Books: Vote for the best Irish fiction of the 21st century
Our experts have ranked the best Irish novels and story collections published since 2000. Now it is your turn
John McGahern
The 100 best Irish books of the 21st century: how we made the list and what it says about the state of Irish fiction
The Irish Times assembled a panel of 60 experts to select the best Irish books of the years 2000-2025. Here’s how we did it
As it turns 100, meet the most reliable New Yorker you’ll ever encounter
The illustrious magazine remains rooted in the principles and traditions of print journalism. There is surely a lesson there
Philip King: ‘I have five daughters, three of them triplets, so as John McGahern would have it, I’m amongst women’
The Scullion musician and Other Voices music series cofounder on his upbringing, the importance of music in his life, and why the arts matter
Paul Williams: ‘Organised crime could not thrive without the connivance of so-called law-abiding society’
The crime writer and journalist has penned a personal account of his career covering the underworld, and he describes it as the most difficult of them all to write
The Irish Times view on the arts in 2024: a year of high achievement
The cross-fertilisation between Ireland’s literary culture and its other artforms was particularly significant
I was suffering from burnout - then I decided to farm 12 sheep. I emerged a new person
Award-winning author and film producer John Connell says he now sees that art is not something reserved just for the city
That They May Face the Rising Sun is an exercise in memory and a reminder to cherish the natural world
Philip King believes the film may have touched people 'because everything is so virtual, augmented and artificial now, whereas this is tactile, human, visceral'
There’s nothing very dramatic about That They May Face the Rising Sun. Which is why it’s such a good film
Hugh Linehan: Stanley Kubrick said a film should be more like music than like fiction. The Irish director Pat Collins knows why that matters
That They May Face the Rising Sun: The best Irish film in a very long time
An Cailín Ciúin fans should start queueing now. Pat Collins has made an exquisite adaptation of John McGahern’s final novel
Making John McGahern’s That They May Face the Rising Sun into a movie: ‘I remember joking that it’s almost unfilmable’
Director Pat Collins discusses his influences and his award-winning adaptation of McGahern’s final novel
How John McGahern’s sin was compounded in the minds of ‘careful and hostile’ interrogators
In a Word: Not only had he written an ‘problematic’ novel but he had also married a Finnish woman
‘Would you like to visit my grave?’ The farmer planning a home burial
Martin Neary has permission to be buried on his own lands in Co Mayo when he dies
Origins of spirituality reside in positive care experienced by a child
John McGahern’s fiction offers a perspective suffused with spiritual meaning
‘A garda and soldier killed in a shoot-out. Heroes, but not anyone I knew. Then the phone rang’
An Irishman’s Diary: Frank McNally on a sombre visit to McGahern Country
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: a timely and powerful book
A fresh and sensitive perspective on an awful period in Ireland’s collective history
Fintan O’Toole: Why we should welcome the new tribe of Anglo-Irish people
Up to half a million British people are becoming Irish citizens. They help us to recognise our own past
The barracks: John McGahern Garda station to reopen as museum
The Cootehall barracks where he slept as a boy is now a vibrant community facility
How to survive Level 5 Covid curbs? Stay as busy as possible
‘The worst thing about cocooning was the feeling that it would never end’
Twelve artists elected to Aosdána
Association honours new members in artforms such as writing, drama, dance and film
‘The strutting farmer gripped my hand. I could smell alcohol on his breath’
Before I moved to Tasmania, or trained for priesthood, there was that summer on a Leitrim farm
Keith Duggan: How we could all do with a dose of that Italia 90 feeling just now
30 years ago it seemed like the whole of Ireland burst out on to the streets at the same time
Fintan O’Toole: The newly visible dads, and an ordinary and wonderful kind of love
Fatherhood is a kind of makey-up thing, but it has come into its own in lockdown
The 50 best Irish films ever made, in order
Donald Clarke and Tara Brady's definitive list has more than a few surprises
Malachy Clerkin: Golf restarting would be much needed good news
Golf clubs likely to be among first venues to re-open but it may test our solidarity
Have yourself a very vintage Christmas: antique gifts for all
The most sustainable choice of all could also be a good investment
‘I thought the end of the music industry would be amazing’
Barry McCormack looks beyond Dublin for his brilliant, almost-concept album Mean Time
Testing times for Irish art in London as RTÉ auctions le Brocquys
Broadcaster’s tapestries, paintings among pieces in Sotheby’s auction of Irish works
‘I can’t do thrillers or spy novels or genre fiction. I just get bored'
The author Colm Tóibín discusses female Irish novelists, families, and when he wishes he had a TV
Roddy Doyle’s Family stands up as a classic 25 years later
We hear about TV’s current Golden Age but Family was as great as anything today
The Cranberries, Game of Thrones, 10 Good Friday traditions
News, views and opinions from Student Hub contributors and Irish Times writers
Seán Moran: Book on Garda GAA heroes makes an arresting read
‘Guardians of the GAA’ charts the history of the force’s involvement in Gaelic Games
Fintan O’Toole: Catholic Ireland is now a religious rust belt of half-empty churches
The authoritarian version of Catholicism is over. In other forms it is alive and well
Rite&Reason: Why Irish Catholics voted to remove Eighth
Many are privately unchurched as they resent hegemony of church authorities
Ex-Fine Gael TD Monica Barnes ‘open and optimistic’, funeral hears
Former Senator and TD had intended campaigning for repeal of Eight Amendment
‘I can be very narrow-minded. I’m constantly fighting with myself to be a decent person’
In Conversation: actors Peter Coonan and Marie Mullen
Shelfies with Irish writers: how the literati keep their libraries in order
Self-confessed shelf addict John Boyne checks out how fellow authors like to stack
Shoeless children, straw men – Victorian images of Leitrim for London auction
Sotheby’s also offering a first-edition copy of ‘Ulysses’ with a top estimate of £250,000
In a Word . . . Midlands
I propose that the new brand for our Midlands should be ‘Tranquillity Ireland’
Declan Kiberd: Irish writers were an early warning system about abuse
Artists played a vital role in the State's formation and since independence have held it to account
Editor who insisted on balance and had a zeal for highlighting injustice
Seamus Finn obituary: born December 31st, 1946; died September 1st, 2017
Diarmaid Ferriter: 20 ‘mandatory not compulsory’ things in Ireland
The line about the Public Services Card is part of a grand Irish tradition
Monaghan and Roscommon fans must cherish rare days in the sun
A small county’s team going on a run that lasts this long is something to be savoured
Forget the Wild Atlantic Way: here are the Northern Literary Lands
Seán Doran and Liam Browne want people in the Border counties to celebrate their shared literary heritge
Religious instinct will outlive evangelical secularists
Populist rants of Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkins insult intelligence as well as the faithful
Colm Tóibín: ‘What’s Game of Thrones?’
The novelist no longer wastes energy on things that don’t interest him. He talks Aosdána, tennis and his latest novel
The Iron Age review: steely portrait of postwar Finland
Arja Kajermo uses fable and charming illustrations to bring a family’s struggles to life
Colm Tóibín slates plan to cut grants for non-productive artists
Author writes six-page letter to Arts Council describing proposals as ‘oddly North Korean’
GAA’s rare magic moments nourish dreams of chasing pack
Dublin may appear omnipotent but at least four counties will not be cowed in summer
Leading works of art popping up in Sligo schools
Model arts centre outreach scheme takes paintings out of gallery to inspire children
French writer Michel Déon dies in Galway, aged 97
Novelist moved to Ireland in 1968 and his best-known works are partially or totally set here
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