Skinner: New Wave Vaudeville – Spasmodic shot of art rock walks the tightrope between high culture and backstreet scuzzDubliner Aaron Corcoran names debut album in honour of Manhattan club’s ethos of ‘celebrating the weird part of who you are’Thu Jan 02 2025 - 05:00
The Traitors review: riotously addictive gameshow is piled high with murder, mystery and statement capesTelevision review: Much of the fun with The Traitors from the BBC is in how seriously it takes itself. A creepy castle in the Scottish Highlands helps with the ambience, too. RTÉ will probably be set the new Irish version at Limerick JunctionWed Jan 01 2025 - 21:00
The Late Late NYE Show review: Patrick Kielty rises above some mystifying moments with a good line in take-no-prisoner jokesTelevision: Despite blink-and-it’s-over conversations with wildly mismatched guests, this New Year’s Eve special is much better than 2023’sWed Jan 01 2025 - 11:24
Dancing with the Stars 2025: Who are the contestants, when is it on and moreEverything you need to know about RTÉ’s new season of the competition for the glitterball trophyMon Dec 30 2024 - 05:00
Nanci Griffith: From a Distance review – harrowing account of the country music star’s life that ended in isolation and alcoholismTelevision review: While Nanci Griffith's final years were tragic, there are many heartwarming aspects to the story of a singer with low self-esteem and a poetic air who found success in IrelandSun Dec 29 2024 - 21:00
Henry Mount Charles: A Lord in Slane – The strange blend of fact and fiction around one of the last Anglo-Irish eccentricsTelevision: Much we think we know about the custodian of Slane Castle is conjured from thin air, as becomes clear in this absorbing documentaryFri Dec 27 2024 - 19:27
Squid Game season two review: Tense, bloody follow-up ticks boxes if you’re craving more Red Light, Green LightTelevision: Seong Gi-hun, the down-and-out hero from season one, is on the trail of ‘the Recruiter’, the dapper gent who searches for contestantsThu Dec 26 2024 - 08:00
Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special review: Unkillable comedy’s wit is as sharp as a mouthful of Brussels sproutsTelevision: Brendan O’Carroll’s slapstick purgatory remains a Bacchanalia of single entendres and fnarr-fnarr gagsWed Dec 25 2024 - 21:28
Indiana Jones should be on the sex offenders’ register: Some Christmas films age better than othersSome of the beloved hits of your youth have not aged well. Many were far darker than you imagineTue Dec 24 2024 - 06:30
The Young Offenders Christmas Special review: Where’s Jock? Without him, Conor’s firearm foxer isn’t quite a crackerChris Walley’s charismatic tearaway is still in prison on drug charges, leaving his best pal, the Knocknaheeny scamp Conor, flying soloFri Dec 20 2024 - 21:59
One Leg One Eye review: Forget Fairytale of New York. This is a soundtrack of the real Irish ChristmasIan Lynch and George Brennan offer a wonderful ghost-train ride through droning electronica, warped uilleann pipes and spirals of unfiltered noiseFri Dec 20 2024 - 11:25
Saint Etienne: The Night – Say hello to the insomniac street preachersBob Stanley, Sarah Cracknell and Pete Wiggs return with album about chilly thoughts that race through the middle-aged mind when the lights dimThu Dec 19 2024 - 05:00
So This Is Christmas review: Beautifully made but ultimately cheerless viewing – a glimmer of hope would have been niceTelevision: We all know Christmas can be tough but this film lays it on with a trowelWed Dec 18 2024 - 22:35
Strike: The Ink Black Heart review: JK Rowling’s unlikely cult hit is a gift that keeps on givingTelevision: BBC’s sixth adaptation of author’s Robert Galbraith crime books is full of rumpled charmMon Dec 16 2024 - 22:00
From Baby Reindeer and The Traitors to Bodkin and The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In: The best and worst television of 2024 The glory days of streaming are over, but TV has never been more unpredictableFri Dec 13 2024 - 06:00
100 Years of Solitude review: A woozy, feverish watch to be savoured in bite-sized portionsTelevision: Lavish adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s 1967 novel is both meditative and steamy, sometimes to the point of hilarityThu Dec 12 2024 - 11:04
