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The Irish Times
Mon, Oct 18, 2021
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The Botanic Gardens in Dublin, a pocket of peace in the city, full of life and colour and beautiful orchids, and right next door to Glasnevin cemetery. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Orchid fever: ‘It’s like chasing a green-eyed woman or cocaine, it’s a sort of madness’
  • Books
  • Fiona Gartland
  • October 18, 2021, 05:59

Fiona Gartland on a flower that has inspired theft, murder and her third novel

Máire Mhac an tSaoi: ‘Radical and uninhibited in her personal life, conservative in her aesthetic’ Máire Mhac an tSaoi: ‘Radical and uninhibited in her personal life, conservative in her aesthetic’
  • Books
  • Martin Doyle
  • October 18, 2021, 16:42

Critics and fellow poets pay tribute to a hugely influential, groundbreaking figure

‘I think of you, Brendan, in hushed Dublin streets.’ A poem for Brendan Kennelly by Joseph O’Connor ‘I think of you, Brendan, in hushed Dublin streets.’ A poem for Brendan Kennelly by Joseph O’Connor
  • Books
  • Martin Doyle
  • October 18, 2021, 15:27

Poets, professors and publishers pay tribute to Brendan Kennelly, beloved writer and friend

What is Facebook’s metaverse, the new reality that needs 10,000 people to build it? What is Facebook’s metaverse, the new reality that needs 10,000 people to build it?
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • Jennifer O'Connell
  • October 18, 2021, 13:03

‘The next best thing to teleportation’ will create 10,000 new jobs in EU over five years

Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘There was a time when my biggest roles were to do with my sexuality’ Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘There was a time when my biggest roles were to do with my sexuality’
  • Film
  • Ryan Gilbey
  • October 18, 2021, 06:00

‘Once they parodied me on Saturday Night Live! Now I get a lifetime-achievement award’

Kin episode 6 review: The Michael Corleone of the Kinsellas emerges Kin episode 6 review: The Michael Corleone of the Kinsellas emerges
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • Ed Power
  • October 18, 2021, 00:32

Clare Dunne is the black sheep who rejects a life of crime, then becomes the brains of the outfit

Bang!: Impressive exploration of complex themes of gender and identity Bang!: Impressive exploration of complex themes of gender and identity
  • Stage
  • Sara Keating
  • October 18, 2021, 12:53

Dublin Theatre Festival: Michelle Read’s play is nuanced and deeply attuned to character development

Máire Mhac an tSaoi interviewed in 2015: ‘I was very formidable’ Máire Mhac an tSaoi interviewed in 2015: ‘I was very formidable’
  • People
  • Kathy Sheridan
  • October 18, 2021, 12:30

The diplomat and poet looks back on a life of love and adventure, challenge and tragedy

Translated fiction: A round-up of the best new books Translated fiction: A round-up of the best new books
  • Books
  • Declan O’Driscoll
  • October 18, 2021, 06:00

Andreas-Salomé, Krasznahorkai, Scavenius, Manto, Sedira and Roig appear in English

Gig of the Week: Wexford Festival Opera has Shakespeare in the heart Gig of the Week: Wexford Festival Opera has Shakespeare in the heart
  • Culture
  • Kevin Courtney
  • October 18, 2021, 05:00

October 18th-24th, 2021: The best of the week’s culture events, right around Ireland

Latest Film

Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘It was guerrilla film-making, new and delicious and lovely.’ Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘There was a time when my biggest roles were to do with my sexuality’
Jodie Comer in The Last Duel Four new films to see in cinemas this weekend
Léa Seydoux: 'I always felt as a kid that I didn’t have the words to express my emotions'. Photograph: Jingyu Lin/New York Times Léa Seydoux: ‘I am very shy. But shy people can be very daring’
  • Dave Bautista: ‘Professional wrestling brought me out of my shell’
  • Daniel Craig says he goes to gay bars to avoid fights at straight venues

TV & Radio

What is the Facebook ’metaverse’? What is Facebook’s metaverse, the new reality that needs 10,000 people to build it?

