The Irish Times - Weekendhttp://www.irishtimes.comArticles from The Irish Times - Weekenden-ieCopyright 2012, irishtimes.com.The Irish Times2012-02-11T00:00:00irishtimes.comhttp://www.irishtimes.com/http://www.irishtimes.com/feeds/rss/rss_logo.gifSearch The Irish TimesSearch for articles on irishtimes.comkeywordshttp://www.irishtimes.com/search/index.html?rm=listresultsMaking protest pay, Irish stylehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610835.htmlIT’S JUST PAST 9PM on Thursday night, and the two streets that make up Ballingarry in south Co Tipperary are deserted. A thick fog is beginning to blanket the village. There’s the slightest whiff of slurry in the air. But there’s nothing else to report. It seems as dead as the showband era, unless you know where to look.TextWeekendTopStoriesHARRY McGEE, Political Correspondent2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610835Syria: truth is the first casualtyhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610535.htmlSYRIA IS SUSPENDED between civic peace and civil war. Syrians who live together in harmony in the country’s main cities of Damascus and Aleppo have, in areas torched by rebellion, become bitter enemies confronting each other across urban front lines.TextWeekendTopStoriesMICHAEL JANSEN in Damascus2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610535Ken courts London's Irishhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311609598.htmlON A BITTERLY cold night, several dozen London Irish, wrapped up in coats and scarves, have come to the Labour Party headquarters on Victoria Street. Over the next few hours they and others will make hundreds of calls on the phone bank, cold-calling voters around the city in search of votes for Ken Livingstone in the mayoral election in May.TextWeekendTopStoriesMARK HENNESSY, London Editor2012-02-11T00:00:001224311609598Nice stucco. Shame about the playhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601209.htmlMANCHAN MANGANhas spent thousands of euro going to the theatre, but often he ends up whiling away the evening looking at the plasterwork or the lighting. Why does he stay in his seat? Because it’s worth it for those rare moments of theatrical gloryTextWeekendTopStories2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601209Seven Dayshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610700.htmlA glance at the week that was TextWeekendNews Review2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610700The sea is always bluer on the other side of the worldhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311609570.htmlGENERATION EMIGRATION: While many Irish emigrants are moving to Britain, their new home is facing a brain drain of its own, writesMARK HENNESSYTextWeekendNews Review2012-02-11T00:00:001224311609570Ireland's Squeezed Middle: the readers writehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610553.htmlThis weekThe Irish Timeshas been reporting on the phenomenon of Ireland’s Squeezed Middle and offering you the chance to comment through irishtimes.com. Here is a selection of responsesTextWeekendNews Review2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610553Playing the game of scarlet womanhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311609584.htmlA new book,Between the Sheetsdescribes a woman’s voluntary entry into Ireland’s sex industry. It depicts a murky world, but the romantic fiction writerDAISY CUMMINScan’t help admiring its authorTextWeekendNews Review2012-02-11T00:00:001224311609584Coghlan out of the blocks for a political runhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610475.htmlPROFILE: EAMONN COGHLANTHERE WAS a slight, awkward pause. It was Tuesday’sToday with Pat Kenny, and the host had just asked Senator Eamonn Coghlan how he felt about losing the allowance he gets as an Independent as a result of his decision to join Fine Gael.TextWeekendNews ReviewIAN O'RIORDAN2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610475Switzerland's dark secret: the 'earning children' sold for slaveryhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610510.htmlSUBDUED schoolchildren clatter down the stairs of an old Zurich schoolhouse, relieved to be back in the present.TextWeekendNews ReviewDEREK SCALLY in Zurich2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610510Narrowing the gap between old and new media is the futurehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610635.htmlTHIS WAS ANOTHER week in which a representative of the “old media” stormed outside his house to take on the “new media” kids squatting on his wall. There he shouted about the danger they were putting everyone in, only for his righteous indignation to be met with sneers, jeers and tweets, calling on others to come and pile in.TextWeekendNews ReviewSHANE HEGARTY2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610635The Social Networkhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311610577.htmlCompiled byJAMES GIBBONS TextWeekendNews Review2012-02-11T00:00:001224311610577Limousines, nice frocks and the tick-tock of biological clockshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311604242.htmlTV