Derek Mahon

Opera version of the ‘Odyssey’ and an open-air Shakespeare production will run in August

Portrait-painter Anthony Palliser on his friendship with Garech Browne, halcyon days at Luggala and his famous Irish subjects

Irish Nepalese Educational Trust and Barretstown charity to benefit from events

Highlights of Kilkenny Arts Festival announced for the medieval city

‘On Christmas Eve there was always a sherry reception for the customers’

‘The Radio’ was one of five books shortlisted by the judges

Artists played a vital role in the State's formation and since independence have held it to account

Dublin-born poet wins €2,000 prize for his collection ‘On A Turning Wing’

Moncrieff is back to his offbeat best while Joe Duffy glumly hears tales of rural desperation

John Donohoe, bookseller, Athlone, Co Westmeath

Poet’s collection ‘Geis’ was described as ‘intense and intelligent’ by this year’s judges

In this collection, as in much of the poet’s work, dreams of permanence give way to history’s merciless demand to leave everything behind

Four women and one man will vie for this year’s €2,000 best Irish collection prize

Author described as ‘the missing link between high modernism and the present’

The Belfast painter's work has aged very well

‘A punk before punk was a twinkle in its eye-linered eye,’ says poet Paul Muldoon. How do other fans and friends sum him up?

We all know festivals are hungry work and there are lots of food options down by the water this weekend

Beekeeping, Belfast and Buddhism: books of lectures by Harry Clifton, Paula Meehan and Michael Longley cast the net wide

An edited extract of the award-winning actor’s acceptance speech at the ‘The Irish Times’ Irish Theatre Awards

Cork-born poet takes €2,000 prize for ‘Nine Bright Shiners’ collection

The countdown is on to find Ireland’s favourite Irish poem, so we’ve asked a selection of writers and readers to tell us their favourite few lines of verse, and to nominate which poem they think is best from RTÉ’s A Poem for Ireland shortlist

The five shortlisted writers for the award being given on March 21st have strong track records

Kavanagh, Yeats and Heaney among contenders in A Poem for Ireland project

Paperback review

WillFredd Theatre’s production reveals the courage that underpins the darkness and light, the ebb and flow, of life in a hospice

Pick is a departure and first time a novel has not been picked for the project

After a dip in work, carpenter Adam White discovered his gift for poetry – and now his first collection is up for a major prize

The much-anticipated Plath question was described as a “gem”

‘Most attentive and conscientious of proofreaders’