At last: a love story on the modern Irish stageWHEREVER love stories begin, it isn't in the modern Irish theatre. SinceTue Nov 19 1996 - 00:00
Culture of secrecy makes a mockery of democracyHOW many disasters does it take to make a crisis? In the absurd arithmetic of Irish politics, the answer is "none"Fri Nov 15 1996 - 00:00
A national cinema: is it possibleIF IT has done nothing else, Neil Jordan's Michael Collins has certainly raised in the most immediate way the whole question …Wed Nov 13 1996 - 00:00
Between a rock and a hard placeTHE National Theatre's new season of plays for young people running at the Peacock until the middle of next month under the banner…Tue Nov 12 1996 - 00:00
Political good name depends on work, not writsON one of RTE's news bulletins last Tuesday the first three items were as follows: Albert Reynolds's libel ease against the Sunday…Fri Nov 08 1996 - 00:00
Forcing art to confront the reality of experienceASKED in old age what he had done during the Terror, the Abbe Sieye's famously replied "J'ai vecu" - I survivedTue Nov 05 1996 - 00:00
State ready to sanction echos of sectarian educationLAST September, four primary school teachers in Dublin sent a letter to the editor of The Irish Times expressing their alarm …Fri Nov 01 1996 - 00:00
Shaking up ShakespeareIN his lifetime, though it is hard to believe so now, Shakespeare published just two works - the long poems Venus and Adonis …Tue Oct 29 1996 - 00:00
Marathon man tries to come to terms with middle ageWHEN I was six, the age my youngest son is now, my father took me and my older brother to see a film of the highlights of the…Fri Oct 25 1996 - 01:00
Ministers seduced by cabinet confidentialityIN THE same day this week, there were two contradictory developments in relation to cabinet confidentiality.Sat Oct 19 1996 - 01:00
Virus of secrecy still assails the body politicHOW can it happen that one of the most experienced and able of Irish politicians says something as dumbfoundingly stupid as Michael…Fri Oct 18 1996 - 01:00
Tribunal's mandate allows key questionsLAST night's announcement of the terms of reference for a tribunal of inquiry into the hepatitis C scandal was an event that …Wed Oct 16 1996 - 01:00
Social realism bites the dustFOR all the variety of forms on show in its first week, this Dublin Theatre Festival has made possible at least one generalisation…Sat Oct 12 1996 - 01:00
Hepatitis inquiry must not be part of cover upLAST April, in the High Court, Dr Garry Courtney, a consultant at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, submitted an affidavit on the …Fri Oct 11 1996 - 01:00
Dr Daly failed in his duty over Smyth revelationsCARDINAL Daly should not have resigned this weekFri Oct 04 1996 - 01:00
Gripping reality of small town operaIT IS unlikely that any description of social and cultural change in contemporary Ireland would make much of the fact that it…Tue Oct 01 1996 - 01:00
The premature Life of Gerry AdamsALTHOUGH he is 48 next week, and although he has led, to put it mildly, a full life, Gerry Adams is still a bit young to be writing…Sat Sept 28 1996 - 01:00
When a brass neck becomes a badge of honourOn January 12th, 1993, the day the ill-starred coalition deal between FiannaFri Sept 27 1996 - 01:00
BEGINNING TO ENDSAMUEL Beckett was, in the opinion of the Irish courts, an unbelievable manSat Sept 21 1996 - 01:00
Welfare system can abuse the most vulnerableIN the current issue of the Bord Failte publication, Ireland of the Welcomes, whose quality proves that you shouldn't judge a…Fri Sept 20 1996 - 01:00
Complexities of cultureCLEAR protective plastic was draped over the delicate shapes of Nusret Pasic's Sarajevo Library History of the WorldThu Sept 19 1996 - 01:00
NYT does it rightTHEATRE and youth culture seem, these days, to be increasingly at odds. Theatre needs time and concentrationTue Sept 17 1996 - 01:00
Minister's casual line on AIDS exposed on world stageI WAS in Scotland last week, and there can be no better place from which to appreciate the significance of Ireland holding the…Fri Sept 13 1996 - 01:00
Walking a fine line between anarchy and inertiaIN Moliere's comedy Le Gentilhomme the uncouth Jourdain is stunned to discover that, known to himself, he has been speaking for…Fri Sept 06 1996 - 01:00
