RECOGNISING THE damage alcohol abuse is causing to young people is one thing; doing something positive about it is another. As reports come in from police services in the United States and Australia of young Irish immigrants out of control through excessive drinking, older people here will have to confront their own demons. Leinster House could be wallpapered with all the official reports which have detailed the harm done to society by alcohol and made the case for remedial action. Little has happened. But it is time for parents and society as a whole to shoulder responsibility.

Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson has scored several films, but his haunting music, as heard on his new album, ‘The Miners’ Hymns’, stands up alone, writes SINEAD GLEESON 

Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, Dublin

I live with an insurance worker and his cat, I have a little identity card that allows me to eat lunch in the Bundestag, and there is new graffiti on my street nearly every morning. Welcome to my little part of Berlin, relates KATE KATHARINA FERGUSON 

ROADTEST KIA OPTIMA: AS TWO HOODIE-CLAD teenagers approached the Kia in the rain-sodden Quickpark car park at Dublin airport, my first thoughts were not that this was going to be a discussion about the growing popularity of the Korean brand. It was a dirty, wet night and, with my luggage in the boot I resorted to the usual middle-aged response: frantically look for the central locking switch.

THE SPANISH government called for investor calm yesterday as shares in the country’s second-largest bank tumbled nearly 30 per cent and Moody’s prepared a sweeping downgrade of Spain’s lenders.

SOCCER: GIOVANNI Trapattoni expressed surprise yesterday that John O’Shea had risked more serious injury by playing for Sunderland against Manchester United on the final day of the Premier League season last Sunday.

CANNES 2012: Wes Anderson returns, Jacques Audiard keeps things classy, and an Egyptian docu-drama based around events in Tahrir Square tries to find its feet amid the hustle and bustle of Cannes 2012, writes DONALD CLARKE 

WEDDINGS, WEDDINGS, weddings – that old adage, “it never rains, but it pours” is never so applicable as it is between the months of May and September. If we have one wedding invitation on the mantelpiece, we have seven – meaning seven brides to coo over on their hen night (or, more likely, hen weekend), seven gifts to buy (or cheques to write) and seven outfits to assemble.

CULINARY PARIS: Heading to Paris? Here are TV chef Rachel Khoo’s favourite shops, bistros and markets in the city, writes DANIELLE MORAN