Kate Sweetman and her family have tried many ways to pay for the upkeep of a house rich in architectural heritage

‘Our world is better for having had Brian Friel in it and now seems a lot smaller’

For the late playwright the past and our images of it were slippery and treacherous. Truth lay not in public facts but in private fictions

25 years after the release of the film version of Sam Hanna Bell’s book, Eileen Battersby examines one of Ireland’s finest novels

Interactive website celebrates National Theatre’s achievements

Memory is unreliable, but the theatre relies on that

With work of such consistent quality, it is difficult to settle on a single masterpiece: Friel has given us some incredible memories

From the realistic (books, video games, DVDs) to the less so (Rothko Painting No 1, Bond’s Aston Martin), ‘Irish Times’ writers reveal what’s on their Santa lists