'Gatz' is great, but 'Metamorphosis' has altered too muchCULTURE SHOCK: Two adaptations of prose classics - 'The Metamorphosis' and 'The Great Gatsby' - at the Dublin Theatre Festival…Sat Oct 04 2008 - 01:00
Friel does more than simply translate Ibsen's classic play, he makes it betterCULTURE SHOCK IN HENRIK IBSEN'S Hedda Gabler, there is an off-stage wild woman called Mademoiselle Diana, referred to as "a …Sat Sept 13 2008 - 01:00
Still as divisive as everPROFILE OLIVER CROMWELL: For many, he is the personification of English opression, for others a revolutionary leader of democracy…Sat Sept 06 2008 - 01:00
Commanding power on a Dublin stageCULTURE SHOCK: The Gate production of Pinter's 'No Man's Land' offers as great an exhibition of the actor's art as you are likely…Sat Sept 06 2008 - 01:00
The non-sectarian singer of the Ulster song traditionCULTURE SHOCK: IN THE OPENING essay of his collection, The Government of the Tongue, Seamus Heaney recalls an evening in Belfast…Sat Aug 30 2008 - 01:00
Challenging the assumptions of 'marketopian' economicsBOOK REVIEW: Basic Instincts: Human Nature and the New Economics by Peter Lunn; Marshall Cavendish Business. £19.99 (€25)Mon Jul 28 2008 - 01:00
Challenging the assumptions of 'marketopian' economicsBOOK REVIEW We know that economists make mistakes a lot of the timeMon Jul 28 2008 - 01:00
Celebrating the life and genius of BrianCULTURE SHOCK: A remarkable photographic portrait exhibition of Brian Friel reminds us that the writer doesn't sit easily with…Sat Jul 19 2008 - 01:00
Putting God on the stage is a bold act of commissionCULTURE SHOCK: THE LATE and rightly lamented James Simmons wrote perhaps the best critique of James Joyce in his poem The Catholic…Sat Jul 12 2008 - 01:00
As cuts loom, let's scotch bloated public sector mythIf the knife of cutbacks goes in, it will cut flesh, not fat, as public sector spending in Ireland is below OECD average, writes…Tue May 20 2008 - 01:00
What does Cowen believe in?A speech made by the otherwise opaque Brian Cowen last year seems to indicate the new Taoiseach's desire to move towards a fairer…Sat May 10 2008 - 01:00
Health service needs ministerial transplant from NorthIF, AS I am wont to do, I call for Mary Harney to take responsibility for the shameful mess of the health services and resign…Tue Apr 22 2008 - 01:00
In the long shadow of the BossDespite his strenuous and often brilliantly successful attempts to escape from the image and the influence of Charles Haughey…Sat Apr 05 2008 - 01:00
Wrestling for O'Casey's legacyDruid director Garry Hynes wanted to stage an O'Casey cycle in the vein of DruidSynge, but when she approached the Abbey, she…Thu Apr 03 2008 - 01:00
Why the Troubles are virgin artistic territoryCULTURE SHOCK The years after the end of a conflict tend to produce the best dramatic explorations of it - but so far, the potential…Sat Mar 22 2008 - 00:00
The poet who came in from the coldCulture Shock: Harry Clifton's first full book since 1994 is a dazzlingly accomplished collection of poetrySat Feb 23 2008 - 00:00
Hierarchy has put FF to shame'Two houses", say the opening lines of Romeo and Juliet, "both alike in dignityTue Feb 19 2008 - 00:00
Can a work of art rise above its creator?Culture Shock: Often, great art comes not from the moral and spiritual wholeness of its creator, but from the desperate attempt…Sat Feb 16 2008 - 00:00
Fintan O'Toole Demented notions of patriotismWhen Fianna Fáil is in a corner, it tends to reveal itself. An underlying, and perhaps unconscious, world view emergesTue Jan 22 2008 - 00:00
Great artists who shall remain namelessCulture Shock: We attach so much importance to famous names that much of our artistic heritage has become devaluedSat Jan 19 2008 - 00:00
Travellers as real peopleCulture Shock: Rosaleen McDonagh shows extraordinary courage in exploring the internal tensions of Traveller lives.Sat Dec 01 2007 - 00:00
Doctors' bodies of literary worksCulture Shock: The divide between art and science is being bridged by an ever fewer number of literary doctorsSat Nov 17 2007 - 00:00
Ceaseless lies follow ceasefiresA genuine hero died at the weekend, but he will soon be forgottenTue Nov 13 2007 - 00:00
How system is killing citizensSusie Long and Greg Robertson were good people, writes Fintan O'TooleTue Oct 16 2007 - 01:00
