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The Irish Times
Fri, Jan 17, 2020
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Architect Dermot Bannon and quantity surveyor Patricia Power, who has to inform him his garden will cost upwards of €100,000 Patrick Freyne: The mystery of Dermot Bannon and his many surrogate wives
  • Culture
  • Patrick Freyne
  • January 17, 2020, 05:00

The Room to Improve sun god has enlisted them to build his Great Pyramid of Giza

Podcasts for pooches: A brilliant idea – or barking mad? Podcasts for pooches: A brilliant idea – or barking mad?
  • Culture
  • Emma Beddington
  • January 17, 2020, 14:20

You can leave your dog with bespoke music, washing-machine sounds, and soothing voiceovers

Sex Education on Netflix: More antiseptic and untitillating sex scenes. How off-putting Sex Education on Netflix: More antiseptic and untitillating sex scenes. How off-putting
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • Ed Power
  • January 17, 2020, 12:08

If you enjoy never-ending references to intimate bodily functions, you’ll love this. If not...

Ingenious Ireland: A cornucopia of a book that should be savoured slowly Ingenious Ireland: A cornucopia of a book that should be savoured slowly
  • Books
  • Paul Clements
  • January 17, 2020, 06:00

Mary Mulvihill’s odyssey around the country reveals Irish trailblazers and neglected subjects

Revealed: The fight to stop Samuel Beckett winning the Nobel prize Revealed: The fight to stop Samuel Beckett winning the Nobel prize
  • Books
  • Alison Flood
  • January 17, 2020, 10:32

Waiting for Godot author’s ‘nihilism’ caused fierce dispute at Swedish Academy in 1969

Eminem compares himself to Manchester Arena bomber Eminem compares himself to Manchester Arena bomber
  • Music
  • January 17, 2020, 13:50

On surprise new album Music to be Murdered By, Eminem also compares himself to Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Charles Manson

The movie quiz: What film recently took home the most Golden Globes? The movie quiz: What film recently took home the most Golden Globes?
  • Film
  • Donald Clarke
  • January 17, 2020, 05:00

Plus: ‘Don’t answer the phone. Don’t open the door. Don’t try to escape’

Yes Minister star Derek Fowlds dies at the age of 82 Yes Minister star Derek Fowlds dies at the age of 82
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • January 17, 2020, 11:18

Actor who played private secretary also starred in Heartbeat and with Basil Brush

The Brontës’ very real and raw Irish roots The Brontës’ very real and raw Irish roots
  • Books
  • Samantha Ellis
  • January 11, 2017, 10:44

Brontës grew up an immigrant family with their father’s Irish accent. Charlotte married an Irishman but Anne’s work is most influenced by a feeling of being foreign

Six of the best movies to see in the cinema this weekend Six of the best movies to see in the cinema this weekend
  • Film
  • Donald Clarke
  • January 17, 2020, 06:00

New this weekend: Just Mercy, Waves, A Hidden Life, Bombshell

Latest Film

The wronged man: Jamie Foxx in Just Mercy Six of the best movies to see in the cinema this weekend
Olivia Colman at the official Golden Globes after-party on January 5th after winning a gong for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in The Crown. Photograph: Nina Westervelt/The New York Times The movie quiz: What film recently took home the most Golden Globes?
Daniel Craig as James Bond in Spectre. Photograph: United Artists Next James Bond will not be a woman, Broccoli confirms
  • Oscars 2020: Stephen King faces backlash over diversity comments
  • The book v film debate: How much licence should screen adaptations take?

Film Reviews

Bad Boys for Life: The performances are mere delivery systems for the violence Bad Boys for Life

 
Just Mercy: commendably restrained in its courtroom scenes Just Mercy

 
Waves: a dramatic diptych from director Trey Edward Shults Waves

 
Valerie Pachner and August Diehl in A Hidden Life. Photograph courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures A Hidden Life

 

TV & Radio

The Great British Bake Off (left to right) Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. Photograph: Channel 4/PA Wire The Great British Bake Off: The contenders to become the new host

Sandi Toksvig has quit as co-host - here are a list of all the people who may take her place

Sex Education on Netflix: More antiseptic and untitillating sex scenes. How off-putting
Yes Minister: Derek Fowlds with Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington in the political sitcom. Photograph: BBC/PA Yes Minister star Derek Fowlds dies at the age of 82
  • Room to Improve: Dermot Bannon's children lend a helping hand
  • So long, Schitt’s Creek, farewell, Homeland: The big TV shows ending in 2020

Latest Books

Irish big house: Moore Hall, Co Mayo, from Paddy Rossmore: Photographs, published by the Lilliput Press Portraits of the Irish big house, from Castle Howard to Luttrellstown