No Good Deed review: Even Lisa Kudrow can’t save this pre-Christmas turkey of a dark comedyTelevision: LA suburbia-set series is just too miserable to make viewers laugh. It’s like the grimmest ever season of Location, Location, LocationThu Dec 12 2024 - 07:00
Tori Amos: Diving Deep Live – An A-grade tour of the singer’s lesser-spotted B-sides and deep cutsFew cut a more fascinating figure than Amos, whose stage performances have long offered a more profound and esoteric experience than her studio workThu Dec 12 2024 - 05:00
Inside Aer Lingus review: A dull infomercial masquerading as a behind-the-scenes documentaryTelevision revivew: A potentially promising idea is wasted by a film that serves as a glorified commercial for the airlineMon Dec 09 2024 - 22:00
Paul Mescal on Saturday Night Live review: Gladiator II star skewers America’s bizarre views about IrelandTV review: Paul Mescal displays no mercy in his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live and brings all his Hollywood charisma to bearSun Dec 08 2024 - 11:12
Late Late Toy Show review: Patrick Kielty does not have Tubridy's hamster-on-Red Bull energy, but that's possibly a good thingMariah Carey pops up with a video message as 150-minute show reaches the finish line with a group performance of All I Want For Christmas Is YouSat Dec 07 2024 - 00:43
Who is Zach Bryan, the country music star who’s just sold out summer concerts at the Phoenix Park?Is the musician from Oklahoma the next Garth Brooks? Well, about 100,000 people will flock to Dublin for three concerts next June see the 28-year-old superstar going supernova in real-timeThu Dec 05 2024 - 14:18
Black Doves review: Keira Knightley is delightfully sweary as a devoted wife by day and deadly assassin by nightTelevision: There’s an awful lot going on in Joe Barton’s espionage romp – a surprise cameo from Galway band The Stunning’s Steve Wall, for one thingThu Dec 05 2024 - 10:00
The Young Offenders deserves better than to be dumped on RTÉ’s online playerTelevision: Handed a hit comedy by the BBC, RTÉ has once again fumbled its big punchlineWed Dec 04 2024 - 11:47
Scannal: Savita review – Heartbreaking chronicle of the medieval essence at heart of Irish healthcare systemTelevision: Sensitive and wrenching documentary series recounts the death of Savita Halappanavar after she suffered a miscarriage 17 weeks into her pregnancyTue Dec 03 2024 - 19:30
Ed Sheeran and Mary Robinson are right. It’s time to bin Band AidBand Aid revisionism hasn’t dropped from the clear blue winter sky. It’s been there since the startSat Nov 30 2024 - 07:07
James Vincent McMorrow: ‘I’ve been building back a version of me that made me happy rather than crying every night’The Dubliner isn’t the first name that comes to mind as a songwriter for a boy-band megastar. But working with Louis Tomlinson was just what he needed after his record-label disappoinmentSat Nov 30 2024 - 05:15
‘I wasn’t used to people in their early 20s, getting sick and dying’: The harrowing story of Aids in IrelandMemorial – The Story of HIV/Aids in Ireland review: An empathetic yet unsentimental documentaryThu Nov 28 2024 - 23:15
Ballroom Blitz review: Adam Clayton’s celebration of Irish showbands hints at the burden of being in U2TV review: U2 bassist Adam Clayton is a decent presenter and great fun to hang with, but the documentary leans too hard on nostalgia for nostalgia’s sakeWed Nov 27 2024 - 22:35
Anohni at the National Concert Hall review: A night of nourishing melancholia conjuring an ocean of warmthIn homage to Lou Reed, Anohni gives late musician’s work the creative approach she feels it deservesWed Nov 27 2024 - 15:22
Leaders’ debate TV review: With an eye for drama, Miriam O’Callaghan pins Mary Lou McDonald and Micheál Martin to their collarsTelevision: Miriam O’Callaghan did her best to add pep to this tedious chinwag but we ended up with pure lethargyWed Nov 27 2024 - 09:58
Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating – how the food industry cracked the code and made us all eat moreTelevision: The big message of this show is that we should not feel guilty about our eating habits, just angry about how we got hereMon Nov 25 2024 - 22:00
The album that nearly finished U2: The story of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and its new ‘shadow’ LPHow to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb features 10 tracks from the recording sessions that made some of the band wonder if they’d have anything to releaseSat Nov 23 2024 - 05:15
