Culture & Entertainment News | The Irish Times

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

Greta Thunberg derangement syndrome claims another victim: Pat Kenny

TV, Radio, Web
Mick Heaney
October 13, 2019, 06:00

The condition is triggered by exposure to a Swedish girl who doesn’t want the world to end

Booker Prize 2019: The books to read, and the ones you can skip

Booker Prize 2019: The books to read, and the ones you can skip

Books
John Self
October 12, 2019, 06:00

As Monday's announcement nears, we assess the shortlist and hazard a guess at the winner

When ecstasy was dealt openly on the Dublin rave scene

When ecstasy was dealt openly on the Dublin rave scene

Heritage
Una Mullally
October 13, 2019, 06:00

From the archive, 1994: Five undercover gardaí were offered drugs on entrance to Asylum nightclub

‘I am Mannix Flynn. I am 62. I have come through poverty, prison, abuse – you name it’

‘I am Mannix Flynn. I am 62. I have come through poverty, prison, abuse – you name it’

Film
Donald Clarke
October 12, 2019, 05:00

‘The so-called hard left aren’t hard at all. They’ve abandoned the working classes’

Chest Pain: A man, a stent and a campervan

Chest Pain: A man, a stent and a campervan

Books
Dani Gill
October 13, 2019, 06:00

Book review: Michael Harding’s latest read is more intimate than previous books

Philip Pullman: ‘I don’t think anyone could have predicted the ruin’

Philip Pullman: ‘I don’t think anyone could have predicted the ruin’

Books
Sara Keating
October 12, 2019, 05:00

The author on His Dark Materials, its follow-up trilogy, and the ‘total failure’ that is Brexit

Leg warmers and legal rows: Behind the scenes of St Petersburg’s Swan Lake

Leg warmers and legal rows: Behind the scenes of St Petersburg’s Swan Lake

Stage
Christie Seaver
October 12, 2019, 05:00

Prima ballerina Irina Kolesnikova talks about the life’s training behind her Irish shows

Andrew Synnott: A musician who needs to express himself in all kinds of different ways

Andrew Synnott: A musician who needs to express himself in all kinds of different ways

Music
Michael Dervan
October 12, 2019, 05:00

Synnot will be first living Irish composer to have work featured on main stage of Wexford Festival Opera

Borderless art: Belfast festival’s Richard Wakely prefers frictionless collaborations

Borderless art: Belfast festival’s Richard Wakely prefers frictionless collaborations

Culture
Peter Crawley
October 12, 2019, 17:15

If Brexit deadline holds, Belfast International Arts Festival will begin in the EU and end beyond it

The Irishman review: The sort of grown-up flick they don’t make any more

The Irishman review: The sort of grown-up flick they don’t make any more

Film
Donald Clarke
October 11, 2019, 06:00

Al Pacino gives his most enjoyable performance in decades. See it in its cinematic glory

Latest Film

Actor Robert Forster, photographed in Los Angeles in 2017. Photograph: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Actor Robert Forster dies aged 78 following brief illness

Film Reviews

The adorable monster in Abominable

Belfast Journalist Lyra McKee was killed during riots in Derry on April 18th 2019. Police Service of Northern Ireland said that McKee was allegedly shot while reporting on clashes with dissident republican rioters. Photograph: Jess Lowe/EPA

Timothée Chalamet in The King

Marchánt Davis in The Day Shall Come

The Day Shall Come

TV & Radio

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

Greta Thunberg derangement syndrome claims another victim: Pat Kenny

The condition is triggered by exposure to a Swedish girl who doesn’t want the world to end

Latest Books

Gordon D’Arcy and Paul Howard with Gordon’s Game, their new children’s book. Photograph: Alan Betson

My first thought when Gordon D’Arcy asked me to do a kid's book: how do I get out of this?

The children’s book by D’Arcy and Howard is a boy’s own story, a kind of abridged version of the rugby player’s career

Latest Music

Phil Coulter and a wall of gold records in 1984. Photograph: Tim Roney/Radio Times/Getty

Phil Coulter: ‘Music saved my sanity... and my life’

The ‘anthem’ writer and hitmaker on his Derry childhood, two marriages and life in music

Album Reviews

Elbow: Giants of All Sizes

Kitt Philippa: Human

Perhaps Turpin’s true calling is as a writer, rather than a singer, of pop songs par excellence

The Late David Turpin: Romances

Illustration: Guy Billout

Tandem Felix: Rom-Com

The Blizzards: the Last Great Algorithm

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Ghosteen

Book Reviews

Chest Pain: A man, a stent and a campervan

Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie: Digging deep on several fronts

Children of the Troubles: a troubling picture of young lives cut short

Akin: Sparkles with Emma Donoghue’s clear, often witty style

Stage

Irina Kolesnikova in St Petersburg Ballet Theatre’s staging of Swan Lake

Leg warmers and legal rows: Behind the scenes of St Petersburg’s Swan Lake

Prima ballerina Irina Kolesnikova talks about the life’s training behind her Irish shows

