The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif (Bloomsbury, £6.99 in UK)The 1999 Booker Prize folk declared this novel to be the best "read" on the shortlistSat Mar 11 2000 - 00:00
Dublin novelist shortlisted for literary awardColum McCann, a Dubliner, is one of seven novelists who have been shortlisted for the £100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary…Tue Mar 07 2000 - 00:00
Cowboy countryRenting. Just a vowel away from ranting. Landlords, eh? I've known a few. Naw, scrub that, I've known a lotSat Feb 26 2000 - 00:00
Our Fathers by Andrew O'Hagan (Faber & Faber, £6.99 in UK)Andrew O'Hagan's first novel rightly won a place on the 1999 Booker shortlistSat Feb 19 2000 - 00:00
Opening a treasure troveOn Monday, tribunals were forgotten with the opening in Dublin Castle of the Chester Beatty Library and Galleries in the refurbished…Sat Feb 12 2000 - 00:00
Darkness visibleAlthough the title of this book, Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid, might sound like it's a particularly in-your-face American…Sat Jan 29 2000 - 00:00
Full-time teen, part-time authorSo what did you do in your free time when you were 12? Play football? Torture your siblings? Obsess about boy/girl bands? Have…Sat Jan 29 2000 - 00:00
Success loomsIt's A mid-week morning but Avoca Handweavers, at Kilmacanogue in Co Wicklow, is fairly jammed with mammies and toddlers, and…Sat Jan 22 2000 - 00:00
Making children of us allCircus... like Christmas, it's usually at its most thrilling when viewed from the perspective of childhood, but with something…Sat Jan 08 2000 - 00:00
Heeding the call of the islesThree things about Peter Somerville-Large (70) which are useful to knowSat Jan 08 2000 - 00:00
A bit of a two-horse raceThe good ideas are always those which look perfectly obvious - once they have been done, that isSat Dec 18 1999 - 00:00
Leaving the sea for a life of crimeWhat's the first thing you think of when you hear the name "Clare Francis"? If it's the distinguished British crime writer, author…Sat Dec 11 1999 - 00:00
Letters Home. By Fergal Keane. Penguin. 205pp. £6.99 in UKIf you liked Letter to Daniel, this new book by BBC journalist Fergal Keane, which contains much, much more of the same, is intended…Sat Dec 04 1999 - 00:00
Cameroon With Egbert by Dervla Murphy (Flamingo, £7.99 in UK)Dervla Murphy tends to focus so much on the territory around her when she travels that we learn a lot about it, but not much …Sat Dec 04 1999 - 00:00
TravelThe travel book genre continues to remain on the big stage in bookshops, despite the effort of critics to elbow it into the wings…Sat Dec 04 1999 - 00:00
Making magicThe visitor to Ceol, the traditional music centre in Smithfield, is watching a video of Martin Hayes playing the fiddleSat Dec 04 1999 - 00:00
Women Travel: First-hand accounts from more than 60 countries. Edited by Natania Jansz, Miranda Davies, Emma Drew, and Lori McDougall (The Rough Guides, £12.99 in UK)This is the fourth edition of the Rough Guide's Women Travel anthology, and it weighs in now at 700 pages, with stories and reports…Sat Nov 27 1999 - 00:00
Booking the Shelbourne"Ah," said an American relative on a first visit to Ireland recently, as he looked skywards from streets of Dublin, "now I know…Sat Nov 20 1999 - 00:00
Demon Barber: Interviews by Lynn Barber (Penguin, £8.99 in UK)When the British Independent on Sunday was launched a decade ago, Lynn Barber's extended interviews with celebrities, politicians…Sat Nov 20 1999 - 00:00
Best foot forwardYou hear it before you see it: a loud pulsating thrumming that presses up against the door of the rehearsal room and sounds like…Sat Nov 13 1999 - 00:00
Annie's womenAnnie Leibovitz is one of the most famous photographers in the world: the woman who made her reputation by accompanying the Rolling…Sat Oct 30 1999 - 01:00
Olympians with real attitudeIn June this year, 77 Special Olympics athletes, together with their coaches, family members, and supporters, travelled from …Sat Oct 23 1999 - 01:00
Theatre Festival ups and downsTime to get up from the sitting position that theatre aficionados will have spent a lot of time in for the last few weeks, with…Thu Oct 21 1999 - 01:00
`I always wanted to do nursing . . .'Mary Walshe is 36, and a clinical placement co-ordinator at a large Dublin hospital. Her salary is £25,500 a year.Sat Oct 09 1999 - 01:00
