How to make an audiobook: the perfect voice, detailed prep and a raconteur’s instincts
Voice actor Aoife McMahon, producer Roy McMillan and audio engineer Noel Storey reveal some of their tricks
Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney takes climate fight to Mayo County Council by objecting to ‘toxic’ data centre plan
Plus: Defence Forces spending on Pilates sounds like a bit of a stretch, Michael McGrath discusses European master plan in Cork and Independent TDs take us back to the past
Ireland’s new must-see tourist sites for fans of film and fiction: From Sally Rooney’s novels to Cillian Murphy’s movies
An unexpected boon of Ireland’s cultural success is that its less well-known locations are suddenly on the tourist trail
Read this and weep: Books that made writers cry
John Boyne, Edel Coffey, Ferdia Lennon, Sarah Gilmartin and a dozen other authors and critics on books that had a profound emotional effect on them
The Irish Times view on the arts in 2024: a year of high achievement
The cross-fertilisation between Ireland’s literary culture and its other artforms was particularly significant
Lessons in philosophy from Sally Rooney’s latest novel that can help us make sense of the world
Unthinkable: The ideas of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein on language and reality surface in Intermezzo, and the relationship between the two philosophers mirrors that of Rooney’s two principal characters, brothers Peter and Ivan
From Paul Mescal to Bad Sisters to Claire Keegan, the green wave keeps rolling
Unfortunately, the lived experience of creatives working in Ireland is often a struggle
The 2 Johnnies Christmas Party at 3Arena: It’s easy to sneer at the triteness and crudeness, but are 13,000 happy fans wrong?
Support for the podcast stars, whose guests include Marty Morrissey, Nathan Carter and Dustin the Turkey, is fanatical
Love and the housing crisis: Living together because the rent is too high
To what extent has the fabric of our intimate lives in post-recession Ireland been shaped by the real economy?
The Irish Times best books of 2024: Anne Enright, John Boyne, Joseph O’Connor, Mia Levitin and more reveal their favourites
Books by Ferdia Lennon, Miranda July, Donal Ryan, Mary Costello, Alan Hollinghurst, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Sally Rooney feature prominently in this trawl of the year’s best titles
Donal Ryan wins An Post Irish Novel of the Year Award for Heart, Be at Peace
Sally Rooney, Graham Norton, Johnny Sexton, Jane Casey and Paul Howard also among winners at this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards
Sally Rooney: When are we going to have the courage to stop the climate crisis?
Capitalism is driving the destruction of our planet. We have to think outside – and against – the framework of our current political system
Could Michael D topple Christy from the top of the album charts?
President Michael D Higgins records an LP; the Oireachtas spends more taxpayers’ cash on something it’s not clear we need; and an ex-rugby star encounters some unwanted wingers
Food and fiction: How writers are serving up food as a central character in their narratives
Hunger and its stylised satiation eats into modern writing in a way that reflects our sizzling, chopped-up existences
Paul Mescal: ‘My favourite actors are Irish. There’s a wildness. We do our own thing’
Gladiator II proves another showcase for Mescal’s tough and tender masculinity, giving rein to his natural instinct as an actor
‘This feels categorically mental’: Paul Mescal stunned by celebrations at Gladiator II premiere
Actor attends Irish premiere of Ridley Scott film at Light House Cinema in Dublin
What I Read This Week: A vital read on the origins of the Troubles and Boris Johnson’s memoir flop
Reporter Ronan McGreevy picks his standout stories of the week including a pertinent piece on an essential truth about Catholic Ireland
Niall Williams: ‘I am here to write the books I’m supposed to write, not the books an Irish Times reviewer would like’
A critical savaging for his first play scarred the author of Time of the Child. You can’t try to please people, he says. You have to do your own thing
Irish Book Awards 2024 shortlist: Sally Rooney, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, David McWilliams and more
Winners of the 19th year of the An Post book awards will be announced at a ceremony in December
Sally Rooney’s moral imagination was forged by an arts education. It’s a sector we can’t afford to neglect
The creation of a single research agency has raised alarm bells among arts and humanities scholars who fear it will divert more funding towards Stem
God help us all, Russell Brand has found religion
Christianity has been around for some time and will weather this particular trend cycle, no matter Russell Brand’s risible public display. And these online Christian gurus will find a new cause celebre
A New York Times book critic spent five days in Dublin. Here’s how he got on
The city is a soulful playground for the kind of people who have spectacles on their nose and autumn in their hearts
Sally Rooney’s novel Intermezzo is fastest-selling book in Republic this year
Normal People author’s title sold almost 12,000 copies in first five days on market
Sally Rooney: ‘I think I should have read more at university’
Intermezzo author explains how she treats quotation marks in her writing
Sally Rooney gets photographed with an owl, looking unimpressed. I’m asked to ‘look zany’
My comedic, commercial fiction has been described as ‘fluffy’ or ‘an easy read’ more times than my heart and ego can take
Sally Rooney: what the critics say about her new novel, Intermezzo
