Culture  
 
Prime suspense: Gillian Anderson as DCI Gibson and Simon Delaney as McElroy in The Fall TV Review: Gillian Anderson is fired up in ‘The Fall’, but Mr Whicher is getting suspiciously dull

The former 'X-Files' star channels her inner Helen Mirren in a new crime drama set in Belfast

Donal Walsh: died after a long battle with cancer. Photograph: Kerry’s Eye/PA Radio Review: a week of sadness after Donal Walsh’s death, but one of uplifting insight too

Death and illness dominated the on-air discussions this week, but the presenters managed to deal with the subjects adroitly and empathy

otr-radio

Music

Someone like her: sing one of Adele’s songs and you’ll be out. Photograph: Dave M Benett/Getty How to ace a boyband audition: be nice and don’t sing Adele

Louis Walsh is holding auditions in Dublin this weekend. How can hopefuls impress the man who led Westlife, Boyzone and Girls Aloud to fame?

Leonard Cohen onstage at the 02 arena in Dublin in July 2009. He will return to the arena in September 2013. Photograph: Dave Meehan/The Irish Times Leonard Cohen’s long goodbye to his fans continues for another year

The 78-year-old singer-songwriter will play two concerts at the O2 in September

Film

The streets of Cannes were, yesterday afternoon, buzzing with a proper grown-up news story when it emerged that $1 million worth of jewels had been robbed from a room in the Novotel Hotel. Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters Cannes streets buzz with grown-up news story after jewel theft

French film festival shows no signs of being Cannes’d

Ginger Baker: Born to be wild

When it came to making a film about hellraising drumming legend Ginger Baker, 6ft 5in ex-boxer Jay Bulger was definitely the right man for the job

Books

‘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

Past master: Eoin Colfer. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons Variations on a theme that stand the test of time

The latest children’s books

Media

Prime suspense: Gillian Anderson as DCI Gibson and Simon Delaney as McElroy in The Fall TV Review: Gillian Anderson is fired up in ‘The Fall’, but Mr Whicher is getting suspiciously dull

The former 'X-Files' star channels her inner Helen Mirren in a new crime drama set in Belfast

Donal Walsh: died after a long battle with cancer. Photograph: Kerry’s Eye/PA Radio Review: a week of sadness after Donal Walsh’s death, but one of uplifting insight too

Death and illness dominated the on-air discussions this week, but the presenters managed to deal with the subjects adroitly and empathy

ETB-THEFULLIRISH-THE-COMPANY_1_WEB 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 Ó Conchúir performing Cure 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

TERO_SAARINEN_PETRUSHKA_6_CREDIT_SAKARI_VIIKA_WEB 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?

OLLIE_REED0086_WEB 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

Closer to the ground: Jean Butler at home in New York; with Michael Flatley in Riverdance; and in her contemporary dance, Hurry. Photographs: Marcus Yam/The New York Times; Ian Douglas Jean Butler: ‘When I look back at Riverdance, it is at a whole different person’

Jean Butler is content that she can’t move the way she did when she became synonymous with Irish culture, but dance remains the bedrock of her life

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

PHPNIUXU2AM_WEB 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

‘At the time, the State Department was building three embassies or consulates annually and the fashion was to adopt designs that flattered the host countries.’ Above, the American embassy in Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne An embassy by design
  • Heritage
  • Denis Fahey
  • May 7, 2013, 06:00

An Irishman’s Diary: From Celtic round castles to a modern facade

‘I was just one of a cluster of generations of sons and daughters who grew from childhood to their teenage years having their father home twice a year, usually at Christmas and in the summer.’ Photograph: iStockphoto Years of separation
  • Heritage
  • Tom Rowley
  • May 4, 2013, 06:00

An Irishman’s Diary: Remembering a father who worked in England

DIHUGHORAM_WEB A master of (attempted) invention

An Irishman’s Diary: Monaghan’s musical glass player

Local leader
  • Heritage
  • Mary Leland
  • April 30, 2013, 06:00

An Irishwoman’s Diary: Celebrating Canon Sheehan’s centenary

Irish Roots: events everywhere
  • Heritage
  • John Grenham
  • April 29, 2013, 07:00

The very late spring has produced explosions of green

DIAPRIL29_WEB Famine friends
  • Heritage
  • Paddy Waldron
  • April 29, 2013, 06:00

An Irishman’s Diary: Kennedys’ help in Kilrush

‘As I envisage it, the building would be as tribute to the letter H itself, which has played a central role in the Northern conflict.’ Aerial view of the Maze Long Kesh site where the new peace centre will be. Photograph: PA/Colin Bailie Aspiration once again

An Irishman’s Diary: Why Northern Ireland needs a H-shaped museum

TV personality Loyd Grossman, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring and Redmond O’Donoghue, chairman of Fáilte Ireland at the ‘Culture and Heritage Tourism - An Emerging Economic Engine?’ conference in Dublin. Heritage is not a luxury – Lloyd Grossman

Use of ‘starchitects’ criticised at Fáilte Ireland tourism conference

Video interview John Grant opens up to The Ticket
 

Irish Times Culture


Reviews

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

 
Review: The Great Gatsby

 
Cannes Festival 2013: Down Mexico way

 
Cannes Festival 2013: All that glitters . . .

 
Simon Killer

 
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 Like Father Like Son

The latest film from the director of After Life and I Wish is triumphantly moving.

On The Record

Joining the dots between the Caribbean and Britain

Stuart Baker's "Mirror to the Soul" documentary examines the huge influence of Caribbean life on British society and culture

Pop Life

Venus & Serena

New documentary on the tennis superstars.

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.