Martin Bramah: ‘Being in The Fall is a life sentence. Why not embrace it and have fun?’
Martin Bramah and four fellow former Mark E Smith bandmates have used trusted techniques to make House of All’s outstanding first album
Split seconds: The craft and chaos of rock photography
Shot From All Sides by Cormac Figgis is a rich collection of stage shots that capture the art, danger and power of live performance
‘The best thing that ever happened to us’: Canine agents of positive change
Dedicated to preventing children from bolting, assistance dogs are emotional and physical lifesavers. But they are in short supply
Bread, stones and madeleines as Proust takes it to the bridge
Paris Letter: Shoddy-looking repairs reveal a living city while a Ukrainian artist makes sense out of rock-hard loaves
Blackpool Rebellion: Dublin bands shake up ‘probably the greatest punk festival on Earth’
Paranoid Visions, The Lee Harveys and Vulpynes are cornerstones of a weekend of 350 bands. Is it a punk museum or the start of something?
The True(ish) History of Ireland, by Garvan Grant
Paperback review: This book eschews venom and danger in favour of good-natured, old-school humour
An Irishman’s Diary on a carnival’s summons to spring
The ‘fête des gilles’ in the Belgian town of Binche
Alcatel-Lucent: the firm behind the wires that are the web
Douglas Coupland shines sociological light on corporate giant that cables the internet
Review: Nick Drake: Remembered For A While, by Gabrielle Drake and Cally Callomon
A magnificent study of the melancholy singer-songwriter whose music has reached a new generation online
Irishman Paddy Sherlock sings at ‘Charlie Hebdo’ editor’s funeral
‘We played him out, following the coffin like a New Orleans funeral’
An Irishman’s Diary on yardsticks, metrics and milestones at the start of a new year
‘Take one small step and, while not quite there yet, you are certainly well on your way – an immeasurable feeling at the start of a new year’
Alain de Botton and Douglas Coupland: 21st-century industrial espionage
Alain de Botton explains the thinking that prompted him to marshal leading writers into closed organisations
‘The fridge is a holding cell. Fresh food dwells there, incarcerated in death row. That’s the short life it enjoys’
John Fleming, subeditor
Portrait of IMF as a benign bureaucracy: Money and Tough Love, by Liaquat Ahamed
Review: Description of our bailout malaise is lucid and detached, yet at heart sympathetic