The best books for summer 2025: our critics’ top picks
Sarah Moss, Joseph O’Connor, Wendy Erskine, John Banville, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and other authors and reviewers choose their top reads for the holidays
Joseph O'Connor
Good books: The 20 best holiday reads this summer
Chillers, thrillers, romance, comedy, a GAA travelogue and Chekov in the west of Ireland
The Guide: Gemma Hayes, Dr Strangelove, Jess Gillam and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
February 1st-7th: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
Joseph O’Connor: ‘I don’t know what modern Ireland is yet. I’m suspicious about the new sacred cows’
The Irish novelist on taking instruction from Vincent Browne, finding his way in fiction as a young man and coming to understand that the best writing has an inherent musicality
Fiction to look out for in 2025: From Eimear McBride to Ben Okri
Emma Donoghue, Joseph O’Connor and Colum McCann are just some of the big names with new books coming out in 2025. Here’s our pick of fiction for the year ahead
The Irish Times best books of 2024: Anne Enright, John Boyne, Joseph O’Connor, Mia Levitin and more reveal their favourites
Books by Ferdia Lennon, Miranda July, Donal Ryan, Mary Costello, Alan Hollinghurst, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Sally Rooney feature prominently in this trawl of the year’s best titles
‘There are a lot of sound people out there’: Amy Huberman, Paul Brady, Joseph O’Connor and more share their stories of kindness from strangers
Random Acts of Kindness Day, which falls today, offers a salutary reminder that even a small gesture can elevate someone else’s mood. Here, several well-known names share their stories
A truly great book is always about now. By that measure, Joyce’s Dubliners is great
Rite & Reason: James Joyce was our Cole Porter, our Bob Dylan, our Bessie Smith, and every story in Dubliners is a song
Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize winner is Ireland’s bestselling book of 2023
Prophet Song pips Liz Nugent’s Strange Sally Diamond and Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting
Joseph O’Connor: There are days you want to get into the wardrobe and stay there. They pass
If Christmas has a seam of holiness in a broken world, it is in gazing out on midwinter and telling the darkness to be gone
A ‘Booker bounce’, more BookTok joy, and a schoolbooks crisis for Irish booksellers in hectic year
After a royal start to 2023, retailers are now poised for the Christmas gift-buying rush. If only everything that happened in between had gone so well
Austin Stacks see off Tralee rivals for 13th Kerry title
Stacks match record set by Dr Crokes in first O’Rahilly’s Kerry SFC meeting in 85 years
Twelve big ideas for the future of education
The Government has pledged to establish a citizens’ assembly to reform the education system – but what issues should we address? We asked a dozen public figures in the arts, media, business and education for their views
Tennis Lessons: clever, odd and intimate tale of Northern childhood
Susannah Dickey’s powerful writing brings a girl’s coming of age into sharp focus
Citizens of Boomtown: ‘Bob Geldof drove me out of my f***ing mind’
Review: Billy McGrath’s Boomtown Rats rockumentary rattles along furiously and with a dangerous gleam in its eyes
Irish writers on Election 2020: ‘I want a revolutionary party’
Irish authors assess the outgoing government’s legacy and what the next one needs to do
The book I want for Christmas: Paschal Donohoe, Alison Spittle, Joseph O’Connor and more
Seven well known readers and writers share the books they'll be giving and getting this Christmas
Art couple’s lifelong collection for sale – but they’re not done with buying
A house move is prompting Patrick and Antoinette Murphy to sell a trove of Irish art
Popular Dublin restaurant Beaufield Mews to close after 70 years
Stillorgan institution calls it a day: ‘We wanted to finish on a high ... this is the best way to go’
The two best theatre shows on this week
Redemption Falls in An Taibhdhearc in Galway, The Same at Galway Airport
Redemption Falls review: A story and ensemble not to be missed
An unpredictable, captivating tale of redemption and revenge
Would women make better husbands than men?
The great English actor Ellen Terry's harshest thoughts were directed at husbands
‘I can’t do thrillers or spy novels or genre fiction. I just get bored'
The author Colm Tóibín discusses female Irish novelists, families, and when he wishes he had a TV
Shadowplay: An enthralling Dracula backstory from Joseph O’Connor
Book review: A brilliant novel exploring the tensions between Bram Stoker and his contemporaries
‘When I socialise, my pain is hidden’
The fun-loving, carefree image I present to the world hides the relentless thumping pain and crippling exhaustion
Keepers of the Flame: An education in revolutionary Ireland
With tricky commemorations ahead, Nuala O’Connor’s documentary is nicely measured
Garda found with child porn to be sentenced in January
Joseph O’Connor (58) claimed man who came to his home for sex ‘corrupted’ laptop
‘Somebody else’ downloaded child porn onto laptop, accused claims
Joseph O’Connor, a garda, denies five counts of possessing child pornography at his home
Child pornography films and images found on garda’s laptop, trial told
The 58-year-old man pleaded not guilty in court to possession of child pornography at his home
Royal Irish Academy of Music set for €20m transformation by 2021
Westland Row campus redevelopment involves €9m public funding and significant philanthropy
Former director of Tyrone Guthrie centre dies in Catalonia
Bernard Loughlin ran artists’ retreat at Annaghmakerrig in Co Monaghan for 18 years
‘After the Celtic Tiger, maybe even ordinary people became a little more brutal’
Paddy Breathnach on making a film about a homeless family with Roddy Doyle
Feast Days by Ian MacKenzie review: A truly convincing female voice
The astute, captivating story of expat life of an American woman in Brazil
Shelfies with Irish writers: how the literati keep their libraries in order
Self-confessed shelf addict John Boyne checks out how fellow authors like to stack
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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