Hay at Kells: The weekend beginsThe Hay Festival at Kells is a bright new chapter in the life of the Co Meath townFri Jun 28 2013 - 15:50
Lisa Dwan: ‘You can’t see. You can’t hear. Your head is in a harness. You can’t move your arms’Performing Beckett’s ‘Not I’ involves being blindfolded, bound, and hovering on a platform in a pitch-black space. So why can’t Lisa Dwan leave it alone?Mon Jun 24 2013 - 01:00
Deirdre Madden on space and timeDeirdre Madden’s new novel is about a slippery subject. But it’s far from being weird, obscure or overly philosophicalSat Jun 15 2013 - 01:00
The Ash and the Beech: the Drama of Woodland Change, by Richard MabeyPaperback reviewSat Jun 15 2013 - 01:00
Led back into James Joyce’s DublinSelf-guided walking tours of James Joyce’s city transport Dubliners and tourists to a new worldSat Jun 08 2013 - 01:00
Crowds converge at Hay Festival Kells to talk books and ideasWelsh literary festival in Co Meath deemed an ‘amazing success’ as thousands turn upSat Jun 01 2013 - 01:00
The power of scentAn Irishwoman’s Diary: Can ‘good’ smells do more than just give us a momentary lift?Tue May 14 2013 - 01:01
‘I have to keep pushing at the edges of what I can do’Debut novelist Paul Lynch is frank about his influences, admits he’s ‘not good’ at research, and writes in ‘a bit of a trance’ – but there’s no doubting his intentThu May 09 2013 - 07:00
Mohsin Hamid: ‘Writing a novel is more like digging a well than climbing a mountain’Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist was an international bestseller and is about to hit the big screen, starring Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland and Riz Ahmed. His new novel is called How To Get Rich In Rising Asia. Is it really a self-help book? Or is it a 21st-century Great Gatsby?Tue May 07 2013 - 07:00
Douglas Kennedy: a storyteller grappling with the larger things in lifeSix million books sold – and still the author of ‘The Big Picture’ is always fretting about the next oneSat May 04 2013 - 06:00
A meeting of the sharpest literary minds at CúirtThe key to the success of the Cúirt literary festival is putting contrasting writers in the same room and letting them at it – this year was no exceptionThu May 02 2013 - 07:00
Worst shipwreck you’ve never heard ofWhen the ‘Neva’ sank off Tasmania, in 1835, more than 200 Irish women and children drowned. But it was a convict ship, so they disappeared from history. A new book hopes to restore them to itSat Apr 27 2013 - 06:00
Literary luminaries gather in Galway for CúirtA time for ‘legends in their own lunchtime’Wed Apr 24 2013 - 22:48
‘The seeds sown are rarely wasted’: A charter for change in arts educationRuairí Quinn and Jimmy Deenihan promise ‘arts-rich schools’, putting creativity at the centre of education. How might this work, and how long will it take?Tue Apr 23 2013 - 05:00
The Times We Lived in: Breaking newsPublished on March 20th, 1985. Photograph by Matt KavanaghSat Apr 13 2013 - 06:00
Grave concerns: the last temptation of crime novelistsPreachers, guilt, biblical references: what is it about religious imagery that crimewriters just can’t resist?Sat Apr 06 2013 - 07:00
The Times We Lived In: Garden varietyPublished on May 2nd, 1990. Photograph by Joe St LegerSat Apr 06 2013 - 06:00
Julia O'Faolain: a star in an artistic galaxyThe writer's fiction is excellent, but her new memoir shows the enthralling facts behind life as Sean O’Faolain’s daughterTue Apr 02 2013 - 07:00
Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt, by Richard HollowayPaperback ReviewSat Mar 30 2013 - 06:00
Netymology: the best new words from a brave new worldIn his book Netymology, the digital commentator Tom Chatfield examines the twisted histories of the electronic world’s most eccentric words. Here are some of our favouritesSat Mar 30 2013 - 06:00
The times we lived inPublished November November 22nd, 1989. Photograph by Matt KavanaghSat Mar 23 2013 - 00:00
How starlings stir the artistic spiritAn Irishwoman’s Diary: ‘One of the great ballets of the world’Mon Mar 18 2013 - 06:00
John Hurt: ‘I don’t really look like Beckett at all. God. I should be so lucky’The veteran actor returns to Dublin to perform ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’, in a role he has been developing for more than a decadeSat Mar 16 2013 - 04:00
Subprime surreal estateEdgar Martins has cleverly subverted our familiarity with house imagery in order to draw us in and then provide a surprise element…Thu Feb 28 2013 - 00:00
The dog delusion: why your mutt might be smarter than he looksWhen it comes to communication, our four-legged friends could teach us a thing or twoSat Feb 23 2013 - 00:00
Single living: Security anxiety, talking to magpies and the biscuit thingI’m sitting in my kitchen at the computer, trying to find a way to start this article. I stop and listenTue Feb 19 2013 - 00:00
Ten ways the world is wired for coupledomSingle people don't want to be godparents, hate paying more for holidays and don't need any advice, thank youSat Feb 16 2013 - 00:00
Patrick Scott: half a century as Irish art’s gold standardAt 92, the artist’s work has been defined by an encounter with gold leafSat Feb 09 2013 - 00:00
Paperback of the weekThe Patagonian Hare Claude Lanzmann, Atlantic Books, £9.99Sat Feb 09 2013 - 00:00
A siren song from hard-boiled Belfast‘Wait a minute, Doc,” says Marty McFly in the movie Back to the FutureTue Jan 29 2013 - 00:00
Paperback of the weekCrazy River: A Plunge into Africa, Richard Grant, Abacus, £9.99Sat Jan 26 2013 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryWhen did the future stop being something to look forward to? It used to be all shiny and quirky, populated by bizarre technology…Tue Jan 15 2013 - 00:00
'When writing it's just you, the wall and whoever your first reader is . . .'Peter Murphy's second novel is inspired by events from his hometown, and it covers a huge range of topics, from preaching to …Thu Jan 10 2013 - 00:00
A day with the fairiesA range of encounters with the supernatural is described in a collection of stories and songs from Irish folkloreMon Jan 07 2013 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryWhere are the snows of yesteryear? If we’re to be honest, nowhereFri Dec 28 2012 - 00:00
Another violent trip down memory laneJuan Gabriel Vásquez’s new novel draws on his life in Colombia during Pablo Escobar’s reign of terrorSat Dec 15 2012 - 00:00
PaperbacksThe Four Elements, Brooklyn Heights, In the Garden of Beasts, Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse, GealachSat Dec 01 2012 - 00:00
The times we lived inThe picture house Published September 9th, 1967 Photograph by Dermot BarrySat Dec 01 2012 - 00:00
