Letters by Oliver Sacks review: Great light cast on neurologist, author and humanist
Kate Edgar’s compilation paints a detailed portrait of a sometimes shy, uncertain, excitable human who was also a deeply compassionate and open-hearted outsider
Brian Friel
Amitav Ghosh: ‘Ireland is where the British created all their colonial methods, it’s where they tried it out first’
Acclaimed Indian writer Amitav Ghosh’s new work explores how the climate crisis has its roots in European colonialism
Poets’ prose: Thinking about questions posed by poems, from Seamus Heaney to Eavan Boland
The Frontier of Writing: A Study of Seamus Heaney’s Prose edited by Ian Hickey and Eugene O’Brien; Citizen Poet: New & Selected Essays by Eavan Boland; Questioning Ireland by Thomas McCarthy
Róisín Ingle on Kathleen Watkins: She loved life, poetry and Gaybo. Conversation flowed from her like music
Kathleen Watkins was one of the most enthusiastic people I’ve ever met
Molly Sweeney: Brian Friel revival features fine performances and elegant staging
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Andrew Flynn’s production, with Genevieve Hulme-Beaman, Denis Conway and Manus Halligan, makes up for play’s slight staticness
Brian Friel: Beginnings by Kelly Matthews – The making of a highly competitive playwright
Broadway, here he comes. But first there were Ulster feiseanna, sports and his family’s literary drive
Dancing at Lughnasa review: Gate’s triumphant, breathtakingly beautiful revival deserves groaning houses
Theatre: Caroline Byrne’s production, featuring Zara Devlin, Peter Gowen and Ruth McGill, makes both dream and reverie of Brian Friel’s indestructible play
The Guide: the Kneecap film, Nicki Minaj and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
July 6th-12th: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
Anne Friel on her late husband playwright Brian: ‘I was crazy about him. He was everything’
Rehearsals are underway for a new production of Dancing at Lughnasa at the Gate this summer, and a new book about the playwright was published this week
Thomas Kilroy’s death feels like the end of an era for Irish theatre
The writer was often mentioned as part of a ‘god tier’ of Irish playwrights, alongside Tom Murphy and, especially, his close friend Brian Friel
Ridley Scott’s crude dismissal of historians is galling
Director insisted history does not matter, but the best film-makers strike a delicate balance between narrative and historical fact
Making Empire: Incisive study of Ireland’s complex role in the British empire
TCD historian skilfully traces a history of conquest, assimilation and defiance that came to shape not just Ireland but Britain and its global empire
Leo Varadkar needs better cultural reference points than Benefits Street
It was a jaw-dropping moment that makes you wonder about the cultural diet of our political leaders. Never mind: here are some recommendations to get them back on track
‘When we left Donegal, I spent my whole school year yearning to go back’
Hannah Peel’s Mercury-nominated Fir Wave, her Dancing at Lughnasa soundtrack, her Game of Thrones score – all are illuminated by a longing that folds into how she feels about Ireland
An Irishwoman in Sweden: It took time for me to feel ready to claim a corner of Stockholm just for me
Caring for babies and moving to a different country took priority over a woman’s love of theatre, but she found great opportunity in Stockholm
Abbey Theatre condemns ‘random act of mindless violence’ against actor who was bitten and glassed
Oleksandr Hrekov (23), cast member of Abbey Theatre’s Translations, needed hospitalisation following attack on Saturday night
Brian Friel’s Translations: The Abbey’s Ukrainian production has an urgent, dangerous energy
Theatre: In this Lesya Ukrainka staging, the narrative drive of the forthcoming Famine is replaced by tomorrow’s headlines of destruction and war crimes
Brian Friel’s Translations, in Ukrainian: ‘This is about everything that is happening in Ukraine’
Kyiv’s Lesya Ukrainka theatre company is visiting Dublin to stage its evocative production of the classic Irish play at the Abbey
Fra Fee: ‘I was completely terrified of coming out in Northern Ireland’
Cabaret star’s acting career has taken him from Tyrone to West End and LA
John Connell: ‘I did an accidental trilogy on Longford’
Author of The Cow Book has written a new book about canoeing on the Camlin river
Much-loved Dublin city shop Pen Corner to close its doors
Famous for pens, pencils and stationery, it has been a family business since 1927
The Irish Times view on place-names: the word on the street
The urban map should be a palimpsest, each layer capturing its own moment and its preoccupations
Brian Friel – Shy Man, Showman: Conventional tribute to an experimental genius
TV review: This quietly stirring documentary is a straightforward record of life and career
Aidan Gillen: ‘I am trying my best to be as unhealthy as I can’
The actor on filling Donal McCann's shoes in Faith Healer and staying off social media
John Hume: ‘We did not quite realise how significant he was until he died’
As her father’s first anniversary approaches, Mo Hume tells of the immeasurable gap left behind
Best Place to Live in Ireland 2021: ‘Gorgeous’ Co Monaghan village leads the nominations
Amid the 373 entries so far, just three counties (Armagh, Fermanagh, Laois) don't feature yet
Major promoters among recipients of funding for live performances
More than 200 organisations to benefit from scheme worth €25 million
Leaving Cert diary: ‘I just wish I could scoop up the books and head outside’
I wanted Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney to come up, with Paul Durcan as back-up. All three came up!
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit walked all over North's delicate construct of ambiguity
Instead of using North for proxy wars, Britain and EU need to get back to living with ambiguity
Patrick Burke – actor, scholar and writer who made lasting contribution to Irish life
An Appreciation
Live theatre was getting interesting. Then Covid arrived
Several new plays were due on the country’s big stages, a rare sight
In a Word . . . assassination
The assassination of JFK was one of those rare events people remember forever after
Poet and ‘intellect’ Derek Mahon laid to rest in Cork
Mourners ‘privileged to be here to celebrate the life of ... a conduit of sublime thought’
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