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Tue, Dec 7, 2021
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Fintan O’Toole’s top books of 2021. Main photograph: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty The Irish Times books of the year: Fintan O’Toole’s favourite titles of 2021
  • Books
  • Fintan O'Toole
  • December 7, 2021, 06:00

Seeking inspiration for a book to read or give as a gift? This selection could help you

The calm before the Big Wind of 1839 was particularly eerie The calm before the Big Wind of 1839 was particularly eerie
  • Books
  • Turtle Bunbury
  • October 16, 2017, 13:42

4,846 chimneys fell, and waves topped the Cliffs of Moher on the Night of the Big Wind

Billy Connolly reveals he ‘hypnotises’ hand to keep Parkinson’s under control Billy Connolly reveals he ‘hypnotises’ hand to keep Parkinson’s under control
  • Culture
  • Sarah Marsh
  • December 7, 2021, 10:14

‘I just stare at it, and eventually it stops. It’s quite a good trick,’ the comedian said

Denzel Washington: ‘In heaven there are two lines. I’m interested in being in the short one’ Denzel Washington: ‘In heaven there are two lines. I’m interested in being in the short one’
  • Film
  • Maureen Dowd
  • December 7, 2021, 06:00

The actor stars alongside Frances McDormand in Joel Coen’s new film version of Macbeth

Will by Will Smith: Extraordinary story of Hollywood’s Fresh Prince Will by Will Smith: Extraordinary story of Hollywood’s Fresh Prince
  • Books
  • Donald Clarke
  • December 7, 2021, 06:00

Book review: Actor’s self-help memoir could make Napoleon feel unmotivated

Máire Comerford: the last Irish revolutionary to tell her story Máire Comerford: the last Irish revolutionary to tell her story
  • Books
  • Hilary Dully
  • December 7, 2021, 06:49

Hilary Dully on finding the last comprehensive witness account of the revolutionary era

You Don’t Know Me is more than a Sunday night thriller. It’s engrossing, political and real You Don’t Know Me is more than a Sunday night thriller. It’s engrossing, political and real
  • TV, Radio, Web
  • Ed Power
  • December 6, 2021, 11:03

TV: Compelling whodunnit draws on the lived experience of black Londoners

The Irish Times books of the year: Anne Enright’s favourite titles of 2021 The Irish Times books of the year: Anne Enright’s favourite titles of 2021
  • Books
  • Anne Enright
  • December 6, 2021, 06:00

Seeking inspiration for a book to read or give as a gift? This selection could help you

Giving the gift of Christmas: Sponsor a run, swim, or have a Christmas jumper day Giving the gift of Christmas: Sponsor a run, swim, or have a Christmas jumper day
Special Report

How corporate giving and staff fundraising can make all the difference to charities

Brought to you by The Irish Times Content Studio
George Clooney: ‘I was offered $35m for one day’s work’ George Clooney: ‘I was offered $35m for one day’s work’
  • Film
  • Hadley Freeman
  • December 6, 2021, 06:00

The Oscar winner on his new film, The Tender Bar, raising twins, politics, and falling for Amal

Latest Film

Denzel Washington photographed by Dana Scruggs/New York Times Denzel Washington: ‘In heaven there are two lines. I’m interested in being in the short one’
Woody Norman opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the film C’mon C’mon. Photograph: A24 ‘The first time I saw my face on a poster, I thought, I’m still just a normal kid’
George Clooney: ‘In general there just aren’t that many great parts.’ Photograph: Magdalena Wosinska/The New York Times George Clooney: ‘I was offered $35m for one day’s work’
  • Four new films to see in cinemas this week
  • Adam McKay: ‘An Oscar? How the f**k did that happen?’

TV & Radio

Samuel Adewunmi and Sophie Wilde in You Don’t Know Me: Tom Edge’s adaptation of Imran Mahmood’s 2017 novel is more than merely a Sunday-night thriller Photograph: Sophie Mutevelian/BBC You Don’t Know Me is more than a Sunday night thriller. It’s engrossing, political and real

TV: Compelling whodunnit draws on the lived experience of black Londoners

Black & Irish: Tolü Makay has been named best female artist Tolü Makay named best female artist at Black & Irish awards
Olivia Colman in Landscapers. The pitch-black comedy begins Tuesday on Sky Atlantic TV guide: 24 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight
  • This is Fiona, who’s flanked by goonish fashion victims – much like yourself in Coppers
  • ‘I just wish people would stop moaning and giving out.’ But what would Liveline do then?

