Dragons denied: Niall O’Farrell becomes the latest TV entrepreneur to face money woes
Plus: former Mary Lavin home back on market; John Collison’s castle life; and Declan Ganley’s conservative Roman party
Sally Rooney
‘It’s a very hard time to be young’: author John Patrick McHugh on male adolescence
The Irish writer on his timely debut novel, Fun and Games; the tenderness and competitiveness of young male friendship; and his friendship with Sally Rooney
After the death of popular Pope Francis, what now for Christianity?
In Europe, after centuries of dominance, Christianity appears to be in retreat
Sally Rooney: ‘I enjoy writing about men ... the dangerous charisma of the oppressor class’
Fans are drawn like moths to the author’s flame during her two appearances Cúirt festival
Cúirt literature festival at 40: ‘There is a sense of an Irish writing culture exploding around the world’
When I was an impoverished student sustained by Pot Noodles, the Cúirt International Festival of Literature introduced me to literature I would not have encountered otherwise
Irish Times readers pick Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These as the best Irish book of the 21st century
How do your top 25 books compare to the rankings of 60 experts? Claire Keegan’s work is a firm favourite among both groups
The Routledge Companion to 21st-century Irish Writing: academics deliver hefty report from the coalface on the state of our culture
A mixed-bag on purpose, the volume spans prose, poetry and drama then looks at the new in an uncertain era of change
The 100 best Irish books of the 21st century: No 25 to No 1
A panel of more than 60 experts (authors, critics, academics, festival curators and booksellers) select their favourite Irish novels and short stories of the years 2020-2025
The 100 best Irish books of the 21st century: how we made the list and what it says about the state of Irish fiction
The Irish Times assembled a panel of 60 experts to select the best Irish books of the years 2000-2025. Here’s how we did it
The 100 best Irish books of the 21st century: No 50 to No 26
A panel of more than 60 experts (authors, critics, academics, festival curators and booksellers) select their favourite Irish novels and short stories of the years 2020-2025
The 100 best Irish books of the 21st century: No 100 to No 51
The Irish Times assembled a panel of 60 experts – authors, critics, academics, festival curators, booksellers and journalists – to select the best Irish novels and short story collections of the years 2000-2025
AI chatbots open a new frontier in fears for our children’s wellbeing
Access to sexualised, manipulative anthropomorphised technology in the psychologically challenging teenage years represents an alarming new threat
Shaping the Century: 25 brilliant Irish women in 2025
This century has brought us many landmark moments, provided by remarkable Irish women who are an inspiration to others
Dublin author Fíona Scarlett: ‘A young woman told me to take out that I was a mother in my bio, because it demeaned me and my work’
The writer left behind a career in teaching to forge a path as a novelist. She has learned to trust her gut
An Irishman at Oxford: It was an education in being an outsider. I felt alienated from the very start
The good, the bad and the ugly parts of studying English through Irish eyes at Oxford
How to make an audiobook: the perfect voice, detailed prep and a raconteur’s instincts
Voice actor Aoife McMahon, producer Roy McMillan and audio engineer Noel Storey reveal some of their tricks
Sally Rooney takes climate fight to Mayo County Council by objecting to ‘toxic’ data centre plan
Plus: Defence Forces spending on Pilates sounds like a bit of a stretch, Michael McGrath discusses European master plan in Cork and Independent TDs take us back to the past
Ireland’s new must-see tourist sites for fans of film and fiction: From Sally Rooney’s novels to Cillian Murphy’s movies
An unexpected boon of Ireland’s cultural success is that its less well-known locations are suddenly on the tourist trail
Read this and weep: Books that made writers cry
John Boyne, Edel Coffey, Ferdia Lennon, Sarah Gilmartin and a dozen other authors and critics on books that had a profound emotional effect on them
The Irish Times view on the arts in 2024: a year of high achievement
The cross-fertilisation between Ireland’s literary culture and its other artforms was particularly significant
Lessons in philosophy from Sally Rooney’s latest novel that can help us make sense of the world
Unthinkable: The ideas of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein on language and reality surface in Intermezzo, and the relationship between the two philosophers mirrors that of Rooney’s two principal characters, brothers Peter and Ivan
From Paul Mescal to Bad Sisters to Claire Keegan, the green wave keeps rolling
Unfortunately, the lived experience of creatives working in Ireland is often a struggle
The 2 Johnnies Christmas Party at 3Arena: It’s easy to sneer at the triteness and crudeness, but are 13,000 happy fans wrong?
Support for the podcast stars, whose guests include Marty Morrissey, Nathan Carter and Dustin the Turkey, is fanatical
Love and the housing crisis: Living together because the rent is too high
To what extent has the fabric of our intimate lives in post-recession Ireland been shaped by the real economy?
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
Donal Ryan wins An Post Irish Novel of the Year Award for Heart, Be at Peace
Sally Rooney, Graham Norton, Johnny Sexton, Jane Casey and Paul Howard also among winners at this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards
Sally Rooney: When are we going to have the courage to stop the climate crisis?
Capitalism is driving the destruction of our planet. We have to think outside – and against – the framework of our current political system
Could Michael D topple Christy from the top of the album charts?
President Michael D Higgins records an LP; the Oireachtas spends more taxpayers’ cash on something it’s not clear we need; and an ex-rugby star encounters some unwanted wingers
Food and fiction: How writers are serving up food as a central character in their narratives
Hunger and its stylised satiation eats into modern writing in a way that reflects our sizzling, chopped-up existences
Paul Mescal: ‘My favourite actors are Irish. There’s a wildness. We do our own thing’
Gladiator II proves another showcase for Mescal’s tough and tender masculinity, giving rein to his natural instinct as an actor
‘This feels categorically mental’: Paul Mescal stunned by celebrations at Gladiator II premiere
Actor attends Irish premiere of Ridley Scott film at Light House Cinema in Dublin
What I Read This Week: A vital read on the origins of the Troubles and Boris Johnson’s memoir flop
Reporter Ronan McGreevy picks his standout stories of the week including a pertinent piece on an essential truth about Catholic Ireland
Niall Williams: ‘I am here to write the books I’m supposed to write, not the books an Irish Times reviewer would like’
A critical savaging for his first play scarred the author of Time of the Child. You can’t try to please people, he says. You have to do your own thing
Irish Book Awards 2024 shortlist: Sally Rooney, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, David McWilliams and more
Winners of the 19th year of the An Post book awards will be announced at a ceremony in December
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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