‘When you’re the eldest daughter, particularly in Ireland, it definitely defines you’
National Library of Ireland director Dr Audrey Whitty on ancestral connections, Samuel Beckett’s ‘fail better’ advice and the appeal of getting older
Samuel Beckett
Claire-Louise Bennett: ‘Technology is allowing us to become even more cowardly’
The author’s new novel centres on the relationship between a woman and an older man, and explores the themes of memory, time, love and loss - prompted by a series of events in her own life
László Krasznahorkai could not be more timely Nobel laureate in world of conflict
Hungarian author, a critic of communism and Viktor Orbán alike, is devoted to art of writing
Louis le Brocquy’s portrait of Samuel Beckett is the top lot at Whyte’s Irish art sale
Sale also features artists including Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor, Sir William Orpen and Mainie Jellett
For Irish women writers, James Joyce was never a shadow but a light
Many Irish women writers have engaged with Joyce - both challenging and building on his legacy in their fiction. In studying them, I was also studying myself
Dave Hannigan: Why Samuel Beckett is a good fit for the New York Mets
For the Irish writer, watching the worst team in baseball was an entertaining and rewarding experience
Sinn Féin may reject commemorating the Normans, but there are some suspiciously Saxon names in its ranks
Take a look at centuries of Irish revolutionaries and you’ll find links to Norman history
Gaza is also a war on the human instinct for compassion
When we learn to shut down pity, we summon the pitiless to power
Auction of artist Richard O’Neill’s work to include portraits of Samuel Beckett and 1916 leader Tom Clarke
It’s often true that works of artists such as O’Neill become more valuable after their death
It’s hard to resist the sense that, deep down, I’m a loser
Unthinkable: Toxic positivity may be exacerbating a sense that we’re losing in life
Beckett sa Chreig: Guth na mBan review – Beckett’s vision given a haunting, evocative twist
Theatre: Sarah Jane Scaife’s vision builds on the work that Company SJ started in 2021 with Laethanta Sona/Happy Days
Tim MacGabhann: ‘I had a fairly mad recurrence of withdrawal symptoms’
Author talks about his new memoir of addiction and recovery, and the best writing advice he’s heard
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
In pictures: Trinity College Dublin scholars from 1955 onwards assemble for photograph
All photographs: Tom Honan
Former Kildare hotel offers scope for redevelopment at €1.75m
Cooldrinagh House, famously known as the childhood home of Samuel Beckett’s mother, comes for sale
Author Lisa Harding: ‘I have never been scared to look at the dark side of life’
The novelist on her latest book, Wildelings; her penchant for unlikeable characters; and how her acting background is a boon to her writing
Waiting for Godot review: Olwyn Fouéré, breaking ground as the first woman to star in Beckett’s play, gives a sublime performance
The extraordinary acting of Fouéré and her fellow principals is all the more remarkable for being unpolished, undirected and unrehearsed
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
Calling extremely early birds: Beckett tickets go on sale 11 years before performances
In Krapp’s Last Tape, Richard Dormer and Samuel West will use recordings they made 30 years earlier, in line with Beckett’s vision
The Guide: The Cruellest Month, Finneas, Death of a Salesman and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
April 12th-18th: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
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
‘The Constitution will soon put women back in their place. Everything is fizzling away’: Sarah Jane Scaife on Youth’s the Season–?
Mary Manning wrote her first play in 1931, when she was 26. It’s astonishing how modern it can feel, says the director of the Abbey’s new production
Tara Brandel: ‘I am always analysing power dynamics in performance. Who holds privilege? How is it expressed?’
The Croí Glan choreographer explains why she believes in the power of dance to be an agent of change
A Finn on Inis Mór: ‘In Finland you just ignore everyone you don’t know. Even people you know sometimes’
Jenni Nikinmaa from Finland moved to Ireland in 2019
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
The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux: If this is his last round–up, his final words are good and true ones
Closing story in this collection imagines an award acceptance speech which would ‘represent a summing up’
John Minihan: Many of my most iconic photographs have a religious connection – even Lady Diana Spencer
My introduction to art happened in my hometown of Athy, Co Kildare. It was an age of belief; religion dominated everyday thinking and behaviour
The Traitors makes no sense. Its logic is flimsy, its flaws obvious. So why do I happily yell through three episodes a week?
Claudia Winkleman’s smash reality show is an effective analogy for the Sisyphean pointlessness of existence. But the contestants can’t say that, obviously
Mike Leigh: ‘I did a film in Northern Ireland about Catholics and Protestants. I did a play about Jews. To me it’s about people’
Hard Truths is as moving and acute a film as the 82-year-old has ever made. The director talks about rejection, vindication and never changing his approach to movie-making
Alan Bennett’s Beckettian look at life in a care home; Irish links with Romanov Russia; bell hooks on girlhood
Killing Time by Alan Bennett; Anarchy and Authority: Irish Encounters with Romanov Russia by Angela Byrne; Bone Black by bell hooks
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
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
Book reviews: Placeholders; The Long Look Back; Leaning on Gates
New fiction and memoir by James Roseman, Tom MacDonagh and Seamus O’Rourke includes a book that deserves a place among the classics
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
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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