How did an astronaut come to be carved into the portico of Salamanca's cathedral?A learning experience: Salamanca and sister cities Alcalá and Ávila are full of enriching surprisesSat Jan 04 2014 - 01:00
Looking for a pulse among dead Irish writersDublin Writers Museum opened 22 years ago to celebrate the capital’s literary tradition but it now feels more like a mausoleumSat Jan 04 2014 - 01:00
Who’d be a farmer? We wouldStudents at agricultural college explain why they’ve chosen a farming life, and 79-year-old Paddy Joe Roseingrave explains why he’ll never give upFri Jan 03 2014 - 02:00
13 reasons for Santa to visitChristmas dinner is the one meal of the year when the Maher family will sit down together at the table – all 15 of them. By Rosita BolandWed Dec 25 2013 - 01:00
Bone idols: Dressing and bejewelling martyrs’ skeletons for public display was once common in GermanyHeavenly Bodies, Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs, By Paul KoudounarisSat Dec 21 2013 - 01:00
A very Haughey Christmas but no merry new yearWhen my publisher told me in 1987 that one of my poems would appear on the then taoiseach’s Christmas cards, I thought he was jokingTue Dec 10 2013 - 01:00
How 11 striking Irish workers helped to fight apartheidOn July 19th, 1984, Dunnes Stores worker Mary Manning refused to check out a customer’s South African fruit.Fri Dec 06 2013 - 12:00
National Crafts and Design Fair lights up RDSVisitors surprised to see large area given over to plastic imported toys and dollsThu Dec 05 2013 - 01:00
‘We’re sisters, not nuns. Nuns are another breed’Half a century ago, she left the man she loved to become a missionaryin Africa. Now retired, Sr Cora Richardson (78) was this week honoured for her services overseasSat Nov 30 2013 - 01:00
Musical Youth Foundation strikes a chord with young people from inner-city DublinSet up four years ago by Chris Maher, MYF offers free guitar lessons and musical instrumentsSat Nov 30 2013 - 01:00
Anne Doyle: ‘Do I miss RTÉ? It sounds kind of rude to say no’Almost two years after leaving our screens, the former newsreader is returning to host a new quiz show. What else has she been up to since she left the RTÉ newsroom?Tue Nov 19 2013 - 01:00
Catholic pamphlets from 1920s to 1970s on viewOld leaflets can be seen in an exhibition at National Print Museum in DublinSat Nov 16 2013 - 01:01
Ditch the umbrella: how I fell in love with cocktail cultureI learned many things during my year studying in Harvard, but perhaps the most unexpected lesson was an introduction to the pleasure of real cocktailsWed Nov 13 2013 - 01:00
Children of Lissadell emerge smiling after belated court victoryOwners not present to witness conclusion of protracted caseTue Nov 12 2013 - 02:00
‘Please speak to someone. You are not alone’Why don’t domestic-violence victims just leave? Because it often builds up gradually, breaking them down bit by bit, as the staff of Domestic Violence Response, a support service for affected women and children, know only too wellSat Nov 02 2013 - 01:00
Fashion in vogue for Irish journalism studentSarah Waldron is on a journalism pathway with other fashion studentsSat Nov 02 2013 - 01:00
The night mart: ‘It’s cheaper than the pub’Welcome to Gort mart in Co Galway, a world of coded language, hand signals and few women, where the bidding is ferocious and no seller wants to go firstTue Oct 29 2013 - 01:00
Brothers on tour with relics of St AnthonyDevotees pray for health, faith and jobs as relics are driven around the StateThu Oct 24 2013 - 01:00
Caroline Downey: ‘I have no interest in being a TV presenter again. I didn’t really enjoy it so much’The ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ judge talks about fame, women in business and privacySat Oct 19 2013 - 01:00
Libraries, lectures and drunkennessTrinity College Dublin seemed to have an especially fine array of eccentrics in the 1980s, making first year even odder for a convent girl from the west. This article features in a new book about the university in that decadeSat Oct 05 2013 - 01:00
Hello DollyWith more than 420 dolls in her collection (and more on the way), Co Meath pensioner Mary Hickey loves her charges so much she checks on them ‘100 times a day’Sat Sept 21 2013 - 00:00
Video: Loop Head celebrates being the best place to visit, even in gale-force winds and fogCommunity spirit saves celebrations amid gale-force windsSun Sept 15 2013 - 22:31
Feelings of relief and anti-climax in Ennis car parkWomen sacrifice personal style to wear polyester Clare jerseys in lurid coloursMon Sept 09 2013 - 01:00