‘The next best thing to teleportation’ will create 10,000 new jobs in EU over five years

Amanda: Doesn’t want more blood on the family’s hands Kin episode 6 review: The Michael Corleone of the Kinsellas emerges
Chelsea Farrell with mum Carrie and dad Paul on Celebrity Pulling with My Parents, Wednesday on RTÉ2 TV guide: 29 of the best shows to watch this week
  • Patrick Freyne: Royals ride who they like. It says so in Latin on the Windsor crest
  • ‘Were we right in the head?’ Joe Duffy asks as free contraception proves a difficult pill to swallow

Latest Books

Poet: Máire Mhac an tSaoi at the Dublin publisher Sáirséal and Dill in 1956, around the same time she wrote her poem Mary Hogan’s Quatrains. Photograph: family collection Máire Mhac an tSaoi: ‘Radical and uninhibited in her personal life, conservative in her aesthetic’

Critics and fellow poets pay tribute to a hugely influential, groundbreaking figure

Brendan Kennelly in his beloved Trinity College Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke ‘I think of you, Brendan, in hushed Dublin streets.’ A poem for Brendan Kennelly by Joseph O’Connor
A scene from the TV adaptation of Normal People by Sally Rooney starring Paul Mescal as Connell At last, sport comes off the bench to take its place in Irish fiction
  • Translated fiction: A round-up of the best new books
  • Orchid fever: ‘It’s like chasing a green-eyed woman or cocaine, it’s a sort of madness’

Film Reviews

Tom Hardy in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Venom: Let There Be Carnage

 
‘I discovered what it means to be a woman alone in this world,’ writes Guida (Julia Stockler) in an undelivered letter to her sister. Photograph: Bruno Machado The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao

 
Arracht

 
Adam Driver as Jacques LeGris and Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges in The Last Duel. Photograph: Patrick Redmond for 20th Century Studios The Last Duel

 

Latest Music

David Keenan: ‘I remember looking out into the audience and seeing someone in the crowd dressed like me.’ Photograph: M Beriestain David Keenan: ‘I needed to get away from Ireland’

The peripatetic singer-songwriter talks solitude, anxiety and upcoming gigs

Adele: if earth-moving torch songs are your thing, there is little arguing with Easy on Me’s effectiveness. Photograph: Simon Emmett/Columbia Records/PA Adele, the wine-bar Wagner, is back. So is her new single any good?
The Rolling Stones: the band have cut Brown Sugar from their US tour setlist. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty ‘I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is’: Keith Richards on Rolling Stones decision to drop Brown Sugar
  • The Music Quiz: Who is the youngest ever Glastonbury headliner?
  • Paddy Moloney: President Higgins leads tributes to Chieftains founder

Book Reviews

Burntcoat by Sarah Hall: a frenzied, devastating novel of a world in flames
Fortune: A novel with the momentum and power of a Greek tragedy
Hot Air: The fight against the headwind of climate-change denial
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl: Strap yourself in for smooth, well-told tales

Stage

Maura Bird, Mark D’Aughton, Gene Rooney, Simon O’Gorman and Alexandra Conlon in Bang! Photograph: Ste Murray Bang!: Impressive exploration of complex themes of gender and identity

Dublin Theatre Festival: Michelle Read’s play is nuanced and deeply attuned to character development

Night Dances: Robyn Byrne, Jessie Thompson and Aoife McAtamney in Emma Martin’s production. Photograph: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland Night Dances: Raucous, loud and sweaty, this is a thrilling hour of relentless dancing and music
iGirl: Olwen Fouéré in Marina Carr’s new play. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh iGirl: Olwen Fouéré stalks the stage in Marina Carr’s multidimensional piece of theatre art
  • Michelle Read: ‘We’re very good at masking how we’re feeling’
  • Conversations After Sex: ★★★★★ for Mark O’Halloran’s extraordinary new play

Art & Design

Protesters march to the Dublin City Council offices in protest of the proposal to build a hotel around the Cobblestone pub in Smithfield, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Hotels vs culture: The debate on Dublin’s future reignites

Protesters say new hotels crowd out housing and the arts; officials say they create jobs

