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Sun, Dec 15, 2019
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Malcolm Gladwell. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell Malcolm Gladwell: ‘Once you put words into the world you lose control over them’
  • Books
  • Patrick Freyne
  • December 14, 2019, 06:00

The bestselling author has seen some of his ideas become dogma. That misses the point

Late Late Show review: Does anyone really want a slick Shane MacGowan tribute? Late Late Show review: Does anyone really want a slick Shane MacGowan tribute?
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • Ed Power
  • December 14, 2019, 14:10

Singer comes across as deeply humbled in this Late Late Toy Show for grown-ups

London Calling 40 years on: How The Clash rewrote the rule book London Calling 40 years on: How The Clash rewrote the rule book
  • Music
  • Ian Thomson
  • December 14, 2019, 06:30

The Clash filleted rock, politics and history with swagger and biting social commentary

TV guide: 26 of the best shows to watch this week TV guide: 26 of the best shows to watch this week
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • Kevin Courtney
  • December 15, 2019, 06:00

Christmas cooking with Jamie, Mary and Rory, plus Maura Higgins on I’ll Get This and Garech Browne’s Luggala

The day priests intervened to stop strikers’ children being sent to England The day priests intervened to stop strikers’ children being sent to England
  • Heritage
  • Una Mullally
  • December 15, 2019, 07:00

From the archive: 50 boys and girls were brought to Tara Street Baths to be washed and sent away

Calling someone what they want to be called is the civilised, polite thing to do Calling someone what they want to be called is the civilised, polite thing to do
  • Culture
  • Donald Clarke
  • December 14, 2019, 05:00

Donald Clarke: The non-binary pronoun ‘they’ is the dictionary’s word of the year

David Keenan: ‘I’d never been outside of Dundalk. I wasn’t exactly inundated with offers’ David Keenan: ‘I’d never been outside of Dundalk. I wasn’t exactly inundated with offers’
  • Music
  • Tony Clayton-Lea
  • December 14, 2019, 06:00

The singer-songwriter’s move to Liverpool with ‘€70 in my arse pocket’ was a rebirth

Star Wars: The forgotten history of Shadows of the Empire Star Wars: The forgotten history of Shadows of the Empire
  • Film
  • Liam Geraghty
  • December 14, 2019, 06:00

A new Star Wars film comes along every year – there’s one next week – but in the wasteland of the late 1980s there was nothing. Then came Shadows of the Empire

Sole survivor: How Imelda Marcos strutted back to power in the Philippines Sole survivor: How Imelda Marcos strutted back to power in the Philippines
  • Film
  • Colin Crummy
  • December 14, 2019, 05:30

Lauren Greenfield’s remarkable film about the shoe-obsessed former first lady exposes how she lied and bought her way back into power

Joy Crookes: ‘I love a challenge – that keeps the fire in me’ Joy Crookes: ‘I love a challenge – that keeps the fire in me’
  • Music
  • Tony Clayton-Lea
  • December 14, 2019, 05:00

Singer talks family, Bangladeshi and Irish heritage, and finding freedom in her flaws

Latest Film

In Eastwood’s film, Richard Jewell, Kathy Scruggs, played by Olivia Wilde, has sex with an FBI source to get information. There is no evidence this happened. Clint Eastwood’s film tells a lie, but shows us the true Clint
A detail of the cover of Shadows of the Empire, by Steve Perry Star Wars: The forgotten history of Shadows of the Empire
Imelda Marcos in The Kingmaker. Photograph: Lauren Greenfield Sole survivor: How Imelda Marcos strutted back to power in the Philippines
  • Alex Gibney: ‘I think he is still angry at Putin. I think there’s a burning fury in him’
  • Six of the best films to see in the cinema this weekend

Film Reviews

One of Miracle of Miracle’s themes is Fiddler on the Roof’s connection with the Jewish diaspora in the United States Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles

 
Imelda Marcos in The Kingmaker. Photograph: Lauren Greenfield The Kingmaker

 
Imprisoned former head of Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky stands in the defendant’s box during his trial in the court in Moscow, September 9th, 2004. Photograph: Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP/Getty Images Citizen K

 
Beanpole: Directed by Kantemir Balagov. Starring Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Konstantin Balakirev, Andrey Bykov Beanpole

 

TV & Radio

A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley, Friday on BBC2 TV guide: 26 of the best shows to watch this week

Christmas cooking with Jamie, Mary and Rory, plus Maura Higgins on I’ll Get This and Garech Browne’s Luggala

Shane MacGowan pictured on The Late Late Show Shane MacGowan and Fairytale of New York special. Photograph: Andres Poveda/RTÉ Late Late Show review: Does anyone really want a slick Shane MacGowan tribute?
Ciara Kelly’s Newstalk show has lost its zing
  • Caroline Flack charged with assault after ‘domestic incident’
  • The Funeral Director: An exquisite, profound portrait of a profession