REVIEW:OUR REMOTE WENT on the blink this week, so we reverted to that tried and tested method of barking instructions to the children to get up there and change the channel, accompanied by cosy reminiscences about TV-watching back in the day.TextWeekendArts & BooksBERNICE HARRISON2012-02-11T00:00:001224311604242How low can you go?http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311604202.htmlRADIO REVIEW:NOBODY EVER WENT broke by underestimating the taste of the public, according to the adage, so it is hardly a shock that the competition for radio listeners sometimes resembles a race to the bottom.TextWeekendArts & BooksMICK HEANEY2012-02-11T00:00:001224311604202Beauty and the beastshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311604129.html‘BEAUTY IS TRUTH, TRUTH BEAUTY,” declared the poet John Keats, carried away by a glimpse of a Grecian urn. Nowadays our fount of truth is more likely to be scientific – and beauty often has precious little to do with it.TextWeekendArts & BooksARMINTA WALLACE2012-02-11T00:00:001224311604129Keeping sketches: a chronology of cartoons that characterised the cold warhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311604160.htmlA new book sets Soviet popular art by ‘court’ cartoonists and their western counterparts in historical context rather than viewing them as charming icons of retro chic, writesJOHN BYRNETextWeekendArts & BooksJOHN BYRNE2012-02-11T00:00:001224311604160'You have to do your own research: that's when you find the very thing you weren't looking for'http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311604833.htmlINTERVIEW:The novelist Kate Grenville tellsEILEEN BATTERSBYhow her mother’s stories set her off on a quest to uncover the real history of her native AustraliaTextWeekendArts & Books2012-02-11T00:00:001224311604833Escape from the killing fieldshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311604854.htmlFICITION:Dogs at the PerimeterBy Madeleine Thien, Granta, 253pp. £14.99TextWeekendArts & BooksANNA CAREY2012-02-11T00:00:001224311604854Getting into the Zonehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601709.htmlFILM:Zona:A Book About a Film About a Journey to a RoomBy Geoff Dyer Canongate, 240pp. £16.99TextWeekendArts & BooksBRIAN DILLON2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601709Loose Leaveshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601731.htmlCompiled byGILES NEWINGTONTextWeekendArts & Books2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601731Inside the first marriagehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601249.htmlPOLITICS:The Obamas: A Mission, a MarriageBy Jodi Kantor Allen Lane, 368pp. £14.99TextWeekendArts & BooksLARA MARLOWE2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601249A history of philosophy that could have been better thought outhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601228.htmlPHILOSOPHY:A Short History of Western ThoughtBy Stephen Trombley, Atlantic Books, 282pp. £14.199TextWeekendArts & BooksPÓL Ó MUIRÍ2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601228Paperbackshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601292.htmlThe Psychopath TestJon Ronson Picador, £8.99TextWeekendArts & Books2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601292Scraping the bottom of the waste paper baskethttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601312.htmlThe Complete Poems of Philip LarkinEdited by Archie Burnett Faber and Faber, 729pp. £40TextWeekendArts & BooksDENNIS O'DRISCOLL2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601312Betrothed, betrayed and put behind wirehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311601326.htmlThe Buddha in the AtticBy Julie Otsuka Penguin Fig Tree, 129pp. £12.99TextWeekendArts & BooksCLAIRE KILROY2012-02-11T00:00:001224311601326A history of Ireland in 100 objects: Magi Cope, circa 1470http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311607325.htmlOne of the striking things about the culture of 15th-century Ireland is what is not there. There is not, to any great extent, evidence of that great flowering of European intellectual and artistic life that is summed up in the term Renaissance. The magnificent set of 15th-century Benediction copes and Mass vestments that survives from Christ Church in Waterford stands out as a rare example of Renaissance art in Ireland. But it could not be other than a European import.TextWeekendHeritage & HabitatFINTAN O'TOOLE2012-02-11T00:00:001224311607325Meet the robber of my peas, beans and sweetcornhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311607340.htmlANOTHER LIFE:THE RETURN OF MY canvas director’s chair to its proper niche in the polytunnel is a declaration of faith in spring – at least, the season that arrives under plastic as soon as the sun starts to climb in the sky.TextWeekendHeritage & HabitatMICHAEL VINEY2012-02-11T00:00:001224311607340Heritage hot spots History, nature, art, environmenthttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0211/1224311607368.htmlUlster Folk Transport MuseumTextWeekendHeritage & HabitatSYLVIA THOMPSON2012-02-11T00:00:001224311607368