Michael Longley funeral: Poets and politicians gather for writer who ‘touched the soul and imagination of many’
Michael D Higgins joined Theo Dorgan, Frank Ormsby, Medbh McGuckian and others at ceremony
By Paul Clements
‘A lot of things boys seem to instinctually love, we tend to be more dismissive of or even concerned about’
Paul Howard and Gordon D’Arcy: ‘Football has rules, but rugby has laws because they were drawn up by solicitors charging by the hour’
Power and Powerlessness in Union Ireland: illuminating Ireland pre-independence
Novelist Emma Healey: ‘There’s an idea that painting all the roofs in the world white would reduce the global temperature’
Joseph O’Connor: ‘I don’t know what modern Ireland is yet. I’m suspicious about the new sacred cows’
Poem of the Week: The Place Where Poems Come From
Reviews in brief: How the ‘other’ lives and writes, high-school satire and self-destructive undergrads
Book Club
Sign up to the Irish Times books newsletter for features, podcasts and more
The Last Days of Budapest by Adam LeBor: Examining the destruction in second World War’s final year
By Michael O’Loughlin
The Book of George by Kate Greathead: The arrested development and identity crisis of a modern man
By Rabeea Saleem
The Cleaner by Mary Watson: A novel probing class and privilege tends to overexplain
By Philippa Conlon
Slow Train Coming by Todd Almond: The inside story of Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson’s stage collaboration
By Anthony Roche
Children’s fiction: Five books to delight the younger reader with tales of magical cats, geese and squirrels - and a busy girl called Wanda
By Sara Keating
Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland – A quaffable and comprehensive history that leaves the reader with a thirst for more
By Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire
Author Neil Gaiman dropped by US comics publisher after sexual misconduct allegations
By Ella Creamer
The Whale Tattoo and The Gallopers by Jon Ransom: A pair of intriguing, imperfect novels
By John Boyne
Confessions by Catherine Airey: A remarkably confident, complex and nuanced debut novel
By Kevin Power
