Making Belfast laugh:It's not often you find yourself laughing to the point of tears on the streets of Belfast. But it's a common occurrence during the Festival of Fools, this year running in May from Thursday 3rd to Monday 7th.
For a few days the city centre resounds with gasps and giggles, as top-quality street entertainers from all over the world entrance locals with their hare-brained antics. Not bad for a city that once used to be a byword for the depressingly dour. Last year, the big hit of the festival was the riotously funny Japanese double act Gamarjobat (appearing in the Street Performance World Championship in Dublin in June, don't miss them). This year, my children are clamouring to be taken to see Swan Lake - not the Tchaikovsky ballet but the version with two overweight men in a Transit van dressed in plastic tutus. And we'll be sure to check out Mario, Queen of the Circus, a hilariously camp (and skilfully acrobatic) tribute to the rock band Queen, and Mr Spin (above). Note for shy and retiring parents: if you don't want to be plucked from the crowd and mercilessly ridiculed by street entertainers, lurk unobtrusively at the back. For more information, visit www.foolsfestival.com. The festival is part of the excellent Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, on from May 3rd-13th (www.cqaf.com): highlights this year include Will Self and Carlo Gebler's play Henry and Harriet. Fionola Meredith
It's in the bag
A stunning little silver clutch arrived in our post last week and was an instant hit with everyone who clapped eyes on it; they were even more impressed when they realised how it was made. It's part of a range called Escama composed of hundreds of aluminium can ring pulls crocheted together with silver mercerised cotton thread by women from poor areas of Brazil. The cooperatives who set the prices offer these women a means to earn an income through their handicrafts, and each bag comes signed by the person who made it. The bags, which have names such as Chica Rosa (made from 200 ring pulls), Francisca (500), Socorro (700) and Masha (1,600), pictured here, range in price from €25 to €180. They can be bought online from www.helterskelter.ie. Winners all. Deirdre McQuillan
• Diarmuid Gavin is creating the world's smallest garden centre in the windows of Brown Thomas in Dublin. It opens on Wednesday, and will be manned for its three-week season by Gavin and a host of celebrities. You'll be able to buy plants, tools and wellies from a kiosk, and proceeds will go to Temple Street Children's Hospital.