Culture  
 
Commodified: the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s re-creation of the CBGB toilets for its show Punk: Chaos to Couture. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Punk goes down the pan at the Met

Culture Shock

Photograph: Keith Goldstein/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Check out this brilliant technology. It’s called a ‘book’

I’ve begun to devour physical, printed books again – but not for the obvious reasons

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Music

A slow-acting, addictive, dangerous drug: 200 years of Wagner

He was an opportunistic ego-maniac and his legacy was sullied by Nazism, but after two centuries, Richard Wagner’s music has lost none of its power and fury

Robert Plant at the Heineken Green Energy Festival in Cork in 2000. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant confirmed for the Electric Picnic

Plant was the lead singer in the biggest hard rock band in history

Film

The Irish Martians launching a surprise Cannes invasion

Cannes has seen many sights, but few rarer than an Irish sci-fi film that is set on the red planet

A detail from the original poster for 1962’s Eegah It’s alive! The rise of Slum Cinema

A love of cult movies has turned into a semi-regular night of great bad films

Books

Colum McCann at Sandymount, Dublin in 2011. New York, however, is where he wants to live now. Photograph: Alan Betson Colum McCann’s latest high-wire act links home and America

Colum McCann’s ‘Irish book’ is an emigrant’s take on Frederick Douglass and George Mitchell in Ireland

‘Storytelling done better’?: the icon for Faber’s app of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps Word for Word: telling stories beyond the printed page

Media

South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma. His government’s 25 per cent stake in INMSA would significantly increase its overall stake in South Africa’s media and is likely to raise concerns regarding excessive state influence in the sector. Photograph: Reuters South African government to get INM stake

Government employee pension fund to get 25% of operation if sale goes through

Image Publications recently relaunched Image.ie and hired a full-time editor, repositioning it as the home for original fashion and lifestyle content rather than a straight reproduction of the print magazine. Image Publications ‘optimistic’ on profits

Publisher of women’s glossies and in-flight title ‘Cara’ says turnover grew 34% in 2012

HM4FEIS_WEB 2,000 participants take part in week-long drama festival
  • Stage
  • Judith Crosbie
  • May 20, 2013, 01:00

Skills of young people tested in poetry recital, improvisation, drama, mime and storytelling

On the menu: the Company’s production of As You Are Now So Once Were We Germans queue up for the Full Irish

In Germany, they love Irish storytelling in song and word. Now, at last, they are paying attention to our plays

A detail of a caricature drawing of the composer Igor Stravinsky playing the music for The Rite of Spring by Jean Cocteau Dublin Dance Festival’s opening night shows the rite way to do it
  • Dance
  • Michael Seaver
  • May 14, 2013, 02:00

Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography became a victim of the success of the music in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. A century later, choreographers are still trying to get to grips with the dance

FEARGHUS_Ã-_CONCHúIR_CURE_5B_CREDIT_ANDY_FEREIRA_WEB The naked truth about dance
  • Culture
  • Michael Seaver
  • May 14, 2013, 02:00

In Greek mythology, the gods were depicted nude to show their higher status, but these days little inflames indignation like the sight of the naked human body. For some artists, and dancers in particular, it’s an essential, everyday part of their work

Petrushka, choreographed by Tero Saarinen Dancing from Down Under to Dublin
  • Dance
  • Michael Seaver
  • May 10, 2013, 02:00

The Dublin Dance Festival returns next week with a distinctly Australian flavour

Graham Reid: “an Ulsterman would walk 10 miles to be provoked and there’s still a lot of that kind of thing going on here now – as Billy is about to find out.” Whatever became of Kenneth Branagh’s Billy?
  • Theatre
  • Jane Coyle
  • May 3, 2013, 07:00

Graham Reid’s Billy plays brought Belfast lives on to British screens in the 1980s. Now he is staging a sequel

Stage Struck: watching from afar
  • Theatre
  • Peter Crawley
  • May 3, 2013, 01:00

New words, a sex change and a Communist twist – what else happens when an Irish play goes abroad?