Riba Stirling Prize: Grafton Architects’ Town House, at Kingston University, in southwest London. Photograph: Ed Reeve/Riba/PA Wire Grafton Architects complete hat-trick with win of 2021 Riba Stirling Prize
Seafront plaza: an artist’s impression of the scheme proposed by Blackrock Village Rejuvenation Group ‘Very feasible’ seafront scheme would see plaza built over Dart line in Dublin suburb
  • Karen Lee: ‘I was onstage and I forgot my lines. I forgot where I was’
  • ‘It’s a bit of fun, kind of kitsch’: Sculpture unveiled on Dublin City Hall’s O’Connell plinth

Unthinkable

Hannah Arendt: Thinking ‘is a profitless enterprise as far as results are concerned’. Photograph: Getty Images Stop to think, and think to be happy: Hannah Arendt’s credo for life

Unthinkable: Philosopher born this day 115 years ago believed that politics should be joyous

Participants in public debate tend to jump straight from condemning an argument to condemning its speaker, as though poor reasoning was a sin. Photograph: Akindo/Getty How to win at arguments: Six philosophical tips
‘If you look at the AI system Tesla uses for their self-driving cars, it’s pretty much inscrutable even to the people who built it.’ Photograph: Getty Who is responsible if a self-driving car kills a pedestrian to save the driver?
  • Is your sense of reality in fact a hallucination?
  • How well do you understand your sense of smell? Try these three experiments

Heritage

The owner of the Merchant’s Arch pub in Temple Bar is seeking to knock one side of the laneway at Merchant’s Arch made up of a two-storey building, and build a three-storey-over-basement hotel and restaurant. Photograph: Tom Honan Disappearing Dublin: The sites that are going, gone – or were saved by ‘people power’

The Cobblestone and Merchant’s Arch are just two of many sites subject to change

Pronsías O’Rathaille, grandson of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, and James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly, unveiling a plan for the preservation and development of Moore Street in Dublin 1. Photograph: Alan Betson Alternative plans for Moore Street proposed by 1916 rising relatives’ group
St Conleth’s College in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The school’s website says it planned to build ‘state-of-the-art laboratory facilities’ and larger classrooms and art facilities. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Plans for development at St Conleth’s College rejected by city council
  • British society suffers ‘amnesia’ over Anglo-Irish Treaty, conference hears
  • 23,000-year-old footprints shed new light on humans’ arrival in the Americas

Michael Viney's Another Life

Gannet with fish: Anyone who has watched the birds plunging vertically from the sky to seize mackerel deep beneath the surface must marvel at their anatomy. Illustration: Michael Viney Gannet population continues to thrive despite human threat to its numbers

Michael Viney: Irish numbers have more than doubled since the counts of Operation Seafarer in 1970

Fox with prey: The urban adult is “thin and exhausted” from finding and ferrying food to its cubs. Illustration: Michael Viney Another Life: The fox as he dwells among us
Choughs. Illustration: Michael Viney The declining choughs of Dursey island need decision makers’ help
  • Super grass: the arching, architectural forms of wild meadows
  • Between cliff and sea: The curious trail of a puffin

Tuarascáil

Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1905-1970) Na meáin Ghaeilge sa ré iarChadhnach

Sa Choláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath, a thugtar Léacht Uí Chadhain gach bliain

Sally Rooney. Grianghraf: Nick Bradshaw/Irish Times Rún Sailí
Deireadh na díospóireachta sa Dáil an tseachtain seo caite. Faoin reachtaíocht nua beidh 20 faoin gcéad d’earcaithe nua na státseirbhíse in ann a gcuid oibre a dhéanamh trí Ghaeilge faoi 2030. ‘Táimid tar éis céim chun tosaigh a bhreacadh’
  • Gannchuid aráin, mórchuid gréine
  • Ní féidir a bheith cinnte ach de thrí rud sa saol

Sponsored

Launch of Guaranteed Irish Business Awards, supported by Permanent TSB Launch of Guaranteed Irish Business Awards, supported by Permanent TSB

Awards created to deliver a national celebration of trusted businesses, both homegrown and international, who have shown resilience, innovation, and success

The key to tasty autumn meals? It starts with potatoes The key to tasty autumn meals? It starts with potatoes

Impress your loved ones, and your tastebuds, with a quick, tasty and nutritious potato recipe