Latest Books

Jim Carrey lifting sled over his head in a scene from the film How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Photograph: Universal/Getty Images Selecting the perfect Christmas stories

Festive yarns pivot around three points: past recollection, present revelry and future hope

St Augustine: No saint as a youth. Illustration: iStock Confessions by St Augustine (c400): A riot of scintillating sinfulness
Malcolm Gladwell. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell Malcolm Gladwell: ‘Once you put words into the world you lose control over them’
  • Witty, clever observations of modern life
  • Sexuality and metatextuality – a novel in dialogue

Latest Music

Clash singer Joe Strummer performing in New Ypork in September 1979. Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images London Calling 40 years on: How The Clash rewrote the rule book

The Clash filleted rock, politics and history with swagger and biting social commentary

David Keenan: ‘I’d never been outside of Dundalk before, and I didn’t do the Leaving Cert, so I wasn’t exactly inundated with offers from colleges’. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times David Keenan: ‘I’d never been outside of Dundalk. I wasn’t exactly inundated with offers’
Irish traditional, folk and world music collide with Kíla. The best traditional music events in Ireland this week
  • Gig of the Week: Dermot Kennedy in Dublin
  • Joy Crookes: ‘I love a challenge – that keeps the fire in me’

Album Reviews

Various Artists: Odyssey: The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde Vol II

 
Harry Styles: Fine Line

 
Hail the Ghost: Arrhythmia

 
The result is nothing less than all killer, no filler.  Various Artists: Killing Eve OST Seasons 1 & 2

 
Annie Hart: A Softer Offering

 
Burial: Tunes 2011-2019

 

Book Reviews

Correspondences: Laying bare the injustice of direct provision
Some mother’s son: A beautiful, memorable novel about love and neglect
Dark Enchantment: A wonderful story in the French fairytale tradition
Dorothy Macardle: A biography which gives her the literary treatment she has long deserved

Stage

Voulez-vous? The international touring production of Mamma Mia!, starring Irish West End star Sharon Sexton, is at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre until January 5th Different class and musical sass: This week’s theatre highlights

Well That’s What I Heard explores class divisions; Mamma Mia! explores Abba hits

The Abbey Theatre: ‘We are not in a position to stand over this document.’ Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times Abbey Theatre disputes record of talks with theatre workers
Cinderella stars Jenny Dixon, Jake Carter, Alan Hughes and Michele McGrath. Photograph: Leon Farrell/Photocall Cinderella review: Like being slapped in the face by a rainbow
  • What’s going on at the Abbey: heated exchanges, impassioned defences and disputed records
  • Abbey accused of reneging on promise of more Irish plays

Art & Design

Ed Miliano, Tateshina Window, oil on canvas diptych The week’s best art exhibitions: winter shows

Also: Ed Miliano and Michael Hanna

The heads laid out in a grid are variations on a theme, and one is prompted to think “the same but different” of the varied individuals depicted Art in Focus: Charles Harper – Randomised Heads
From Lewis Wickes Hine’s Newsboys in Cinncinati, 1908. Gelatin silver print. Bank of America Collection Visual currency: Memorable moments in 20th century photography
  • Send us a photo of your favourite Christmas shop window
  • Michael Robinson’s RHA exhibition feels like the future

Unthinkable

Friedrich Nietzsche: ‘Unfairly’ characterised as the father of nihilism. Photograph: Culture Club/Getty Why Nietzsche wouldn't go near social media

Unthinkable: Technology is turning us into ‘passive nihilists’, says philosopher Nolen Gertz

‘On its own, the question of whether or not there is a God is interesting in the abstract, but not very relevant to daily life,’ says historian of religion Alec Ryrie. Photograph: Getty Images Can you be both a Christian and an unbeliever?
TCD professor emeritus David Berman: ‘I was about six or seven when I had what is sometimes described as an “I am me” experience.’ Photograph: Dave Meehan Is your ‘true self’ a kind of ghost?
  • Can European civilisation survive the death of Christianity?
  • Can women ever get a fair deal under capitalism?

Heritage

Tara Street Baths, where about 50 children had been brought to be washed and newly clothed before being sent to England, on October 23rd, 1913. Photograph: Tom Lawlor The day priests intervened to stop strikers’ children being sent to England

From the archive: 50 boys and girls were brought to Tara Street Baths to be washed and sent away

Archaeological assistants uncover the fosse of the medieval Carrickmines Castle at Carrickmines, Co Dublin, in 2002. Photograph: Joe St Leger Why have thousands of archaeological sites ‘disappeared’?
Late night Christmas shopping in Dunnes Stores in 1997. Photograph: Frank Miller December 8th: The day when people ‘from the country’ came to Dublin to shop
  • Strong women, wealth and a boat disaster: The remarkable history of one Dublin building
  • Recreation of Irish archive lost in 1922 fire to get €2.5m boost