Paddy Rossmore’s photographs are a unique visual history of houses and interiors

Little Faith by Nickolas Butler is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer
Prof Patrick Geoghegan, chair of the board of the DIB, Dr Kate O’Malley, managing editor of the DIB), Fintan O’Toole, who gave a lecture on biography at the launch, and Dr James Quinn, editor of volume 11 and co-editor with Prof James McGuire of volume 10 of the DIB. Photograph: Johnny Bambury ‘A unique history of our island through its people, warts and all’
  • Questions for dead writers: What Virginia Woolf, TS Eliot, Beckett and more think about life
  • 150m Shades of Grey: How the bestsellers changed our sex lives

Latest Music

Eminem: “But I’m contemplating yelling ‘bombs away’ on the game/ Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting.” Photograph: Photo by C Flanigan/WireImage Eminem compares himself to Manchester Arena bomber

On surprise new album Music to be Murdered By, Eminem also compares himself to Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Charles Manson

Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol plays Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. Photograph: Debbie Hickey/Getty Images Snow Patrol at the Olympia: ‘Playing Dublin is always a f**king magical experience’
Corey Taylor of Slipknot performs at The 3Arena Dublin on Tuesday. Photograph: Kieran Frost/Redferns Corey Taylor: After 20 years in Slipknot we are all beat up
  • Brit awards 2020: Irish singer Dermot Kennedy nominated as women artists shut out
  • Slipknot at 3Arena, Dublin: Everything you need to know

Album Reviews

Halsey: Manic

 
Kiwi Jr.: Football Money

 
Varo: Varo

 
Neneh Cherry: Raw Like Sushi

 
David Keenan: A Beginner’s Guide to Bravery

 
Field Music: Making a New World

 

Book Reviews

Ingenious Ireland: A cornucopia of a book that should be savoured slowly
The Clean Body: A Modern History – Dirty secrets from the past
Your House Will Pay: The deadly consequences of race conflict
The Shapeless Unease: an insomniac’s account of elusive sleep

Stage

Emily Fox, Laurence Falconer, Niall O’Brien and Gemma Kane in 48 Teenage dreams turned to Stardust: This week’s theatre highlight

Gemma Kane’s debut play 48 sees the human side of the 1981 Stardust nightclub fire

Weekend Warrior will be in the Civic Theatre, Tallaght until January 5th. First Fortnight Festival: National programme includes more than 60 events
From right, Alex Murphy, Don Wycherley, Paul Mescal and Aisling Kearns from the cast of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which will run at the Gaiety Theatre. Photograph: Mark Stedman Theatre 2020: The best shows to catch in the coming year
  • This week’s best theatre shows suitable for the whole family
  • A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: Magic in the mundane

Art & Design

Sean Lynch, A Murmur, Repeated, 2018–19. Video still courtesy of Ronchini, London Sean Lynch’s A Murmur, Repeated: Exploring Stonehenge as a cultural phenomenon

Irish bardic protagonist finds himself occupying ultra commodified landscape of late capitalist England

Sharon Kelly, The Salt House, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast Imagination, memory and childhood: This week’s visual arts highlights
Two Travellers, Jack B Yeats (1942). Courtesy of the Tate Art in Focus: Jack B Yeats – Two Travellers
  • Do we really need an exhibition of women’s art? Yes
  • Tai Shani’s Tragodía tells of life, death and intense emotional bonds

Unthinkable

The aftermath of the drone strike ordered by US president Donald Trump which killed Iranian general Qassem Suleimani. Photograph: Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office via The New York Times Rise of the killer robots: The future of war

Unthinkable: Autonomous weapons allow us to kill without a conscience. Atrocities are inevitable

By reading the news ‘we train our brain to skim, to surf, to digest very quickly and not go deep’, says Swiss writer Rolf Dobelli. Journalism has become ‘ridiculous’: The case for turning off the news
‘It’s very difficult to process all this change all the time without a way of marking it, or taking a moment to reflect on it,’ says Sasha Sagan. Why humans can survive without religion but not rituals
  • There’s no meaning of life. Now, happy Christmas!
  • Why Nietzsche wouldn't go near social media

Heritage

Gerry Fitt addressing a party conference in Belfast. Photograph: Tom Lawlor The day the SDLP was formed ‘in the spirit of optimism’

From the archive: ‘There has been a need in Northern Ireland for a strong political alternative to the Unionist Party’

RIC men on wait on an unidentified station platform. Commemoration controversy: Who were the RIC, DMP, Black and Tans, and Auxiliaries?
A news story about the beauty benefits of so-called radiamic clay made quite a stir in 1913. Illustration: iStock Fake beauty news? ‘Wrinkles completely removed in 20 minutes’
  • Black and Tans: ‘Half-drunk, whole-mad’ and one-fifth Irish
  • State to mark Cork’s pivotal role during War of Independence

Michael Viney's Another Life

The shiny black backs that came curving along the waves behind me were those of bottlenose dolphins, out for their own kind of fun. Picture: Michael Viney On a frosty morning 40 years ago, I saw a group of dolphins playing tag

