An opera on Ireland’s direct provision system and New Ross Piano Festival

Ro learns how to handle found goods, from the master, Hennessy

Irish National Opera season to also feature new opera set in direct provision

The huge orchestra required for Die tote Stadt made the NCH right for the Irish premiere

Mendelssohn’s longest symphony and a project to remember the late John Lynch

Why couldn’t a truthful response remain focused on what befalls a child of fifteen, recalling other fifteen-year-old girls?

Irish soprano on her love of Puccini, Zadar’s sea organ and why Liam Neeson is her favourite actor

András Schiff brings enlightenment to NCH; Maxim Vengerov multitasks with RTÉ NSO

Classical music highlights for the coming week

Smiles all round on a special night as the President shows how lucky we are to have him

Westland Row campus redevelopment involves €9m public funding and significant philanthropy

Patrick Freyne: Pope Francis receives families, gets selfie with a child and gives a speech with a mother-in-law joke

Pontiff met and talked to families who shared their stories and posed for selfies with children

Why is he visiting? Where will he stay? and more questions answered

Sharon Carty, Celine Byrne and Danielle de Niese are all performing in Ireland this week

Pope Francis opts to sit among the faithful and not on stage with dignitaries at Croke Park

Music, musicals and movies to entertain you

Pricewatch: Three purchasers forced to pay ‘booking fee’ of more than €100

Ireland’s best-known soprano effortlessly moves from opera to ‘The Sound Of Music’

‘Vocations are very good there, with a surplus of priests,’ says bishop