com/cgi-bin/dialogserver http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717336642.html The best theatre often has the shape and emotional charge of the religious rituals it resembles, which is perhaps why the Irish are so good at it. One of our leading playwrights explains what makes the form unique and why he has lost interest in writing the kind of monologues that helped make his name Weekend 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333059.html A new exhibition at Imma blurs the boundaries between art and commerce, and the 50 works selected from the 10,000 submitted comprise a very good, user-friendly exhibition of recent, contemporary, mostly Irish art Weekend 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737433371.html In a new short story, Kevin Barry responds to Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as part of a continuing series in association with Amnesty International to mark the 60th anniversary of the declaration  Weekend 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717336652.html Ten years recuperating after a bomb blast in Peru. Ten more learning how to craft and rewrite his songs. Now Sam Baker has finally found his musical voice – and an audience – for the stories he wants to tell Arts 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333020.html CULTURE SHOCK: Charlie McCreevy's idea of extending copyright for musicians looks very much like a Trojan horse Arts 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737433389.html ARTSCAPE: WHO KNOWS WHAT next week will bring, ministerially speaking, but in the meantime the almost-silence which greeted Minister for Arts Séamus Brennan's Arts and Culture plan has ended. Arts 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333117.html The modernist architect Liam McCormick is best known for his Donegal churches, which elicit an emotional response from Irish people. He worked in isolation but was far from an outsider, as a new book about him shows. Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, reports Heritage & Habitat 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333093.html ANOTHER LIFE: THE SPRING TIDES replenish a small pool, a few metres long and ankle-deep, where the end of the boreen melts into the strand. Heritage & Habitat 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333126.html Sylvia Thompson with dates for your diary. Heritage & Habitat 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333124.html Observations from readers Heritage & Habitat 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717333086.html This week ECOWEB looks at www.swanireland.ie Heritage & Habitat 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717334134.html BIOGRAPHY:  Ireland's Misfortune: The Turbulent Life of Kitty O'Shea By Elisabeth Kehoe Atlantic Books, 608pp. £19.99 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717334147.html MEMOIR: If I am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew By Mike Marqusee Verso, 330pp. £16.99 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717334115.html OXFORD: This Secret Garden: Oxford Revisited By Justin Cartwright Bloomsbury, 223pp. £9.99 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717331560.html BIOGRAPHY: The World is What It is: The Authorised Biography of VS Naipaul By Patrick French Picador, 555pp. £20 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717331578.html FICTION: The Reserve By Russell Banks Picador, 287pp. £14.99 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717331604.html ANTHOLOGY: Sixteen after Ten: New Writing from the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College Dublin Lilian Press, 186pp. € 9.99 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737433419.html SPORT: Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 By Xu Guoqi Harvard University Press, 330pp. €22.50 For China, hosting the Olympics has meant a fusion of danger and opportunity Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737433435.html HISTORY: Fabergé's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces that Outlived an Empire By Toby Faber Macmillan, 324pp. £17.99 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737430331.html AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Renegade: The Life and Tales of Mark E Smith By Mark E Smith, with Austin Collings Viking, 246pp. £18.99 The irascible ageing rock star hopes his autobiography will shake up the 'Hollyoaks' generation Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737430321.html CURRENT AFFAIRS: The Bin Ladens: The Story of a Family and its Fortune By Steve Coll Allen Lane, 671pp. £25 Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737430324.html All Quiet on the Western Front By Erich Maria Remarque Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737433440.html Short stories on a longlist Two Irish Man Booker Prize-winning novelists are up for another major award - but this time it's for their short stories. Anne Enright's Taking Pictures and Roddy Doyle's The Deportees and Other Stories were this week included on the 39-book longlist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, which offers €35,000 for a published collection of stories. Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209737430305.html This week's paperbacks reviewed Book Reviews 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209678903740.html TV REVIEW: Miss Austen Regrets BBC1, Sunday Striapacha TG4, Thursday Where's My Job Gone? RTÉ1, Tuesday Michael Barrymore: What Really Happened Channel 4, Tuesday Seen & Heard 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209678903747.html RADIO REVIEW: RICH, BLONDE women wearing bug-eyed sunglasses drive SUVs partly because they are cool, expensive toys. SUVs now reportedly make up about 10 per cent of car sales. But with their kids strapped into the back of their militaristic, tank-like babymobiles, these women also want to feel safe and protected. Seen & Heard 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209678903724.html ROSS O'CARROLL KELLY: Eight hours ion Donnybrook Gorda station with Columbo from Killinaskully - and then I sport Cilian with some bird who's def not Sorcha Seen & Heard 2008-05-03T12:15:06+00:00