Mythological mediocrity: his early play shows how much Yeats needed IrelandCULTURE SHOCK WE LIKE TO think that artistic geniuses are born, not madeSat Apr 28 2012 - 01:00
The home placeCULTURE SHOCK: Many of the paintings of 19th-century rural Ireland that hang in a Boston exhibition aren’t particularly great…Sat Apr 21 2012 - 01:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects O'Queally Chalice, 1640This superb silver chalice declares its origins very clearlySat Apr 21 2012 - 01:00
The characters in 'Porgy and Bess' are comfortable in their skins; we should be, tooCULTURE SHOCK: IMAGINE A radical new production of The Playboy of the Western WorldSat Apr 14 2012 - 01:00
Deposition on Atrocities, 1641A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Some objects resonate with their own times, but a few intrude themselves again and again…Sat Apr 14 2012 - 01:00
Dummies in the shop window of a failing ideologyFor years Ireland has been seen not as a nation or a society but as a model for other poor suckers to followTue Apr 10 2012 - 01:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Wassail bowl, late 16th centuryWhat could be more English than a good wassail? From the Anglo-Saxon ‘wael hael’ – good health – the word refers to the tradition…Sat Apr 07 2012 - 01:00
'Titanic' and the promise of an ageAt one level it was a simple if appalling tragedy: the destruction of a ship with the deaths of 1,500 peopleSat Apr 07 2012 - 01:00
Popular ideology legitimises corruptionWhy should politicians not be incentivised with huge salaries and enormous expenses?Tue Apr 03 2012 - 01:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objectsOne of the most poignant objects in Irish history is one that was deliberately and symbolically destroyed.Sat Mar 31 2012 - 01:00
'Once' a hit, always a hit: the little Irish film takes to the big stageCULTURE SHOCK: GIVEN THE CHARM of John Carney’s film and the melodic power of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s songs, it was…Sat Mar 31 2012 - 01:00
Giving the people of Ireland a chance not chancersHERE IS an obvious but startling fact: for roughly 20 of the last 30 years, Ireland has been ruled by men with, to put it mildly…Tue Mar 27 2012 - 01:00
To have one taoiseach on the take is unfortunate, to have two seems carelessCOMMENT: WHAT HURTS, in the end, is not the spectacle of a sitting taoiseach concocting a series of elaborate lies to explain…Sat Mar 24 2012 - 00:00
The American dream is under attack, and it's happening in a theatre on BroadwayCULTURE SHOCK WHAT IS A CLASSIC? The most obvious answer is that it is a work of art that transcends timeSat Mar 24 2012 - 00:00
What's Latin for tear up these odious notes?A LITTLE Latin is a dangerous thingTue Mar 20 2012 - 00:00
Getting rid of Culture Ireland could turn a vibrant artistic vision into the land of the blandCULTURE SHOCK: I LOVE BEING IRISHSat Mar 17 2012 - 00:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Salamander pendant, circa 1588This incongruously elegant jewelled pendant was recovered from the wreck site of the Spanish galleass ‘Girona’, which sank off…Sat Mar 17 2012 - 00:00
Is there a gun to our heads or is there not?If a Yes vote is our only option, let’s make the most of the only thing we’ve got left: haggling about the priceTue Mar 13 2012 - 00:00
Face valuesCULTURE SHOCK: What do portraits tell us about their subjects? And what do they tell us about the societies that produced them…Sat Mar 10 2012 - 00:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objectsGalloglass gravestone, 15th or 16th centurySat Mar 03 2012 - 00:00
The grander a dame she becomes, the worse Meryl Streep's films getCULTURE SHOCK: IN THE RUN-UP to the Oscars, film companies place ads in venerable American newspapers highlighting the movies…Sat Mar 03 2012 - 00:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objectsKavanagh Charter Horn, 13th and 15th centuriesSat Feb 25 2012 - 00:00
Why the show born with Michael Flatley's puffy shirts and leather trousers means so much to ChinaIN INNER MONGOLIA in 2006 I interviewed the headman of a village of nomadic herders who had been forced off their traditional…Sat Feb 25 2012 - 00:00
Disarray of the left has spared the right its dueTHERE MAY be an Irish political anorak with an interest in the recent presidential election in Finland, but there are surely …Tue Feb 21 2012 - 00:00
The greatest dualist in Irish theatre takes a final bowCULTURE SHOCK: IN THE EARLY days of television, one of the standard formats was a gameshow called What’s My Line? in which the…Sat Feb 18 2012 - 00:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Magi Cope, circa 1470One of the striking things about the culture of 15th-century Ireland is what is not thereSat Feb 11 2012 - 00:00
Vast online community should run internetTHE CURRENT rage over control of the internet brings to mind the ring of GygesTue Feb 07 2012 - 00:00
Flash the red card to 'green jersey' politicsResorting to patriotism is the last refuge of a bankrupt political elite that has shown itself short of ideasTue Jan 24 2012 - 00:00
Cinema finds its true voice through a return to silenceCULTURE SHOCK: IN AUGUST 2008, I wrote a column here that was given the headline “The silent movie makes a comeback”Sat Jan 21 2012 - 00:00
Feral side of IFSC cannot go uncheckedIT IS easier, in contemporary Ireland, to say where the bottom line is not than where it isTue Jan 17 2012 - 00:00
Most influential and finest journalist of last 25 yearsMARY RAFTERY was arguably the finest Irish journalist of the last 25 years and unarguably the most influential.Wed Jan 11 2012 - 00:00
Britain is celebrating the great writer's bicentenary, but where in the Dickens are the Irish?CULTURE SHOCK: DANIEL O’CONNELL allegedly threw his copy of The Old Curiosity Shop out of a train window in a fit of rage at…Sat Jan 07 2012 - 00:00
Wasting good words on a terrible situationWE CAN’T get rid of all our problems just because it’s a new yearTue Jan 03 2012 - 00:00
Departing public servants are worthy of our respectIt would not be misguided to salute a generation of workers whose absence will be painfully conspicuousTue Dec 27 2011 - 00:00
A year of haunting and ghosts in Irish art - but the only direction left is upCULTURE SHOCK: ‘Laundry’ at the Magdalen laundry, Seán McDermott Street, DublinSat Dec 24 2011 - 00:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects Strongbow's tomb, 12th centuryAfter the English king Harold Godwinson was defeated by the invading forces of William the Bastard, duke of Normandy, at the …Sat Dec 24 2011 - 00:00
A history of Ireland in 100 objects Clonmacnoise crozier, 11th centuryEarlier in this series we saw a carved wooden crook from Viking DublinSat Dec 10 2011 - 00:00
The Abbey should throw away its safety net and engage with an imploding societyCULTURE SHOCK: THERE ARE TWO kinds of bad theatre productionSat Dec 10 2011 - 00:00
Kenny's plea 'for sacrifice' an empty gesture‘DIFFICULT CHOICES are never easy.” Thus the Taoiseach in his address to the nation on Sunday night.Tue Dec 06 2011 - 00:00