Plus, what the writer said in conversation with Fintan O’Toole in the National Concert Hall on Saturday
The Guide: Gig for Gaza, Sally Rooney and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
September 21st-27th: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney: A bold, adventurous and captivating addition to an impressive body of work
Sally Rooney applies her formidable emotional intelligence to complex human entanglements, dealing deftly with desire and experimenting with form
Neil Jordan: We lived in an Ireland that emanated from the brain of one paranoid individual
The Ireland of film-maker and author Neil Jordan’s youth was like ‘living in a fantastical universe that didn’t make any logical sense’
Apple tax ruling raises big questions for Ireland
Kamala Harris saw off Donald Trump in a lively debate this week, as Ireland’s soccer woes continue
Sally Rooney: A bluffer’s guide to the Irish author’s novels
As Intermezzo is published, here is a quick reminder of Sally Rooney’s previous bestsellers and their screen adaptations
Sally Rooney: ‘There is something Christian about my work, even if I would not describe myself as religious’
Intermezzo author reflects on Joyce, how Christianity has shaped her thinking, and her dislike of the limelight
TikTok autumn trends: From Sade aesthetic and Filipino food to new BookTok favourites and more
Filipino cuisine is taking over in food while romance tropes such as #grumpysunshine dominate BookTok
I wanted to write a book about Irish women’s writing. They told me to include men
If anything will embitter you, it is researching and writing a history of Irish women’s writing
The best books of 2024 so far: writers and critics choose their favourite reads
Colm Tóibín’s Long Island, Lucy Caldwell’s Openings, Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits and Niamh Mulvey’s The Amendments are among the novels with multiple selections
Baillie Gifford fund being held to an impossible standard on Israel and oil
The active fund giant has only 2% per cent of client money invested in companies with business related to fossil fuels, well below market average
Climate activists turn the screw on literary festivals
The investment firm has met the ire of literary activists amid accusations of greenwashing
Normal People stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones hint at reunion
The actors rose to prominence after starring in an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel
David Nicholls: ‘I’m lucky enough to have lots of Irish friends and hope that I got away with writing an Irish character’
The author of One Day on his new novel, You Are Here; the Irish writers he admires; and father-son relationships
Free Therapy by Rebecca Ivory: Another shining new literary talent
The characters of these nine stories operate within a system of self-betterment even if they are incapable of bettering themselves
Taoiseach raises need for bombs to stop in Gaza, as central part of shamrock ceremony speech with US president
Leo Varadkar moves Joe Biden to tears when he quotes the president’s late son, Beau Biden
Sally Rooney: Killing in Gaza has been supported by Ireland’s ‘good friend’ in the White House
Our Government is basking in the moral glow of condemning the bombers, while preserving a cosy relationship with those supplying the bombs
Why is the announcement of a new novel by Sally Rooney being greeted with such a fanfare?
When the author’s previous novel was released in 2021 it sold 40,000 copies in just five days
Sally Rooney announces new novel Intermezzo
The bestselling Irish author’s fourth novel will be published by Faber on September 24th
Everyone loves Ireland! Why is Irish culture so hot right now?
From cinema and theatre to television, folk music and literature, Ireland is enjoying unprecedented creative boom
Irish fiction 2008-2023: Flourishing scene emerges from period of upheaval
Ireland has borne witness to one of the most significant periods in its modern literary history, a winning-streak that shows no sign of abating
Irish writers, thespians and thinkers are having a renaissance
It’s okay to gloat about our artistic accomplishments, fruits of a period of social turmoil
Alison Oliver on playing posh: ‘For these people, it’s cringe to care about anything. Even if you feel really hurt or rejected, you show nothing’
Cork actor, now starring alongside Barry Keoghan in Saltburn, on why she’s attracted to radical women
Anne Enright, Sally Rooney, Paul Murray among authors calling for end to destruction in Palestine
Former hostage John McCarthy and many leading Irish writers, actors and musicians among signatories of London Review of Books open letter
‘The Hist’: A Trinity College Dublin forum for debate, transformative ideas … and self-regarding speechifying
Despite being banned, the Hist is set to celebrate its official status as the world’s oldest college debating society
Anne Enright: ‘Male critical culture has become quite defensive and sour’
The author on her new novel, The Wren, The Wren, pretending to be a poet and the ‘male nastiness’ Sally Rooney encountered
Paul Mescal’s father rekindles love of stage in Donegal showband musical
Father of Normal People star once considered going pro but didn’t. He is hoping to perform more often when he retires from teaching
‘I felt a great responsibility. I knew people growing up who took their own lives’
Cork actor Éanna Hardwicke on his role in Normal People, male mental health and new film Lakelands
Where has the rock star male novelist gone?
The #MeToo movement has made men in literature more cautious
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