As top marine predators, dolphins accumulate the most man-made toxic pollutants

“Without warmth released from the Gulf Stream in the north Atlantic, our winters could be about 5 degrees C colder and the storms could get even fiercer.” Michael Viney: Climate change an existential threat to civilisation, scientists say
Illustration: Michael Viney Poisoned and preyless: obstacles to rewilding Ireland with eagles
  • Nature takes refuge as drought dries the landscape
  • Clifftops have given me some of the high point of my life

Tuarascáil

Fórsaí cúltaca: Póilíní Cúnta i mbun cuardaithe i mBaile Átha Cliath. Grianghraf: Walshe/Getty Images Comóradh conspóideach Chonstáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann

Mhúscail an chonspóid freagairt bhorb ón bpobal

Dúchrónaigh i mbun a gcuid oibre i gCo Tiobraid Árainn i 1921. Grianghraf: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Éagóir Dhomhaite
An tAire Oideachais agus Scileanna, Joe McHugh. Grianghraph: Alan Betson Gá le “samhlaíocht agus solúbthacht” chun polasaí nua oideachais a chur i gcrích
  • Tost á Scagadh
  • Amhras ar Ó hEochaidh faoi cheapadh cathaoirleach nua ar Údarás

Sponsored

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Minding the gender pay gap – much more than a compliance issue Minding the gender pay gap – much more than a compliance issue

Gender pay gap reporting should be seen as an opportunity to demonstrate an organisation’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion, says Kathryn Brady of PwC Ireland

Subscriber Only

Mary Mulvihill, author of Ingenious Ireland, photographed with Dick Warner, who officially launched the book at a reception in Dublin in 2002. Photograph: Frank Miller Ingenious Ireland: A cornucopia of a book that should be savoured slowly
A Welsh miner’s wife washing her husband after work, June 1931. Photograph: James Jarche/Getty The Clean Body: A Modern History – Dirty secrets from the past
Steph Cha: her novel is an original story that seeks to tell two very different sides Your House Will Pay: The deadly consequences of race conflict
The Revolution Files Highlights from the Military Archives with reports from every county
 

Most Read in Culture

1 Architect Dermot Bannon and quantity surveyor Patricia Power, who has to inform him his garden will cost upwards of €100,000 Patrick Freyne: The mystery of Dermot Bannon and his many surrogate wives
2 Samuel Beckett: four members of the Nobel committee backed the Irish writer; two backed the French author André Malraux. Photograph: Jane Bown Revealed: The fight to stop Samuel Beckett winning the Nobel prize
3 Architect Dermon Bannon, 'a martyr to big windows'. Patrick Freyne: It is now late-period Dermot Bannon. He is on the verge of losing it
4 Olivia Colman at the official Golden Globes after-party on January 5th after winning a gong for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in The Crown. Photograph: Nina Westervelt/The New York Times The movie quiz: What film recently took home the most Golden Globes?
5 Mary Mulvihill, author of Ingenious Ireland, photographed with Dick Warner, who officially launched the book at a reception in Dublin in 2002. Photograph: Frank Miller Ingenious Ireland: A cornucopia of a book that should be savoured slowly
6 The Brontë Sisters by Patrick Branwell Brontë. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery / Getty Images The Brontës’ very real and raw Irish roots
7 Sex Education on Netflix: More antiseptic and untitillating sex scenes. How off-putting
8 A Welsh miner’s wife washing her husband after work, June 1931. Photograph: James Jarche/Getty The Clean Body: A Modern History – Dirty secrets from the past
9 Adam Driver. Photograph: Erik Tanner/New York Times Adam Driver: ‘Acting is not glamorous in its making’
10 Love Island Winter 2020: the series has radiated all the red-hot intensity of a warm breeze wafting in from the sea Photograph: Joel Anderson/ITV/PA Wire Winter Love Island: Laura Whitmore is the hostess with the most… time off
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On My Culture Radar

Jack L: On My Culture Radar Jack L: On My Culture Radar

The singer on a Stephen Fry podcast and why The World at War should be mandatory viewing

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

Culture Videos

Room to Improve: Dermot Bannon's children lend a helping hand0:39 Room to Improve: Dermot Bannon's children lend a helping hand
Dublin Chinese New Year Festival is launched1:31 Dublin Chinese New Year Festival is launched
Room To Improve: Dermot Bannon's budget doubles for his own house0:40 Room To Improve: Dermot Bannon's budget doubles for his own house
Ricky Gervais pulls no punches at the Golden Globes2:19 Ricky Gervais pulls no punches at the Golden Globes
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

DJ Larry Gogan, who's death was announced on Tuesday, January 7th, 2020, in the RTÉ 2FM studio in 2010. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times Larry Gogan, 1938-2020: A life in pictures
Marian Finucane in the RTÉ radio studios in January 1980. Photograph: Pat Langan/The Irish Times Marian Finucane 1950 - 2020: A life in pictures
Vote 100 Celebrating a century since Irish women won the right to vote
 
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