Hillen's Hinde-sightThe artist Sean Hillen doesn't walk across the room, he scampersSat Oct 09 1999 - 01:00
The Happy Pigs. By Lucy Harkness. The Blackstaff Press. 244pp. £7.99 in UKThe cheerful pigs of the title of Lucy Harkness's first novel refer to the infamous public nickname given to the policeSat Oct 09 1999 - 01:00
Ten Things I Hate About . . . Flying1. Aeroflot. Nothing you hear has been exaggeratedThu Oct 07 1999 - 01:00
`I write first and add the research later'I've lived in Seattle for about six years, and find that my writing day used to be a lot more rigid than it is nowSat Oct 02 1999 - 01:00
Out of the shadowsShadowing Hannah is Dubliner Sara Berkeley's fifth book, but her first novelSat Sept 25 1999 - 01:00
Three Dollars by Elliot Perlman (Faber, £6.99 in UK)Australian Elliot Perlman's novel is all the more outstanding for being his first, and has already picked up major prizesSat Sept 25 1999 - 01:00
Terms of endearmentWhen documentary-maker Hilary Dully was asked to run a course for women in Connemara which focused on media and gender, she ended…Sat Sept 25 1999 - 01:00
May the Force be with youThe small rural town of Templemore, with its wide market streets and outlying bungalows, looks like many other Irish townsSat Sept 18 1999 - 01:00
Deeply rooted in a local worldDermot Healy's new novel is just one of a number o fprojects he has coming to fruition this autumnSat Sept 18 1999 - 01:00
From Pitch to Publication: Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Novel Published by Carole Blake (Macmillan, £14.99 in UK)Like half of Ireland, you've written your novel. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's finishedSat Sept 11 1999 - 01:00
Out of The JoyFrom the perspective of drama, the confined space of a prison cell, and the interconnecting lives of those who share it, is a…Sat Sept 11 1999 - 01:00
Child's play?Simona Vinci's first novel begs the question: what type of reader did she have in mind when she wrote it? A Game We Play tells…Sat Sept 04 1999 - 01:00
Everyone's Own Language: A Guide to the International Language Known as Esperanto by Maire Mullarney (Nitobe Press, £4.50)Esperanto, the invented language that belongs to no country, has long had detractors and admirersSat Aug 21 1999 - 01:00
Riverside light show is surprise hitKilkenny's 10-day arts festival opened at the weekend with a big outdoor party.Mon Aug 16 1999 - 01:00
Ceili Summer Schools nights`The best thing about coming here has been making so many friendsSat Aug 14 1999 - 01:00
The Mor, the merrierJoyce Carol Oates, William Kennedy, Roddy Doyle and Edna O'Brien are among the writers arriving in Galway this week for the second…Sat Aug 14 1999 - 01:00
Olympians strike goldThe 1999 Special Olympics came to a close yesterday in Raleigh, North Carolina, on America's Independence DayMon Jul 05 1999 - 01:00
Athletes make sport's finest role modelsOn Saturday evening, the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games were officially opened in Raleigh, North Carolina, by a five…Mon Jun 28 1999 - 01:00
It all started with the Sugar LoafIf someone was to compose a pictorial record of British icons of the last century, a photograph of Chris Bonington's bare feet…Sat Jun 26 1999 - 01:00
Stately Buck Norris takes breakfast on BloomsdayFrom eight in the morning, the Bloomsday faithful started gathering outside the James Joyce Centre at 35 North Great George's…Thu Jun 17 1999 - 01:00
Play it again, MarianBank holidays always provide interesting opportunities to play around a bit with schedulesSat Jun 12 1999 - 01:00
An Irishwoman's DiarySometimes it's the things you don't bring home from holidays which turn out to be the souvenirs that lodge deepest in the memory…Wed Jun 09 1999 - 01:00
The Irish Chateaux: In Search of Descendants of the Wild Geese by Renagh Holohan (Lilliput, £9.99)Some Irish emigrants definitely had more glamorous lives than othersSat Jun 05 1999 - 01:00
Writer on the roadDavid Guterson is not quite sure how many copies have been sold to date of his first novel, Snow Falling on CedarsSat Jun 05 1999 - 01:00
Shoppers run gauntlet as former minister hits comeback trailLike the mantra of the property market, canvassing is all about location, location, locationMon May 31 1999 - 01:00
