Previous Day
The quest to find the wizard
The original score for The Wizard of Oz ended up as landfill,
but composer John Wilson has put the 'million-piece jigsaw' back
together. He tells
Arminta Wallace how he did
it p
File under Oz: facts behind the film
MGM's musical adaptation of L Frank Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz hit the big screen in 1939, but was a commercial flop. It only embarked on a yellow-brick road to success after a television screening in 1956. p
Flight of the wren boys
The wren boys will be out singing and dancing on St Stephen's
Day, but where does this ancient ritual come from, asks
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne p
Less Shakin' . . . and more Sufjan
Sick of being assaulted by the usual onslaught of Christmas songs, Kevin Courtney compiles an alternative festive CD p
Arts
How Stockhausen made pop weird
Culture Shock: Stockhausen's influence on the strange pop of the 1960s is evidence that art and rock have to be incompatible, writes Fintan O'Toole pThe sad silence of Ó Ríordáin
ArtScape: The failure of negotiations to resolve the delayed publication of Greg Delanty's translations of the poems of Seán Ó Ríordáin suggests that only Ó Ríordáin's executors or his beneficiaries can take any action on this dispute, an affair mystifying to anyone outside the tightly-guarded bastions of Irish-language publishing, writes Mary Leland . pWriters go back to school
On The Town: Students from Béara Community School in Castletownbere, Co Cork stole the show at a party in the Arts Council headquarters in Dublin this week. p
Picturing the battlefield
A largely overlooked painting in a back staircase in Trinity College Dublin offers an invaluable guide to archaeologists excavating the site of the 1601 Battle of Kinsale, writes Hiram Morgan pBottom-feeder that keeps caviar prices rising
Another Life The natural history of Christmas, to be serialised annually in this column until every conceivable ingredient has been dealt with, focuses this year on what I presume is a must-have nibble at all the best parties, even as the economy is sliding under the table. pGroups unite on biodiversity
Horizons A group of Irish conservation organisations has formed an alliance to encourage people to appreciate the importance of a healthy natural environment. The alliance, which is called Working for Educating for Biodiversity (Web) will campaign to prevent further loss of habitats and species, and will work with state bodies to help restore endangered wildlife and habitats. pEye on Nature
Readers' observations on nature p
A long and fiery friendship
Politics: Richard Aldous takes a look at two books which examine the love-hate relationship between the US and the UK pDrafting up our destiny
Irish History: 'Few things have shaped and controlled Irish political and legal culture as decisively as the Constitution of Ireland." So writes Prof Gerard Hogan in the foreword to Dermot Keogh and Andrew McCarthy's new documentary study of the constitution which will be 70 years old on December 29th, and is now one of the oldest written constitutions in Europe. pVan the Man and the sunken city
Memoir: Ireland is a small country; indomitable, yes, but tiny; disproportionate in ambition and in talents, and absolutely chockfull of writers. What was it Kavanagh reckoned? A standing army of 5,000 poets? And that was even before courses in Creative Writing. If you stand around long enough, north or south, some poet'll soon come and claim your ground, and start hymning it on your behalf. pA landlord's legacy
Biography: It is customary to say of Edward Martyn (1859-1923) that he has been forgotten. Yet this new biography by Madeleine Humphreys is the fourth monograph on his works and days, and "dear Edward" turns up stubbornly, often comically, in every account of the life of Yeats, Lady Gregory, and George Moore, his collaborators in the founding of the Irish Literary Theatre (1899-1901). pDark end of a 'perfect' life
Biography: What happened when the then Chinese capital Nanking fell to the Japanese in December 1937 is back in the news with a new film by Japanese film maker Satoru Mizushima disputing the horrors it is long said went on there. pTáin in the 21st century
Epic: Frank O'Connor called it "a simply appalling text". It compares unfavourably with more elegant "national" epics, such as Beowulf , or Njal's Saga . Part of the problem is the complicated history of The Táin , which some scholars have suggested reflects conflicts and cultural conditions c. the second century BC, but the earliest extant document of which is an allegedly 11th-century manuscript. pA literary selection box
Short Stories: How to classify The Book of Other People ? It is a charitable venture in aid of a non-profit organisation, and the list of contributors, topped by its stellar editor, Zadie Smith, reads like a young writers' hall of fame. First and foremost though, it is an anthology of short stories - or, in keeping with the season, something of a literary selection box, with fictional nuggets by 23 of the brightest and most fashionable writers from both sides of the Atlantic crammed into its pages. pThe lessons of the Dominican republic
History: The cover of this book shows demure young women in long black dresses and younger children dressed in white sitting on the grass or playing on the tennis court at the Dominican convent of Sion Hill, watched by nuns in flowing robes: a traditional image of Irish convent schooling, and of a world that has disappeared. pPaperbacks
The latest paperbacks reviewed p