Firemen's ideals mockedLast Wednesday, as Mark O'Shaughnessy and Brian Murray were entering a smoke-filled, disused factory in Bray, another kind of…Tue Oct 02 2007 - 01:00
Jail fails to halt 'Stroke' politicsYou'd have to be an extremely sad political anorak to be able to name the chairman of the Limerick Prison visiting committeeTue Sept 25 2007 - 01:00
How redemption sidelines US dramaCultureShock: American culture emphasises new beginnings over the power of the past, which is one reason why cinema is its dominant…Sat Sept 15 2007 - 01:00
The future is forever disregardedOne of the great cliches of political journalism is the notion that governments are thrown off course by, in the words of Harold…Tue Sept 11 2007 - 01:00
The shock of the rawCultureShock: Does RTÉ's new series, Prosperity, signal that the station is finally getting the hang of making urban drama?Sat Sept 08 2007 - 01:00
Back to the future - againHere is a typical left-wing critique of the Celtic Tiger delivered in a major speech last week: "The modern problem is the conflict…Tue Sept 04 2007 - 01:00
Why an Abbey hit man was painted out of the pictureCulture Shock Yeats expected George Fitzmaurice's first play to cause riots - but unfortunately for the writer's future career…Sat Sept 01 2007 - 01:00
A musical bridge linking tradition and modernityAssessment: In his biography of Bob Dylan, Down the Highway , Howard Sounes describes an evening in 1992 when Dylan walked alone…Fri Aug 03 2007 - 01:00
The blunt instrument of warIn his brilliant book, The Telling Year : Belfast 1972, journalist Malachi O'Doherty describes the kind of experience that is…Tue Jul 31 2007 - 01:00
The richness of Roma in European cultureCulture Shock: The Roma people are the classic example of the way cultural impact can co-exist with political and social contempt…Sat Jul 28 2007 - 01:00
How killer led media coverageEveryone remembers, of course, the young mother who met a violent death in her own home in the Dublin commuter belt in 2004, …Tue Jul 24 2007 - 01:00
Affordable homes? Not in my yardPublic discussion of housing in Ireland is dominated by a single assumption: high prices are good, lower prices are badTue Jul 10 2007 - 01:00
A knock to the traditional notion of traditionCultureShock: A new book about song on Tory Island debunks the myth that tradition is simply passed on unchanged, impervious…Sat Jun 30 2007 - 01:00
Inequity of for-profit healthcareWhen it comes to the formation of a government, one issue matters more than all the othersTue Jun 12 2007 - 01:00
A big ask for Bertie this timeThe leader had a stunning treble of victories behind himTue Jun 05 2007 - 01:00
Let down by a flawed parliamentWhat, exactly, are we electing on May 24th? A government, of course, though none of us can be sure how our vote will translate…Tue May 08 2007 - 01:00
Migration must be a poll issueSome of the most important people in this election campaign will not be able to vote because they are not Irish citizensTue May 01 2007 - 01:00
Universities are becoming places of restricted learningCultureShock: The current short-sighted trend of treating our third-level institutions as if they were businesses is causing…Sat Apr 14 2007 - 01:00
A fresh look at the first World War? Very novelCultureShock : That the first World War remained almost virgin territory in Irish fiction for so long lends Sebastian Barry'…Sat Apr 07 2007 - 01:00
Ideas that can changethe worldLast week, the Task Force on Active Citizenship produced a fine report, reminding us that democracy demands a culture of engagement…Tue Apr 03 2007 - 01:00
Our collective memory has blanked out slaveryCultureShock: We have forgotten that St Patrick was a slave, that slavery was practised here until recently and that the sex…Sat Mar 31 2007 - 01:00
Private prosperity, public lossGetting the language right is always the key to convincing people that common sense need not applyTue Mar 27 2007 - 01:00
St Patrick's Day - celebrating a wider, vaguer IrishnessCultureShock: Paradoxically, we're getting better at celebrating St Patrick's Day precisely because we no longer really know…Sat Mar 17 2007 - 00:00
Free press essential in democracyOver the last fortnight, the Seanad has been debating the Defamation Bill and its long-awaited reform of Ireland's absurd libel…Tue Mar 06 2007 - 00:00