Latest Books

Máire Comerford aged 89. Máire Comerford: the last Irish revolutionary to tell her story

Hilary Dully on finding the last comprehensive witness account of the revolutionary era

Chris Haughton and friend How do you write a children’s picturebook, and why can 100 words take two years?
Fintan O’Toole’s top books of 2021. Main photograph: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty The Irish Times books of the year: Fintan O’Toole’s favourite titles of 2021
  • What Michael Collins did, Arthur Griffith’s ‘secret deal’ and four other Anglo-Irish Treaty myths
  • The Irish Times books of the year: Anne Enright’s favourite titles of 2021

Film Reviews

Joaquin Phoenix and Woody Norman in C'mon C'mon C'mon C'mon

 
Recollections play over images of earnest gatherings of Hitler Youth Final Account

 
Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo and Marlon Joubert in The Hand of God. Photograph: Gianni Fiorito The Hand of God

 
Justin Chon and Alicia Vikander in Blue Bayou Blue Bayou

 

Latest Music

Damien McGeehan is now a member of Daniel O’Donnell’s band, but the touring schedule allows for very welcome and lengthy sojourns at home Traditional music meets jazz as Damien McGeehan hits uncharted terrain

Donegal fiddle players’s new album Kin has a strong sense of people and of place

David Brophy with the Choir of Ages. Photograph: Kyran O’Brien An Irish plan to break the record for the number of nationalities in a choir
Michael C Hall (centre) with Matt Katz-Bohen and Peter Yanowitz of Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum: “I would say I didn’t have to lobby to be in the band. I was lucky to be in there in the right place.” Photograph: Paul Storey Michael C Hall: ‘We’ve tried to lead with the music’
  • Kodaline’s Vinny May: ‘Those online gigs kept us connected’
  • The Music Quiz: What is Harry Styles’ new beauty brand called?

Book Reviews

Will by Will Smith: Extraordinary story of Hollywood’s Fresh Prince
Time for Socialism by Thomas Piketty: This is an essential thinker but not an essential collection
Wish You Were Here: Appeal lies in satisfying blend of familiar Picoult elements
Imagining Ireland’s Pasts: Pioneering and comprehensive exploration of Irish history

Stage

The Long Christmas Dinner at the Peacock unfolds with graceful fluidity. The Long Christmas Dinner: A ghostly telling of a dreamlike curiosity

Thornton Wilder’s expressionist one-act play tracks a family home over 90 years

Mabel’s Magnificent Flying Machine: Caitríona Ennis as the effervescent, energetic Mabel. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Mabel’s Magnificent Flying Machine: An original alternative to the mayhem of the pantomime
The Little Mermaid: Daryn Crosbie’s production celebrates the Gaiety Theatre’s 150th birthday in style The Little Mermaid: The Gaiety puts on a near-perfect pantomime
  • Pantomines during Covid: ‘It will be a miracle if we get to the end of the run’
  • Stephen Sondheim obituary: Titan of the American musical

Art & Design

The Lyric Theatre stands on a sloping site at triangular junction between the grid pattern of Belfast’s brick streetscape and the serpentine parkland of the river Lagan. 4:12 O’Donnell + Tuomey receive highest Irish architectural award

RIAI ‘exceptional merit’ award for the ‘open and welcoming’ Lyric Theatre in Belfast

Array Collective: have won one of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, celebrating artistic talent in UK. Photograph: Alessia Cargnelli/PA Wire Belfast collective wins Turner Prize with pub installation
Julie Manet in a Hat, around 1894. Photograph: Musée Marmottan Monet ‘The last Manet’: Julie Manet was the living legacy of impressionism
  • Demolition debate: Are Irish architects behind the curve on concrete’s climate implications?
  • Hugh Linehan: To understand Dublin’s current problems, you must understand its past

Unthinkable

How good can a God be? Stephen Fry and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz have opposing views. Photograph: PA/Getty Is there a God? Why is there something instead of nothing? This article explains it all

Unthinkable: No of course it doesn't, but it does try to address life’s ultimate questions

While many of us welcome the decline of the church, there is a nagging sense that our connection to fundamental questions about human existence is being severed. Photograph: Getty images Is your mind open enough to contemplate belief in God?
Author John Boyne: ‘Through my experiences, the people who tweet the most . . . go a bit mad’. Photograph Nick Bradshaw What is Twitter doing to your brain?
  • What should any one of us be expected to do to avert climate catastrophe?
  • Has Stoicism become a new religion?

Heritage

Dun Leary House at corner of Dun Leary Hill. A new proposal aims to add four storeys to the protected structure. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill 3:26 Build-to-rent plans for Dún Laoghaire yellow brick house

Developer wants to remove roof and add four storeys to protected 19th-century property

British PM David Lloyd George privately said he would rather resign than coerce Ireland. Photograph: Bettmann Archive What did David Lloyd George mean by ‘immediate and terrible war’?
Charles Gavan Duffy, Erskine Childers, Robert Barton and Arthur Griffith (London 1921). Photograph: National Library of Ireland ‘The British were braced for failure.’ How the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921 was negotiated
  • Treaty Timeline: from beginnings to a Republic
  • Who was who during the Treaty negotiations

Michael Viney's Another Life

A surging flood in Dublin’s Liffey meeting a record storm surge in the bay would be one fearful scenario, that might concentrate minds in Ireland. If fear won’t work, how can we encourage climate action?

