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  • NEW WEAPONS OF TERROR

    Details of the foiled terrorist plot to blow up aircraft over the Atlantic point to an ominous new development in the pattern of international terrorism, writes Jonathan Eyal. p

  • Going back to the plot

    Death becomes her: Brid Ni Neachtain, who plays Caitriona Phaidin in Cre na Cille. She has played Caitriona three times, but her favourite role is Rose in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy Bríd Ní Neachtain is happy to reprise her role as a dead woman in the stage version of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's Irish-language novel, Cré na Cille, but she's not going to let the grass grow under her feet, writes Rosita Boland p

  • Digging her way with words

    Turkish novelist Elif Safak might seem the perfect writer to become an interpretive guide to the east. But no one person can be the representative of a culture, she tells Nick Birch p
Arts

  • Block-rockin' beatniks

    People are whistling along to their catchy new single, but the poppy Swedish trio who made it do have a dark side, they assure Kevin Courtney p

  • Tangled up in gothic country blues

    As a child, Cortney Tidwell took refuge in a fantasy world and in British indie rock. That's why she's no traditional country singer, writes Tony Clayton-Lea p

  • Ready to take to the streets

    OnTheTown: Personal mythology, truth recovery, heavenly beings reflecting on social change, transgender lives - all this and more is promised at the Dublin Fringe Festival next month. The programme, which was launched this week at Dublin's louche and luxurious Camden Deluxe Hotel Pool Lounge, comprises 116 shows over 16 days. p

  • More than fi'pence worth of memories

    OnTheTown: A pram, a polio callipers and a baby weighing scales were among the most evocative items on display at an exhibition that opened on Thursday at the National museum. p

  • Munchkins go through the Mill

    OnTheTown: The European premiere of a new play by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh took place at Dundrum's new state-of-the-art Mill Theatre in south Dublin this week. p

  • Leaving their prints on Temple Bar

    OnTheTown: The work of more than 50 living printmakers from the US went on view at Dublin's Graphic Studio Gallery this week. p

  • Filling the visionary vacuum

    Artscape: What might an alternative Ireland look like in 2030? That's the starting point for Ireland's ambitious entry for the Venice Architectural Biennale next month. p
About UsBack to Top

  • Tarnishing the Silvermines

    North Tipperary was once famous for its mining, but is now dealing with the pollution left behind, writes Siobhan McGowan p

  • Draining resources: mining history

    In the l960s, the arrival of companies such as Magcobar (Ireland) Ltd and Mogul of Ireland Ltd to the village of Silvermines brought international workers and an economic boom that saw full employment and a thriving social scene that is still talked about in the village today. p

  • Future of insects is in the hands of children

    One of the lesser crises of this overheated summer has involved a vegetable wholly iconic to the serious food gardeners of these islands: the runner bean. As the July heatwave drew to a pause, a Saturday issue of The Guardian [itals] newspaper carried half-a-dozen letters discussing the apparent failure of abundantly- flowering runner beans actually to set their pods. p

  • Keeping a good house

    Horizons:  The newly appointed chief executive officer of the Irish Heritage Trust, Kevin Baird, is the keynote speaker at the fourth annual Historic Houses of Ireland conference at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co Kildare on September 1st and 2nd. p

  • EcoWeb

    www.slowfoodireland.com p

  • Eye on Nature

    Readers' observations on nature p
Book ReviewsBack to Top

  • A stranger in his own parish

    Fiction: Andrew O'Hagan is no mere teller of tales. He is a state-of-the-nation novelist and a front-ranking one at that - though still only in his 30s. Both his previous novels, Our Fathers, shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize, and Performance, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, offer unparalleled insights into the forces that can diminish, debase and often destroy ordinary lives in contemporary society. p

  • Conflicts of self-interest

    Society: Is communal conflict the consequence of conflictual identities? Were Serbs at war with Kosovo Albanians, for example, because they were each locked in their tribal hatreds? Or was it the other way round - their tribalism was the result of their primeval quarrel? p

  • Dark side of the City of Light

    History: Everyone who knows the city at all has their own Paris. It might be the brash ritziness of the Champs Elysées or the quiet hilly streets of the Quartier Latin or the fabulous museums or even the bleak joys of Pigalle - or simply some obscure quartier where the corner bistro and boulangerie are the tops. p

  • Suffering before suffrage

    Fiction: Every house has a story; some have more than one. The birth house of the title of Canadian Ami McKay's first novel has many stories and even more births. It is, as it suggests, one of those houses to which local women came in the days before maternity hospitals to give birth. p

  • Remembering a forgotten hero

    History : With this year's various centenary commemorations of Davitt's death it may be said at last that he is no longer the "Forgotten Hero" of Andy Irvine's song. However, although there are at least three studies of Davitt's career and ideas in preparation, little has been published this year. p

  • The family, the legacy

    Irish History: There has been a general resurgence in commemorative activity in Ireland during the last decade, observe Donal McCartney and Pauric Travers in their new book, The Ivy Leaf: The Parnells Remembered. p

  • Getting to the point of surrender

    Fiction: 'Gods make their own importance." The concluding line of Patrick Kavanagh's Epic might well occur to readers of this intriguing, if uneven, first collection of stories by Irish writer William Wall, whose reputation as a novelist has been rising steadily in recent years. p

  • From Tennessee to Reykjavik, a vintage crop of dark deeds

    Crimefile: Patricia Cornwell's At Risk is a shorter book than usual and doesn't feature her usual series protagonist, forensic scientist Dr Kay Scarpetta. Although a short novel - 180 double-spaced pages - it has quite a complicated plot. Detective Winston Garano is called back from a training course in Tennessee by district attorney Monique Lamont, only to be given a 20-year-old case involving the murder of a wealthy old woman. p

  • A cold war in winter snow

    History: White Death, an account of the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland, is Robert Edwards's first venture into military history. His previous writings have been confined to books on motor cars and motor racing and contributions to the Daily Telegraph. p

  • Resolute portrayal of Hardy era

    Biography: A charming poem by Thomas Hardy, Snow in the Suburbs, describes the author's front doorstep as "a blanched slope",Up which, with feeble hope,A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin;And we take him in. p

  • Paperbacks

    The latest releases reviewed p
Seen & HeardBack to Top

  • Keeping the past alive

    TVReview: In a television week that vociferously heralded the reconstruction of Robert Scott's epic and fatal attempt on the South Pole, a very different examination of endurance took place in Townlands: The Brothers, a short, arresting and memorable film shot by photographer Richard Fitzgerald. p

  • A 'sporting' hero enjoys an easy ride

    Radio Review:   It took Dr Michael Smurfit, or Michael as I now like to call him, around 10 minutes to realise that he had absolutely nothing to fear from Susan McReynolds, ( Saturday with Susan McReynolds , RTÉ Radio 1). p

  • Really wheely heels

    PresentTense: Dunnes Stores has banned the use of Heelys in its shops, recent in-store incidents having convinced it that there are few things in life more bothersome than an eight-year-old shifting into fourth gear. It joins bans already rolled out in schoolyards and playgrounds across the country, and shopping centres across the world. p
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