Rob Crouch as Oliver Reed in Wild Thing. Oliver Reed: separating the man from the wild man myth

When Rob Crouch and Mike Davis began developing a play about Oliver Reed, they had no idea who would end up pitching in to help the show: Reed’s son Mark

Digging around in the past for a glimpse of the future
  • Stage
  • Patrick Lonergan
  • April 22, 2013, 07:00

Declan Hughes’s ‘Digging for Fire’ is more than 20 years old, but its current revival shows it was – and remains – ahead of its time for Irish drama

PATBUTLER2_WEB Gradam cumarsáide do Pat Butler
  • Treibh
  • Pól Ó Muirí
  • May 15, 2013, 10:41

Is ar an iarchraoltóir Pat Butler a bhronnfar Buaic-Ghradam Cumarsáide an Oireachtais 2013

Chris Pine mar Kirk i Star Trek: Into Darkness Solas le fáil sa dorchadas ag Trekkies
  • Treibh
  • Robert McMillen
  • May 15, 2013, 10:21

Ní Cumberbitseach nó Cnó Péine mé ach an tseachtain seo caite, chuaigh mé go muiníneach go háit nach ndeachaigh mé riamh roimhe, go scannán Star Trek.

Teaach an phobail lán go doras i mBaile Átha Cliath. Grianghraf: Matt Kavanagh Tá dlúthbhaint idir an creideamh sa Ghréig agus féiniúlacht náisiúnta
  • Treibh
  • Torlach Mac Con Midhe
  • May 15, 2013, 10:09

Tá dlúthbhaint idir an an Eaglais Cheartchreidmheach agus an fhéiniúlacht náisiúnta sa Ghréig

HMBILEOGHARRY_WEB Cá bhfuil ár bhFionn féin?

Tá splanc ar leith le bheith sa pholaiteoir a shantaíonn ceannasaíocht a bhaint amach

Alan Shatter, Aire Cosanta Saighdiúirí a sheas – agus a d’imigh
  • Treibh
  • Alan Titley
  • May 15, 2013, 08:58

‘Bhuamarna an cogadh; ní rabhamar páirteach ann!’

Buille gan éifeacht den bhachall
  • Treibh
  • Póilín Ní Chiaráin
  • May 8, 2013, 16:57

Tá cead ag an Eaglais Chaitliceach treoir a thabhairt dá tréad ach an bhfuil an tréad ag éisteacht?

IMAGEX1COL_B_WEB Tóraíocht na bprionsabal
  • Treibh
  • Alan Titley
  • May 8, 2013, 07:29

“Thuas staighre, domhan eile ar fad atá ann. Níl sé inghlactha suí ansin ach amháin ar maidin agus an bus plódaithe.” Photograph: Cyril Byrne Níl olc ar bith agam don taisteal poiblí – is iad an pobal a chuireann soir mé
  • Treibh
  • Caoimhe Ní Laighin
  • May 8, 2013, 06:00

Salm don Samhradh Lá Bealtaine
  • Treibh
  • Alan Titley
  • May 1, 2013, 07:00

Oscail croí do chluaise ar a bhfuil ann ar lá breithe seo na gréine

168314319_WEB Punk goes down the pan at the Met

Culture Shock

A detail of We The People by Danh Vo, now at Lismore Castle Arts Five artists reinvent the Monument at Lismore Castle

Danh Vo’s Statue of Liberty segments top the bill in a monumental setting

Visitors talk near Paul Cezanne’s ‘Les Pommes,’ during a preview of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Sotheby’s in New York. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters Big numbers for Impressionist art as New York auctions kick off

Sotheby’s sale takes in $230 million, led by a $42 million Cezanne still life

LQ06LIMERICK-IA3_WEB Limerick: a city in search of its cultural identity

The arts community in Limerick is in crisis, thanks to cuts and closures, so how will the city live up to its city of culture status next year?

Haegue Yang’s Strange Fruit sculptures Imma looks for the money shot with its new exhibition

The gallery’s new group show is about cash and all the other currencies that are shaping European identity

Consumer Landscape by Patrick O’Reilly Patrick O’Reilly: making hay and other art that shines

Patrick O’Reilly’s wild eclecticism can be perplexing, but his latest work, a giant haystack in a church, is a thrilling success

WK27KEATINGSACRED_WEB It’s not great art, but it is good mythmaking

Seán Keating wanted to establish an authentically Irish school of art. It’s debatable how successful he was, but there’s no denying the importance of his paintings to our history

Above, a detail from Max Beckmann’s The Hell of Birds. Photograph courtesy of the Louvre An international exhibition that’s become an international incident

An exhibition of art in the Louvre has provoked fury in Germany for portraying the country as a dark and dangerous neighbour – has it ignored key movements deliberately, or is it all a matter of taste?