Blindboy: The Land of Slaves and Scholars review – Innovative look at the tumultuousness of Irish historyTelevision: The podcaster and author taps into the sense of haunting weirdness that runs through Irish historyThu Nov 21 2024 - 23:14
Cruel Intentions review: Bring back the oversexed, amoral rich kids. This remake is joyless, ludicrous and dullTelevision: The only reason the series exists is to cash in on nostalgia for the original camp masterpieceThu Nov 21 2024 - 11:36
The Listeners review: Creepy and absorbing thriller is a showcase for Irish actor Ollie WestTelevision review: West plays a school student struggling with a sound only he and teacher Rebecca Hall can hearTue Nov 19 2024 - 21:45
U2: How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb track by track review – Hold on to your mirror shades for classic moments and wigged-out curiosInevitably for an out-take album, it’s a bit glued together and rough at the edges, but even U2 agnostics will like a lot of the tracksTue Nov 19 2024 - 17:32
Leaders’ debate review: Were all the participants tranquillised en route to the studio?Television: Occasional sparks insufficient to draw viewers out of their pre-election stuporTue Nov 19 2024 - 10:58
Anohni: ‘The Irish are fighting the good fight in so many regards’The Mercury Prize-winning singer on Trump’s misogyny, climate change and preparing to celebrate her mentor Lou Reed in DublinTue Nov 19 2024 - 05:15
I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! review: Barry McGuigan comes unstuck in bungled rumble in jungleTelevision: It’s all a bit ho-hum so far as Coleen Rooney stands out as most recognised ‘celebrity’Mon Nov 18 2024 - 11:17
Best known as one half of D’Unbelievables, Jon Kenny was both an anarchic comedian and a soulful presence He never took success for granted. He was an entertainer of immense gifts who always stayed humble, and his humour was uniquely Irish in its warmth, irreverence and wisdomSat Nov 16 2024 - 15:12
Kim Deal of The Breeders: ‘Oh, I was wild – wild – in Ireland’The indie-rock legend talks Pixies, Olivia Rodrigo, the loss of her parents, and the release of her first solo album, Nobody Loves You MoreSat Nov 16 2024 - 05:15
I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here: will Maura Higgins join, when does it start, who will win and moreTelevision: Everything you need to know about this year’s rumble in the jungle as Coleen Rooney is joined by former boxing champion Barry McGuiganThu Nov 14 2024 - 16:05
Say Nothing: Bingeable yet sober-minded eulogy for the tragedy of the TroublesTelevision review: Adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe book retraces abduction and murder of Jean McConville and experiences of IRA bomber Dolours PriceThu Nov 14 2024 - 08:00
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds at 3Arena: Thrilling, pulsating and stunning performance from restless prince of gloomNick Cave: Interplay between singer and instrument-bashing foil Warren Ellis helps to drive this spectacular showWed Nov 13 2024 - 09:37
Bad Sisters review: Beautiful Dublin shines again as Sharon Horgan serves up another course of zinging dark comedyTelevision: Beautiful Dublin shines again in series two of Apple’s comic thrillerWed Nov 13 2024 - 05:45
Crá review: Quality noir thriller puts both Donegal and the Irish language to beautiful use Television: It takes a while to get going and is not without flaws, but this show is good enough to almost convince us our native tongue is in everyday useMon Nov 11 2024 - 22:25
The Day of the Jackal review: Eddie Redmayne is underwhelming in the cat and mouse drama that cries out for more heartTelevision: Who better to embody an international man of mystery than Redmayne who seems half invisible even with the lights on?Thu Nov 07 2024 - 11:41
Christy Brown: Self Portrait - commendable attempt at disentangling man from Daniel Day-Lewis movieTelevision: Artist largely remembered as a posthumous muse in Oscar-winning My Left FootWed Nov 06 2024 - 22:34
The Old Man season two review: The double act of Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow is worth the admission priceTelevision: heartening to see two actors in their 70s fronting thriller where age is not played as punchlineWed Nov 06 2024 - 09:34