Art & Design

Sleep of Reason, Diana Copperwhite (2019, oil on canvas, 170X229cm). Courtesy of the artist and Kevin Kavanagh Gallery

Art in Focus: Diane Copperwhite – Sleep of Reason

The oil painting is a typical work of artist, if relatively dark in tone

Unthinkable

‘If God is set aside, all of Western thinking going back to Plato and Aristotle and the Church fathers who adapted their thinking to Christianity is also eliminated.’ File photograph: Will Burgess/Reuters

How to understand China: Step one, forget about God

Unthinkable: Despite very different religious traditions, the Irish and the Chinese are similar in their thinking, says Jerusha McCormack

Heritage

O’Neill was pretty resolute about the reality of clubbing in Dublin at the time. While he didn’t give evidence in court, he told gardaí in his statement, “if there were no ecstasy there would be no rave discos. If there were no rave discos there would be no ecstasy”.

When ecstasy was dealt openly on the Dublin rave scene

From the archive, 1994: Five undercover gardaí were offered drugs on entrance to Asylum nightclub

Michael Viney's Another Life

Illustration: Michael Viney

Poisoned and preyless: obstacles to rewilding Ireland with eagles

Restoring the golden eagle to the west has found the limits to bringing back a carnivore

Tuarascáil

Bhíomar thar a bheith sásta na h-éin a choinneáil againn mar pheataí agus ní raibh tuairim dá laghad againn ar rásaíocht colúr. Grianghraf: Éanna Ó Caollaí

Filleadh na gcolúr

Ní raibh fúinn ná tharainn ach breith ar éan fiáin

Sponsored

DublinTown Food and Drink Festival returns on October 14th

DublinTown Food and Drink Festival returns on October 14th

DublinTown Food and Drink Festival is back to shine a spotlight on the city’s gastronomic outlets that are making the capital a world-class food and drink destination

All charged up for a change

All charged up for a change

Electricity will power much more of our lives in a low carbon future, but are people ready?

Subscriber Only

Atlantic Podcast A three-part series exploring the mystery of Peter Bergmann - the man who came to Sligo to disappear

Most Read in Culture

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

Greta Thunberg derangement syndrome claims another victim: Pat Kenny

O’Neill was pretty resolute about the reality of clubbing in Dublin at the time. While he didn’t give evidence in court, he told gardaí in his statement, “if there were no ecstasy there would be no rave discos. If there were no rave discos there would be no ecstasy”.

When ecstasy was dealt openly on the Dublin rave scene

This is the first Booker shortlist in the prize’s 50-year history with no white men in the running

Booker Prize 2019: The books to read, and the ones you can skip

A digital de-aging technique has its issues, but the filmmakers just about get away with it

The Irishman review: The sort of grown-up flick they don’t make any more

British author Philip Pullman: ‘I don’t think anyone could have predicted the ruin, the decay, the distress, the chaos, this most terrible and appalling mess.’ Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Philip Pullman: ‘I don’t think anyone could have predicted the ruin’

Mannix Flynn. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

‘I am Mannix Flynn. I am 62. I have come through poverty, prison, abuse – you name it’

Boris Johnson in Downing Street, London this week. File photograph: Peter Summers/Getty

Boris Johnson claimed he was ‘a bit of a Europhile’ at private dinner in 2013

Phil Coulter and a wall of gold records in 1984. Photograph: Tim Roney/Radio Times/Getty

Phil Coulter: ‘Music saved my sanity... and my life’

Michael Harding photographed at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Co Monaghan. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons / The Irish Times.

Chest Pain: A man, a stent and a campervan

Killian Scott and Sarah Greene in Dubln Murders

TV guide: 16 of the best shows to watch this week

Real news has value

Dublin Theatre Festival 2019 Reviews, news and interviews from Ireland’s premier theatre festival

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Google Podcasts

On My Culture Radar

Reginald D Hunter: On My Culture Radar

Reginald D Hunter: On My Culture Radar

Comedian on ‘the Dantean hell’ of Nicolas Winding Refn, Billions star Dan Soder and more

Lisa Harding: “handles a profoundly difficult issue with absolute care and multitudes of heart”

The Book Club Click to join in the discussion about this month's book, Harvesting by Lisa Harding

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Shelved: a selection of books by Irish women writers. Might some of these names figure in the final 12?

Women writers Putting Irish women writers back in the picture

Galleries

Former Irish Press photographer Colman Doyle ahead of his exhibition 'A Lifetime of Images' at Valleymount Hall, Co Wicklow, which opens tomorrow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

A Lifetime of Images by Colman Doyle

Fans in the crowd for Kodaline on the main stage at Electric Picnic on Sunday night. Photograph: Dave Meehan/The Irish Times

Electric Picnic 2019 in pictures: three days of music, mayhem and magic

Vote 100 Celebrating a century since Irish women won the right to vote

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