Previous Day
Mover, shaker and film-deal maker
As the Irish Film Board's sole representative in Los Angeles,
Jonathan Loughran is on a one-man mission to get Irish film on to
as many screens as possible, writes
Michael Dwyer p
GREEN SCREEN: IRISH FILMS IN THE PIPELINE
Two dozen Irish producers travelled to Los Angeles on a recent Irish Film Board trade mission. Here is a selection of projects some of those producers were representing. p
The Round Hall
In a new short story, novelist
John Boyne responds to Article 10 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 p
Arts
Celebrations of hatred, naughtiness and public transport
A sneak peek at this year's most exciting festivals around the country. Book early to avoid disappointment. Though you might be disappointed whether you book or not, writes Kevin Gildea pA dying Christ reaches for help that never comes
Matthias Grunewald's 1516 Isenheim altarpiece reveals Christ's death without disguise - grotesque and terrifying - but it also features the most sensational resurrection, writes Jonathan Jones pThe Space Programme has lift-off
ARTSCAPE DEIDRE FALVEY ART IS ATTEMPTING take-off with the first Space Programme, Performance Corporation's highly unusual new residency programme, which will see architects, actors, choreographers, musicians and visual artists from all over the world collaborating to create new work. pWhy the Troubles are virgin artistic territory
CULTURE SHOCK The years after the end of a conflict tend to produce the best dramatic explorations of it - but so far, the potential of the North remains untapped p
Jules Verne's Irish yarn
Although it is not even known whether Jules Verne ever landed here, a little-known novel of his has re-emerged with its hero traversing 19th-century Ireland, writes Claire O'Connell pExtract from 'The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick' by Jules Verne
Ireland, which has an area of 31,759 square miles, or 20,326,209 acres, formerly formed part of the insular tract of land now called the United Kingdom. pOur assembled pond came to enchant our springs
MICHAEL VINEY ANOTHER LIFE But for the jelly-moulds of frogspawn shivering at the surface, our garden pond is now virtually invisible: one false step and you'd be up to your knees. Beneath the mattress of twining meadow-grass and spiky rushes, a jungle of stems crowds the water - still seething, no doubt, with small aquatic animals stalking each other through the dark. pHORIZONS
Stop the lights When 2.2 million people and 2,100 businesses in Sydney, Australia, turned off their lights for one hour on March 31 last year, the world took notice. pEye on Nature
There was a cattle egret on the tidal grassland in front of my house on inner Clew Bay. Unlike the little egret it had a heavy bill and yellow throat. p
The life of this Old Lady
MEDIA An insider's history of The Irish Times, as it moved from pro-Home Rule to pro-Union and on into the modern era pA lament for love
FICTION Salman Rushdie's lengthy, chaotic novel of the Mughals, the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Italy has its moments, but is ultimately tedious, writes Eileen Battersby pA relentless, ruthless tyrant
BIOGRAPHY How a Baltic aristocrat conquered Mongolia and became one of the 20th century's marginal monsters, writes Max McGuinness pBaron Roman Ungern von Sternberg: numbers of the beast
1885: Born in Graz, Austria to a German mother and an Estonian father of noble German blood. They move to modern day Tallinn, Estonia within a few years of birth. pHow the war was lost before it began
CURRENT AFFAIRS After five grim years it hardly seems credible that the US is still mired in the blood and rubble of Iraq, with no coherent plan to deliver itself and the Iraqi people from the folly of its president. It is over seven years since the leader of the free world stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers and told us we would never hear the end of it. How right he was. pOne man's best friends
MEMOIR A lyrical memoir of love, loss, despair, depression and death expressed through the author's passion for dogs, writes Joyce Hickey pDirty tricks on the campaign trail
CRIME FILE RICHARD NORTH Patterson's The Race is not a conventional thriller, although it belts along at a furious pace. The eponymous "Race" is the race for the Republican Party nomination for the US presidency. pEssentially appealing: strong stories and vivid characters
PRE-TEEN FICTION AT A TIME when much of the discussion about children's books focuses on the appropriateness (or otherwise) of the increasingly controversial material now available for teenagers it is something of a relief to encounter a selection of novels such as those under review here. pA tale of everyday autism
FICTION 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad/They may not mean to, but they do." Philip Larkin's well-used lines sum up the essence of this novel, Clare Morrall's third. pSECOND READING
Judith Hearne, alone and lonely, unpacks yet again. The silver-framed photograph of her dead aunt is positioned in a place of honour, as ever, on the mantelpiece of "whatever bed-sitting-room Miss Hearne happened to be living in". pComing home for the cows
POETRY Near the end of this very tight selection from his lifetime's work Bernard O'Donoghue has placed the poem Telegrams. pLOOSE LEAVES
Franco-Irish festival to reveal secrets Given that secrecy was a way of life to many in the hidden Ireland of the past, there's something particularly apt about "Secrets", the theme of this year's Franco-Irish literary festival, the annual gathering of Irish writers in English and Irish with writers from French-speaking territories and beyond. pPAPERBACKS
A selection of paperbacks reviewed p
View of the state of the State
TV REVIEW: The Importance of Being Irish RTÉ1, Tuesday Eden RTÉ1, Monday; In The Name of the Fada RTÉ1, Thursday Rua TG4, Wednesday pOld ideas about the New Irish
RADIO REVIEW: RODNEY RICE is the right side of affable, missing bland by the skin of his chinny-chin-chin. (But aren't we all? Or so we'd like to think.) p'Then the Monk turns around and orders a round. I don't care what he's allegedly done as long as he's getting them in'
Ronan has found a role model to look up to, and the good news is he even likes rugby. But then there's the bad news . . ., writes Ross O'Carroll-Kelly p