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

“Like our neighbours, we once depended wholly on the stream, piped to the house by gravity from one of its higher pools.” Nature takes refuge as drought dries the landscape
“The view from the top balcony can be sublime.” Illustration: Michael Viney Clifftops have given me some of the high point of my life
  • For peat’s sake, our uplands need rain – just not too much at once
  • Michael Viney: The beauty of weeping beeches

Tuarascáil

Príomhfheidhmeannach Fhoras na Gaeilge Seán Ó Coinn. Grianghraf: Alan Betson/The Irish Times In am treisiú a dhéanamh ar mhór-ráiteas na Gaeilge 2006 - Ó Coinn

B’fhiú seasamh siar agus amharc ar an ghaol atá againn leis an teanga, dar le príomhfheidhmeannach Fhoras na Gaeilge

‘Dhéanfadh sé leas an airm againn féin an trealamh is déanaí agus is nuashnasta a fháil mar mhalairt ar na seanbhaingir ina ngluaiseann siad faoi láthair.’ Grianghraf: Alan Betson Díospóireacht eile
Cuireadh fearadh na fáilte roimhe nuair a fógraíodh i 2005 go ndéanfaí teanga oifigiúil agus oibre de chuid an Aontas Eorpaigh den Ghaeilge ó 2007 ar aghaidh. Gaeilge san AE: an cruinneas ‘an cháilíocht is mó atá ann’
  • An dlí mar a gheobhaidh
  • Leithscéalta agus leithscéalta

Sponsored

Redbreast: "I like to think that I have a small part in the story" Redbreast: "I like to think that I have a small part in the story"

The archivist, the cooper and the blender discuss the history and unique taste of the most decorated single pot still Irish whiskey in the world

Verdi's greatest masterpiece La Traviata set for Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Verdi's greatest masterpiece La Traviata set for Bord Gáis Energy Theatre

The Novaya Opera of Moscow’s La Traviata is coming to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre from November 25th until 29th, 2020

Subscriber Only

Correspondences is edited by poet Jessica Traynor with Stephen Rea. Photograph: Aidan Crawley/The Irish Times Correspondences: Laying bare the injustice of direct provision
Ciara Kelly’s Newstalk show has lost its zing
Dorothy Macardle: A biography which gives her the literary treatment she has long deserved
The Revolution Files Highlights from the Military Archives with reports from every county
 

Most Read in Culture

1 Shane MacGowan pictured on The Late Late Show Shane MacGowan and Fairytale of New York special. Photograph: Andres Poveda/RTÉ Late Late Show review: Does anyone really want a slick Shane MacGowan tribute?
2 Malcolm Gladwell. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell Malcolm Gladwell: ‘Once you put words into the world you lose control over them’
3 Sam Smith tweeted they identify as non-binary, and would like to be referred to as ‘they/them’. Photograph: Samir Hussein/WireImage Calling someone what they want to be called is the civilised, polite thing to do
4 In Eastwood’s film, Richard Jewell, Kathy Scruggs, played by Olivia Wilde, has sex with an FBI source to get information. There is no evidence this happened. Clint Eastwood’s film tells a lie, but shows us the true Clint
5 Clash singer Joe Strummer performing in New Ypork in September 1979. Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images London Calling 40 years on: How The Clash rewrote the rule book
6 Ciara Kelly’s Newstalk show has lost its zing
7 In her prime: a youthful Whitney Houston on stage in June 1988. Photograph: RDA/Getty Images The sad, secret life of Whitney Houston
8 Friedrich Nietzsche: ‘Unfairly’ characterised as the father of nihilism. Photograph: Culture Club/Getty Why Nietzsche wouldn't go near social media
9 A detail of the cover of Shadows of the Empire, by Steve Perry Star Wars: The forgotten history of Shadows of the Empire
10 Stranger Things, Murder Mystery, Bird Box and Unbelievable. Photographs: Netflix Netflix has revealed its most-watched content. You might be surprised
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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

Paul Ryder: On My Culture Radar Paul Ryder: On My Culture Radar

Pantodome artistic director on loving Doireann Garrihy’s podcast and the musical Six

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

President Higgins presents Shane MacGowan with lifetime achievement award1:40 President Higgins presents Shane MacGowan with lifetime achievement award
New state-of-the-art visitor experience opens at Brú na Bóinne3:17 New state-of-the-art visitor experience opens at Brú na Bóinne
The official trailer for James Bond No Time to Die released2:34 The official trailer for James Bond No Time to Die released
Matchday - official trailer3:13 Matchday - official trailer
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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

Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times In pictures: Hozier live in Dublin - The best photos from a blistering show
Photograph: Crispin Rodwell/The Irish Times Rod Stewart live in Dublin: in pictures
Vote 100 Celebrating a century since Irish women won the right to vote
 
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