The problem of paedophilia in artTERRIBLE events like the child abuse scandal that is continuing to unfold in Belgium don't just make us face the unthinkableTue Sept 03 1996 - 01:00
Too afraid to fight and too stupid to agree"TOO frightened to fight each other, too stupid to agree."Fri Aug 30 1996 - 01:00
Slyphs of the pen"THEN one night Laburnam Woods begin to move towards the castleTue Aug 27 1996 - 01:00
Facing up to facts on paedophilia and taking actionTHE oddest thing about the response throughout Europe to the horrific child murders in Belgium is the way it exposes a gap between…Fri Aug 23 1996 - 01:00
Violent crime locks out the chance to be togetherROUND our way, many people have stopped going through the parkFri Aug 16 1996 - 01:00
Turning an opportunity into a fatal flawTO a play already brimful of ironies, the current Abbey production of Brian Friel's adds new ones of its ownTue Aug 13 1996 - 01:00
Gleeson's "private" memo has a message for publicON November 8th, 1992, the Attorney General, Mr Dermot Gleeson, who was then leading the Goodman team at the beef tribunal, wrote…Fri Aug 09 1996 - 01:00
All will be well"THE world doesn't survive without families" says Kate Jerome, the archetypal Jewish Momma played by Carole King in Peter Sheridan…Tue Aug 06 1996 - 01:00
Why did Goodman lend £25m to a shy farmer?LAST Tuesday, just as the Taxing Master was issuing his findings that Goodman International and Mr Larry Goodman were entitled…Sat Aug 03 1996 - 01:00
There are far greater needs in sport than 50m pool"I'm only interested in winning, and TNT, my international sponsors, are only interested in winnersFri Aug 02 1996 - 01:00
Costs ruling means the innocent will underwrite the wrongdoersIN explaining why he awarded costs of £6Thu Aug 01 1996 - 01:00
Distorting the past, true to the presentLATE in 1979, after he had written Translations and decided that it would be the first venture for his new theatre company Field…Wed Jul 31 1996 - 01:00
Courage needed to tackle "Gunman"FOR over sixty 60 years now, Sean O'Casey's first three plays have been more, or less in constant production in the Irish theatre…Tue Jul 30 1996 - 01:00
Michelle fills bill for 20th century archetypeON Wednesday, when she qualified for the final of the 800 metres freestyle, the British swimmer Sarah Hardcastle saidSat Jul 27 1996 - 01:00
Protestant statement challenges nationalist prejudicesTHERE are now just two weeks before the Apprentice Boys march in Derry, and the days ahead are days of both fear and opportunity…Fri Jul 26 1996 - 01:00
How the Orange Order has mocked its pastCOMPARED with the sectarian murder of a taxi driver and the reckless bombing of the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen, its a small…Fri Jul 19 1996 - 01:00
Where history is a series of insistent inventionsWHEN, in the third act of Brian Friel's The Loves of Cass McGuire, one of the residents in an old folk's home asks who General…Tue Jul 16 1996 - 01:00
Society is paying the price for neglect of generationA FEW years ago, I visited an educational project for young school-leavers in Dublin's inner cityFri Jul 12 1996 - 01:00
Star turn for 80,000 tons of deathIN OCTOBER 1922 the Blasket Island writer Tomas O'Crohan noted in his diary a day when the people of the island ate no dinner…Fri Jul 05 1996 - 01:00
Twenty-one years of DruidANYONE looking at a list of the early productions of Druid Theatre Company in its first year, 1975, would find it hard to understand…Tue Jun 25 1996 - 01:00
Some may want talk radio and get TV to get quietly lostTHERE seems to be a general consensus that there is too much talk on RTE and that Gay Byrne has had his dayFri Jun 21 1996 - 01:00
The global Irish villageFOR most of this century Irish theatre has bee obsessed with a sense of place, and one of the most pertinent questions you could…Tue Jun 18 1996 - 01:00
Hepatitis C victims need to know the full truthIT IS now two years and three months since the then Minister for Health, Brendan Howlin, commissioned an independent expert group…Fri Jun 14 1996 - 01:00
WILDE WEST SHOWWHY does Oscar Wilde seem so much our contemporary? The outward aspect of his plays the fin de siecle costumes and drawing rooms…Tue Jun 11 1996 - 01:00
END OF EMPIREIN one of his songs Billy Bragg asked "How can you lie back and think of England when you don't even know who's in the team?" …Sat Jun 08 1996 - 01:00
