Previous Day
The barbarous barber is back
The Gate's first major musical,
Sweeney Todd , looks beyond the gore to the humanity of the
famous cut-throat, writes
Arminta Wallace p
Joni returns to face the music
Despite spitting hatred at the music business on her retirement
from recording in 2002, Joni Mitchell is back with a new set of
songs and a new attitude. She talks to
Paul Sexton p
What happens when my story is your story too?
Musician Loreena McKennitt's British court victory in a suit over a former friend's book creates unprecedented protection for the privacy of the famous, writes Roy Greenslade p
Arts
How republican chic is replacing the religious relic
Culture Shock Is our newfound fascination with the memorabilia of our revolutionary past a way of supplying by proxy the idealism that is being lost amid our wealth, asks Fintan O'Toole ? pSailing beyond the sunset
On The Town: The singer Liam Clancy, quoting a poem by Tennyson, called on older people to be "strong in will/ to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". "That's what we are about in this organisation for the next month," he said, rallying all who had gathered in the Abbey Theatre for his launch of the Bealtaine Festival, which celebrates creativity in older age. pMysteries of the Olympia's canopy
ArtScape: Walking down Dame Street hasn't been the same since a truck bashed into the gorgeous canopy - a riot of stained-glass Victoriana and one of the city's best-loved architectural landmarks - at the Olympia. p
Who's right about the rock?
An archaeologist believes the OPW's restoration works on Skellig Michael have rendered parts of the protected site 'inauthentic' and have compromised its heritage value, writes Lorna Siggins pNo access? Tour operators hit out
Skellig Michael ferry operators, including Des Lavelle, author of one of the most respected books on the rock, are critical of the OPW's approach to managing public access to the island. pThe mixed fortunes of our winged wonders
Another Life: Wry as I feel about amateur naturalists "tracking the progress" of global warming (akin to encouraging Noah to keep tabs on how many elephants drowned today), I was able to love the first peacock butterfly as it darted abroad last month for its own voluptuous colour, its velvety splendour as it roamed the primroses and dandelions for nectar. Only then did I bother to log how early it was (March 25th - nothing special). pHorizons
Earth Day unites faith leaders: Thousands of faith leaders around the world are using tomorrow's celebration of Earth Day to present global climate change as a moral issue. p
Surviving in the wreckage
Fiction Don DeLillo's new novel is the finest literary achievement yet inspired by 9/11 pA tale off the trolley
Fiction One of Litt's previous books - Finding Myself - was a pastiche of the chick-lit genre, and it is also tempting to see Hospital as a parody of what, for want of a better term, we could call medical romance. pTrue blue new boy
Biography The Tories in 2005 - humiliated by a third successive election defeat - chose David Cameron because they thought he would make a charismatic and dynamic opposition leader. pAssessing Annan
Current Affairs Two books examine the former UN secretary general's difficult tenure pThe Europa voice of Ireland
Essay: The huge, but often forgotten, contribution made to Irish literature by poet, publisher, translator and traveller George Reavey (1907-1976) will be celebrated in Dublin next weekend. Sandra Andrea O'Connell remembers his work and remarkable life pA fresh look at the legacy of a fascinating president
History Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US, remains one of the more fascinating figures in American history. Jefferson's egalitarianism led him to question the institution of slavery, yet his own dependence on the institution as a Virginia planter meant that he never truly accepted black people as the equals of whites. pRising to the challenge
History Last year's commemoration of events in 1916 has inspired a thought-provoking essay collection pA novel appliance of science
Fiction The heyday of the German Enlightenment produced, among others, two men whose genius would have shone in any age. Carl Gauss (1777-1855) was one of the greatest mathematicians ever born. pThe price of protest
Biography On February 15th, 2003, as massive anti-war marches protesting the imminent US invasion of Iraq took place all over the world, 21-year-old British photojournalism student Tom Hurndall was offered a flyer at the London event. pPaperbacks
The latest paperback releases. p
Hollywood hangers-on
TV Review: There are a couple of things I have inherited from my late father that have been particularly unhelpful in my life. One is a persistently damp but stoical old sweater that he wore in the Arctic; the other, a blind incomprehension about finance (he discarded all mail with windows - hence the meagre, if woolly, estate), writes Hilary Fannin. pElection coverage falls at first hurdle
Radio Review: There was an item about the challenge of covering an election and of keeping the electorate engaged on The Tubridy Show (RTÉ Radio 1) on Wednesday, and the panel discussion quickly veered off into colourful reminiscences from veteran political commentator Rodney Rice, talk of number crunching and references to politics as a sport. pBob's big book of many tongues
Present Tense: On the northern coast of Australia, in a remote land near the Timor Sea, live the last two native speakers of the language of the Mati Ke tribe. Patrick and Agatha are brother and sister, and their language is structured in a way quite different from ours. Objects are arranged into one of 10 noun classes. Weapons, for instance, are in the same class as lightning. Space and time go together. Apparently it's really something to hear. But it is rarely heard, because Patrick and Agatha do not speak to each other. Haven't done for 50 years. p