Subscriber Only

László Krasznahorkai: his ability to convey the instability of existence and evoke the menace inherent in everyday life is without equal. Translated fiction: A round-up of the best new books
Sarah Hall started writing her novel on the first day of lockdown in March 2020, imagining herself as a kind of first responder, trying to document a world that was suddenly “eerily shrouded and in jeopardy”. Burntcoat by Sarah Hall: a frenzied, devastating novel of a world in flames
Billy Connolly. Photograph: Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Naoise Dolan on memoirs by Billy Connolly, Jimmy Carr and Katherine Ryan

Most Read in Culture

1 Brendan Kennelly in his beloved Trinity College Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke ‘I think of you, Brendan, in hushed Dublin streets.’ A poem for Brendan Kennelly by Joseph O’Connor

2 Amanda: Doesn’t want more blood on the family’s hands Kin episode 6 review: The Michael Corleone of the Kinsellas emerges

3 Noam Chomsky: ‘Are we so innocent? No, we’re not. In fact, the United States is one of those rare countries – maybe the only country – that’s been at war, almost always aggressive war, from the first moment of its founding.’ Photograph: Heuler Andrey/AFP/via Getty Images Noam Chomsky: ‘Ireland has robbed poor working people of tens of trillions of dollars’

4 Evanna Lynch: her new book is The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up – A Memoir. Photograph: Hachette Evanna Lynch: I never planned for anorexia to be my thing

5 Poet: Máire Mhac an tSaoi at the Dublin publisher Sáirséal and Dill in 1956, around the same time she wrote her poem Mary Hogan’s Quatrains. Photograph: family collection Máire Mhac an tSaoi: ‘Radical and uninhibited in her personal life, conservative in her aesthetic’

6 Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘It was guerrilla film-making, new and delicious and lovely.’ Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘There was a time when my biggest roles were to do with my sexuality’

7 Mickey Harte: ‘There can be a sense of hope from difficult and dark places.’ Photograph: Matt Mackey/Inpho Mickey Harte: ‘I learned a lot from Michaela’

8 Classic horror: the 10 most terrifying short stories ever written

9 Arracht is Tom Sullivan's thrilling new drama starring Dónall Ó Héalai Tom Sullivan: ‘The famine is still a powder keg emotionally for us as a nation’

10 Beverly Hills, 90210: Shannen Doherty (centre, in blue) with the cast of the show in 1991. Photograph: Mikel Roberts/Sygma via Getty Shannen Doherty shows the ravages of breast cancer in candid photographs

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Music Quiz

The Music Quiz: Who is the youngest ever Glastonbury headliner? The Music Quiz: Who is the youngest ever Glastonbury headliner?

Plus: Which rock star is part of a sexual fantasy in the erotic podcast Dirty Diana?

Dublin Theatre Festival 2021 Reviews, news and interviews from Ireland’s premier theatre festival
 

The Books Podcast

The Irish Times Books Podcast - Darran Anderson, author of Inventory The Irish Times Books Podcast - Darran Anderson, author of Inventory 33:48
The Irish Times Books Podcast The best crime fiction of 2019 The Irish Times Books Podcast The best crime fiction of 2019 40:49
The Irish Times Books Podcast Remembering Maeve Binchy The Irish Times Books Podcast Remembering Maeve Binchy 35:01
The Irish Times Books Podcast Danielle McLaughlin The Irish Times Books Podcast Danielle McLaughlin 33:47

Culture Videos

0:59 "It's not a gimmick': new Superman comes out as bisexual
Colin Farrell stars as the Penguin in new Batman trailer 2:38 Colin Farrell stars as the Penguin in new Batman trailer
Funeral of Chieftains founder Paddy Moloney takes place in Wicklow 0:55 Funeral of Chieftains founder Paddy Moloney takes place in Wicklow
Open House: From inside the American embassy to the transformation of Temple Bar 3:54 Open House: From inside the American embassy to the transformation of Temple Bar

Food & Drink Club

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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

Errigal Nightscape, by Patryk Sadowski: the night sky at Loch an Ghainimh, or Lough Agannive, in Co Donegal, with Mount Errigal in the background Reach for the Stars: The best of Irish astrophotography
Perfect shot: the murmuration of starlings that James Crombie photographed over Lough Ennell, in Co Westmeath, on Tuesday evening. It became the front-page photograph of The Irish Times of March 4th, 2021. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Murmurations over Lough Ennell
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