‘There’s not a jersey to be had in the whole county’Clare All-Ireland hurling preview: for €4 I got a hat that sings a verse of ‘My Lovely Rose of Clare’Fri Sept 06 2013 - 22:25
The most public of burials for the most private of menCountless hearts are blown open as local farmer’s son is laid to restTue Sept 03 2013 - 01:00
Mourners told of Heaney’s ‘greatness and graciousness’Archbishop says poet was always a man of kindness and humilityMon Sept 02 2013 - 01:00
‘If I had put too much thought into this, it wouldn't have happened’Irish Lives: Twist soup kitchens are now in seven Irish townsSat Aug 31 2013 - 01:00
Anne Gildea: ‘The first draft was insane. It was so angry’The autobiography of the comedian Anne Gildea is both a visceral account of breast cancer and a glimpse into a hard childhoodSat Aug 24 2013 - 01:00
Imminent shutdown of department store blamed on closure of Waterford CrystalClosure a sad event for social fabric of WaterfordThu Aug 22 2013 - 01:01
The boat to Inishbofin: across the water to an island state of mindOur Going Coastal series around Ireland’s shores continues by ferry to the Galway islandTue Aug 20 2013 - 01:00
You’re fired LOL: Why it’s not cool to be sacked by text or emailA US worker was fired by conference call last week. Is there any right way to deliver the bad news?Sat Aug 17 2013 - 01:00
Dún Laoghaire searches for ways to weather the storm as recession bitesHigh rents and high rates have led to some businesses in the town ceasing to tradeFri Aug 09 2013 - 01:00
Bank holiday at the Big HouseWithout the foresight of Desmond Guinness and his first wife, Mariga, there would be no Big House festival, because Castletown House would not exist as it does todaySat Aug 03 2013 - 01:00
Eyes wide open: the west from aboveAfter a terrifying sightseeing flight in Peru, the prospect of viewing the Cliffs of Moher and Aran Islands from above is dauntingFri Aug 02 2013 - 01:00
Funeral of broadcaster Colm Murray hears of ‘a life punctuated with love and kindness’Reporter remembered as a wordsmith with a charismatic personalityFri Aug 02 2013 - 01:00
Colm Murray’s illness ‘broke our hearts’, daughter saysMourners told broadcaster was a ‘great wordsmith’ with ‘a charismatic personality’Thu Aug 01 2013 - 13:35
Taxidermy, by Alexis TurnerAn illustrated homage to taxidermy explores the practice from Victorian times to the presentSat Jul 27 2013 - 00:00
Wimples and swimsuits and suncream on sistersIn 1939, when St Michael’s holiday house for the Presentation Sisters was opened in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, visiting nuns had to obey the bishop’s ‘Ten Commandments’. These days things are a little more relaxed – and the house a lot emptierThu Jul 25 2013 - 01:00
The Gathering: shakedown or success story?More than halfway through the initiative, opinions of tourism insiders range from ‘simple and clever’ marketing to ‘a crackpot waste of money’Tue Jul 23 2013 - 01:00
Pattern Mass: a centuries-old tradition carved in stoneThe annual pattern Mass at Kilmakilloge on the Beara Peninsula – part ancient spiritual ritual, part secular knees-up – brings people in their hordes each year. What keeps them coming back?Thu Jul 18 2013 - 01:00
Things you should never say to tourists . . .. . . if you want them to stay longer, spend more and come back. Now straighten up and smile!Mon Jul 08 2013 - 01:00
Gather yeWhether it’s surfing off the Blasket Islands, revisiting the ballroom of romance or celebrating that red mane of hair, the Gathering has something for everyoneSat Jun 22 2013 - 01:00
Abe and Akie at the Áras: whistle-stop tour runs over as couples chatCulture shock as Japanese diplomats politely but openly ponder the Irish interpretation of ‘schedule’Thu Jun 20 2013 - 01:00
Farewell from Ireland: How my father said goodbye to JFKWhen President Kennedy left Ireland after his visit in June 1963, the people of Co Clare wanted to give him a memorable send-offSat Jun 15 2013 - 01:00
Bloomsday is a brilliant marketing ploy – just don’t take it too seriouslyLiterature is a commodity and it would be naive to think otherwiseSat Jun 15 2013 - 01:00
Gynocrats, Pimm’s, war and PJ Harvey: the Borris House Festival of Writing and IdeasThe Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas had many big names and big ideas but the true star was the big house itselfTue Jun 11 2013 - 01:00
Martin Amis tells Borris House festival audience he wants women to ‘rule the world’British novelist was in Co Carlow for an interview with journalist Sinéad GleesonMon Jun 10 2013 - 01:00