A detail from Fight Scene III – Study for Two Figures by Eoin Llewellyn Irish art on Berlin’s blank canvas

‘Neither Here Nor There’, a show by Irish artists in Berlin, turns nowhere into something

Video: Mike Carney on his life on the Blaskets Video: Mike Carney on his life on the Blaskets

In this interview Mike Carney tells Gerry Hayes about his life on the island and how Springfield became his home

Video: 1958 Irish Radio Amateurs’ outing

Silent 8mm movie filmed in the late 1950s

Video: Blasket memories

Three brothers talk about their lives on the Great Blasket Island

Blaskets 3 Video: An Blascaód Mór (live)

Singer-songwriter Helena Connolly performs her song An Blascaód Mór in Killarney, February 2012

Anseo: Gearóid Ó Catham (with his hand raised) in his new classroom in Dunquin From the archive: “Loneliest boy” is not lonely now – and an island will soon be deserted
  • Heritage
  • By a special representative
  • May 21, 2013, 02:00

In November 1953 Times Pictorial carried this feature about the loneliest boy in Ireland, Gearóid Ó Catham, and the last child to depart the Blaskets for the mainland

Interested in finding your ancestors?
  • Heritage
  • John Grenham
  • May 21, 2013, 02:00

Research your family tree at irishtimes.com/ancestor

Blaskets from Slea Head The Blasket Island Gathering: What’s on?

The Blasket and West Kerry Welcome Home Week

‘June 13th marks the 300th anniversary of the installation of Jonathan Swift as Dean of St Patrick’s in Dublin. Although his political campaigning would eventually turn him into a hero for ordinary Dubliners, this occasion was very unpleasant for Swift and Dublin: his flock shouted abuse at him in the street and he felt “horribly melancholy”.’ Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Swift’s personality shines in ‘Journal to Stella’
  • Heritage
  • John Grenham
  • May 21, 2013, 01:01

An Irishman’s Diary: Letters fizz with vividness

Irish Roots: where there’s no will, there’s a way
  • Heritage
  • John Grenham
  • May 13, 2013, 16:36

A new digital project by the National Archives of Ireland has brought a fresh dimension to genealogical research

Irish Times Culture


Reviews

Cannes Film Festival: The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza

 
Cannes Film Festival: Behind the Candelabra

 
Cannes Film Festival 2013: Last Days on Mars

 
‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ is seasoned with Ethan (left) and Joel Coen’s taste for self-conscious humour. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Coens deliver humorous and deeply felt movie with ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

 
Director Asghar Farhadi (R) and cast member Berenice Bejo pose on the red carpet as they arrive for the screening of the film ‘Le Passe’ (The Past) in competition during the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Photograph: Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters Cannes Festival 2013 : The Past

 
The National: Trouble Will Find Me

 
And So I Watch You From Afar soundchecking before their explosive Whelan’s show. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons Elbows, feet, flying pints, killer guitars
Laura Marling: Once I Was an Eagle

 
Delta Mainline: Oh! Enlightened

 
Senakah: Human Relations

 
Ian McCulloch: Holy Ghosts

 
All That Is, by James Salter
Love Is the Easy Bit, by Mary Grehan
Is That All There Is?, by William King

Screenwriter

Cannes Review of Behind the Candelabra

Steven Soderbergh's study of Liberace does not go easy on the late pianist.

On The Record

Electric Picnic adds a clatter of new acts to the bill

Factory Floor, John Grant, Little Green Cars and Robert Plant the pick of the new Electric Picnic additions

Pop Life

Fifty Shades of Feminism

Check out this event at the Dublin Writer's Festival tonight (May 20th)

Our Columnists

Shane Hegarty Shane Hegarty -

Check out this brilliant technology. It’s called a ‘book’

Frank McNally Frank McNally -

A literary digression

Brian Boyd Brian Boyd -

We don’t need no high-cost, high-brow, heavy metal education

Donald Clarke Donald Clarke - Chief Film Correspondent

Gatsby’s last-gasp review blackout

TV Guide

Book Club The Irish Times & Eason Book Club The Irish Times & Eason

This week's book: The Cleaner of Chartres by Sally Vickers - Available from Saturday, 18th May to Friday, 24th May

Book Offers Book Offers

From The Irish Times Book of the Year to Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, you'll find books for all tastes and ages.