Ellmann’s Joyce: Zachary Leader provides fascinating but flawed insight into biographer of literary genius
Tome is a worthy study of two legends but omission of key details a minor letdown
James Joyce
Author of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake
Author Paul Perry: ‘The myth of the starving genius is harmful nonsense’
The writer on his new novel, Paradise House; his writing partnership with Karen Gillece; and the book he’s working on about Samuel Beckett in the French Resistance
The Pig’s Ear, Nassau Street review: A revived menu reimagines Joyce’s Dublin? It could be awful, but it works
Kidneys, famine soup, coddle – all the makings of a concept-led circus, but the cooking shines through
Irish artist Michael Kane: ‘Patrick Kavanagh did nothing else but create art. And that was my ideal’
The Project Arts Centre founder, who is marking his 90th birthday with a solo show, is a firm believer in the idea that art truly matters. He lives fully surrounded by it
Was William Blake, one of England’s greatest poets, actually Irish?
Scholars have long maintained that WB Yeats was being fanciful when he claimed one of England’s greatest poets was in fact Irish. But a new look at the story suggests an alternative possibility
Non Habemus Librum: Frank McNally on Flann O’Brien’s unwritten epic about the election of an Irish pope
Like many unwritten masterpieces, the book was born and died in a Dublin pub
Samuel Beckett vs Archbishop McQuaid: Why an infuriated Nobel laureate withdrew his play from Dublin Theatre Festival
Festival acquired letter playwright wrote to friend in 1958 to apologise for feeling compelled to cancel planned run of Act without Words I
Euler’s Identity: James Joyce and the most beautiful equation in mathematics
That’s Maths: It is not the appearance or typographical structure that is prized, but the concepts it embodies and the unexpected links it makes
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett: Into the abyss, again
Faber’s new editions come with excellent introductions by Colm Tóibín, Claire-Louise Bennett and Eimear McBride
From Delhi to Dublin: ‘I ended up making really good friends, they are my safety net’
New to the Parish: Nishtha Khanna moved from India to Ireland in September 2020
Fionnula Flanagan: I remember the ‘No Irish or dogs’ signs. I didn’t want to live in a country that took that attitude towards me
Put off London, the actor went instead to the US, where she spent 50 years as one of Ireland’s most prominent screen presences
Why do so many Irish men look Australian? Ireland is under a sort of reverse colonisation
The unholy mullet-moustache diptych is a sign that the emigrant experience works both ways
‘By 1925 Catholic Ireland was coming and the madams saw the writing on the wall’: Centenary of the Monto red light district’s end
A midnight raid and 120 arrests were followed by a Legion of Mary procession as the church and state asserted themselves
Dictionary on the Double – Frank McNally on the enduring literary life of Patrick Dinneen
Lexicographer was described by profiler as “in some ways, as mad as a March hare”
The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride: Author experiments to draw readers in, not to keep them out
McBride’s style is distinctive, a wholly original exploration of what is possible with language and fiction
‘I had a very gut-wrenching moment as an American, watching my country self-immolate’
New to the Parish: Brian McNerney moved here from Austin, Texas, in 2024
Author Rachel Donohue: ‘I needed to write to tell my children something about what I thought of the world’
The author on her new novel, The Glass House; her penchant for writing ‘why-done-its’; and the rawness of the teen years
Reimagining James Joyce as doctor of medical science
Novelist’s work is packed with references to medicine, sickness and health
Donald Trump’s expansionary plans: first we take Greenland, then we take Ballsbridge
Plus: US multinationals lobby for docklands voting rights for staff; John Banville’s bedroom antics; and a Seanad hopeful’s Tommy Cooper impression
Anne Enright: ‘I am a proud Dubliner, born and reared. I spurn these lyrical types yearning for the rural’
‘The map gives way to previous maps as the decades swop and speak to each other. A tree grows and is not chopped down. Some of the stones endure ... '
The best theatre of 2024: Blessed are the risk-takers
Gambling on longer runs of unfamiliar work paid off in a gratifying number of cases. But Irish theatre still isn’t as inclusive as it should be
From Anne Enright to Dr Seuss: eight of the best books to read at Christmas
These books will leave both adults and children feeling a little bit more festive
Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel by Edwin Frank – A must-buy for fans of fiction writing
While Joyce, Proust and Thomas Mann dominate, the right of authors to write exactly what they are inspired to write is a central issue for Frank
F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the great Irish diaspora novel
At a time when Irishness in the US is sometimes used to service ‘white power’ messaging, it is imperative to uncover the recognition of past Irish ‘off-whiteness’ in Irish-American writers
The Eyes Have It - Frank McNally on the feast day of St Lucy
The name Lucy shares its origins with the word lux, Latin for light, so it’s no coincidence her feast day coincides with the darkest time of the year
The Lost & Early Writings of James Connolly, 1889-1898, by Conor McCabe: Newly unearthed writings fill out the picture
The material includes rhetorical flourishes, humour and a Joycean fictional ramble through Dublin
Author Georgi Gospodinov: ‘The past is not a good place to live in. And the dealers of the past roam among us’
The Bulgarian author on the dangers of nostalgia, his 2023 Booker-winning novel Time Shelter, and Irish writers he admires
The Dead review: James Joyce’s tragicomedy wraps around the audience in a hugely engaging, immensely accomplished evening
Theatre: Marty Rea and Maeve Fitzgerald star as Gabriel and Gretta Conroy in Louise Lowe’s promenade staging of the beloved Dubliners story
The Dead brought to life: how James Joyce’s celebrated short story is being re-created as an immersive experience
Featuring Marty Rea, Maeve Fitzgerald and Marie Mullen, Louise Lowe’s re-creation is taking over Newman House, on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin
Dublin is a beautiful city held back by naysayers. That needn’t be the case
Dublin 1 could become one of the most exciting neighbourhoods in Europe... if we want
Julianne Moore: ‘When a friend really needs to unburden themselves, what are they asking you to do?’
The Oscar winner stars in The Room Next Door, a euthanasia drama that is Pedro Almodóvar’s first feature in English. It’s an ideal film for her to appear in
A New York Times book critic spent five days in Dublin. Here’s how he got on
The city is a soulful playground for the kind of people who have spectacles on their nose and autumn in their hearts
Sally Rooney: ‘I think I should have read more at university’
Intermezzo author explains how she treats quotation marks in her writing
In times of war, ‘we have a duty to hope, as without hope all is lost’
Unthinkable: Always treat humanity not as a means but as an end, said the philosopher Immanuel Kant
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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