Michael Viney: Studies suggest positive messages about post-carbon society more effective

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
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
  • The declining choughs of Dursey island need decision makers’ help
  • Super grass: the arching, architectural forms of wild meadows

Tuarascáil

Tuairiscíodh an tseachtain seo caite go bhfuil sé i gceist beartaithe ag Tesco Ireland slabhra ollmhargaí - deich gcinn ar fad - a cheannach ón ngrúpa Joyce’s Supermarkets i gCo na Gaillimhe. Siopa an Phobail: ‘tábhachtach’ go leanfadh seirbhís Ghaeilge ar aghaidh

Chuir Siopa an Phobail seirbhís thábhachtach ar fáil do phobal Gaeltachta Chonamara Theas le fada an lá

Bhronn Ollscoil Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath Dochtúireacht san Fhealsúnacht (Honoris Causa) ar Sheán de Fréine mar aitheantas ar an obair saoil atá déanta aige. Grianghraph: Fran Veale/Julien Behal Photography Aitheantas ceart cóir
Sioc soilseach na maidne i gCo Chill Mhantáin. Grianghraf: Niall Carson/PA Wire Ar thóir féiríní?
  • Feodar Mac Mhichíl
  • Chun na spéire!

Sponsored

Give the gift of a five-star promise this Christmas and share the joy of Mount Juliet Estate Give the gift of a five-star promise this Christmas and share the joy of Mount Juliet Estate

Spread wonder this Christmas with the gift of a voucher for Mount Juliet Estate

Ibec Academy supports organisations adapting to the future of work Ibec Academy supports organisations adapting to the future of work

Investment in skills is key to managing workplace trends and Ireland’s competitiveness challenges

It's Christmas Great gift ideas, travel destinations, interviews, food, music, and more
 

Subscriber Only

If the bookies are right, Will Smith is set to walk away with this year’s best actor Oscar for his performance King Richard. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images Will by Will Smith: Extraordinary story of Hollywood’s Fresh Prince
French economist Thomas Piketty. Photograph: Sander Koning/ANP/AFP via Getty Time for Socialism by Thomas Piketty: This is an essential thinker but not an essential collection
Lisa O’Neill is among those performing work inspired by the Anglo-Irish Treaty debates and related events at the National Concert Hall. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times Gig of the Week: Treaty – Songs, with Christy Moore, Lisa O’Neill and more

Most Read in Culture

1 Estimates of how many died vary from 300 to 800, a remarkably low figure given the ferocity of the storm The calm before the Big Wind of 1839 was particularly eerie

2 Denzel Washington photographed by Dana Scruggs/New York Times Denzel Washington: ‘In heaven there are two lines. I’m interested in being in the short one’

3 If the bookies are right, Will Smith is set to walk away with this year’s best actor Oscar for his performance King Richard. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images Will by Will Smith: Extraordinary story of Hollywood’s Fresh Prince

4 George Clooney: ‘In general there just aren’t that many great parts.’ Photograph: Magdalena Wosinska/The New York Times George Clooney: ‘I was offered $35m for one day’s work’

5 Edie Falco: ‘The eight years I spent ‘married’ to James Gandolfini on The Sopranos was the longest intimate relationship I ever had.’ Photograph: Celeste Sloman/The New York Times Edie Falco: ‘I was a big fan of cocaine if it was around, but I could never afford any’

6 Anglo-Irish Treaty: Arthur Griffith, Eamonn Duggan, Erskine Childers, Michael Collins, George Gavan Duffy, Robert Barton and John Chartres in London on December 6th, 1921. Photograph: Hulton/Getty What Michael Collins did, Arthur Griffith’s ‘secret deal’ and four other Anglo-Irish Treaty myths

7 One conspiracy inevitably leads to another, and ultimately ends with a belief that everything is orchestrated by a shadowy cabal involving the Illuminati, or lizard people or, frequently, if they are anti-Semitic, “the Jews” Six common conspiracy theories and why it’s pointless to argue with them

8 Máire Comerford aged 89. Máire Comerford: the last Irish revolutionary to tell her story

9 Frank Fenn, chief executive of R&A Bailey & Co in 2003 with the six millionth box of Baileys Irish Cream in Dublin. Photograph: Alan Betson In 1973, I invented a ‘girly drink’ called Baileys

10 Billy Connolly says not being able to write by hand due to Parkinson’s disease has forced him to retire from live stand-up comedy. Photograph: Jeff Holmes/PA Billy Connolly reveals he ‘hypnotises’ hand to keep Parkinson’s under control

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Music Quiz

The Music Quiz: What is Harry Styles’ new beauty brand called? The Music Quiz: What is Harry Styles’ new beauty brand called?

Plus: At the age of 15, Lady Gaga appeared as an extra in which hit TV show?

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

Anglo-Irish Treaty: The story behind the 'title deeds of the Irish State' 14:01 Anglo-Irish Treaty: The story behind the 'title deeds of the Irish State'
Josephine Baker becomes first black woman inducted into France's Panthéon 2:10 Josephine Baker becomes first black woman inducted into France's Panthéon
Campaigners say Cobblestone Pub will be ‘swallowed up’ by hotel development 6:41 Campaigners say Cobblestone Pub will be ‘swallowed up’ by hotel development
Betty WIlliams: 'Compassion is more important than intellect' 1:43 Betty WIlliams: 'Compassion is more important than intellect'

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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Tue 7/12/2021
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