Czech novelist Ivan Klima dies aged 94
Author of more than 40 books survived Nazi concentration camp as a child and later became an active member of the literary underground during communism
Vaclav Havel
Latest articles about Vaclav Havel
Simon Harris finds channelling Seamus Heaney is not so simple
The presumptive taoiseach used a familiar quote when introducing himself as leader, but whose line was it anyway?
Milan Kundera obituary: Communist Party outcast whose sexually charged novels turned him into a literary star
Influential Czech-born author of the bestselling novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being captured the suffocating absurdity of life
Bono receives major US award for work tackling poverty, injustice
U2 singer awarded Fulbright Prize for International Understanding
Breda O’Brien: Spirituality is vital in facing climate change
Spirituality and religion provide a kind of sustenance that allows people to change, even in halting, imperfect ways
Communists kicked out of Czech parliament for first time since 1948
Voters hand defeat to PM Andrej Babis’s ANO party and back opposition group Together
Zappa: Love or hate him, Frank Zappa deserves respect
Alex Winter’s documentary portrait of the musician should win over the most resistant
EU plagued by erosion of democracy inside and outside its borders
Europe Letter: A row is brewing over the best way to tackle brazen flouting of rule of law
David McWilliams: Johnson’s UK and Milosevic’s Yugoslavia – spot the difference
This could be the beginning of the end of the UK as the centre now struggles to hold
The Irish Times view on Government formation: the Greens should take their chance
Politics, we are told, is the art of the possible. But it is also, Vaclav Havel said, the art of the impossible – of making the world a better place
Czechs and Slovaks celebrate Velvet Revolution and denounce current leaders
More than 200,000 people rally in Prague against populist premier and president
Russia and China, controversial friends of the Czech president
Milos Zeman’s ties with Putin and Jinping run counter to principles of the 1989 Velvet Revolution
New generation of protesters links Slovakia with 1989 spirit
Velvet Revolution anniversary finds Slovaks demanding change after journalist’s murder
Velvet Revolution memories bittersweet as Czechs worry for their democracy
Nation marks 30 years since Vaclav Havel and fellow dissidents swept into power
Chechen rights activist sentenced to four years in penal colony
Oyub Titiev convicted on drugs charge he says is fabricated due to campaign work
City break? Czech out Prague
Engrossing and beguiling, the Czech capital offers visitors a glimpse of its rich and glorious past
Belfast Agreement shows it is possible to achieve great good in politics
Pat Leahy: politics has been described as a combination of high purpose and low cunning
Czech rallies recall Velvet Revolution and decry rising populism
Billionaire election winner Babis and pro-Russian president Zeman alarm many Czechs
Czechs to invoke spirit of ’89 in rallies to defend democracy
Tens of thousands expected to march amid rising European populism and xenophobia
Only Catalans can set the ‘ne plus ultra’ to their independence aspirations
All peoples, and that includes the people of Catalonia; have the right of self-determination.
Liu Xiaobo: a light goes out
Chinese writer’s gift was an ability to think – and to speak – for himself
Friends bid farewell to Liu Xiaobo as calls grow for wife to be allowed leave
Chinese dissident’s last words to his wife Liu Xia were ‘Live on well’
What happens when an artist becomes commander-in-chief?
Vaclav Havel provided a stirring example of leadership in challenging times, whether picking generals or asking citizens to ‘live in the truth’
Fake news and lies putting democracy at risk
Americans need to learn lessons from Europe’s communist past
Prague Letter: Czechs diverge as anti-Islam bloc taps fear of refugees
Attack on centre that helps refugees reflects vitriol in nation’s debate on refugee crisis
Ireland’s first woman president elected 25 years ago
Mary Robinson pushed the office ‘as far as the wall and peeped over, but didn’t cross it’
Bono claims John Lennon as Irish at event on Ellis Island
Tapestry unveiled depicting island of Manhattan as yellow submarine piloted by Lennon
Travel Desk: Strictly Jane Austen and bus rides to Nepal
All the latest deals and travel new from Fionn Davenport, including a hotel guide to Prague, Watergate hotel reinvented and a 60-secod guide to Orlando, Florida.
Spirit of 1989 inspires voters and protesters in central Europe
Big rallies in Hungary and Czech Republic bemoan leaders’ soft stance on Russia
1989’s other revolutions
The Berlin Wall’s fall was a death knell for a Soviet bloc in which the first fissures had appeared elsewhere
Passing the time at Enniskillen’s Happy Days festival
Conversations turn Beckettian when this festival of all things tragicomic doesn’t turn out as planned. Could it be any other way?
Samuel Beckett’s old school ties
Sean Doran wants to make Happy Days a ‘destination festival’, turning Enniskillen, where the playwright and novelist went to school, into a Mecca for his fans
The limits of dissent
Ivan Klíma was clearly a dissident. But then the Czech writer was too cautious to sign Charter 77, and now he is oddly accepting of Václav Havel
Poetry in motion: tapestry tribute to Seamus Heaney
The tribute to Heaney, which was paid for by a group of the poet’s admirers, including Paul Simon and Bono, is bringing colour to Dublin airport
People less inclined to ‘take offence’ but more inclined to fear giving offence
Opinion: Survey of attitudes seems to indicate that we are becoming more tolerant of ‘bad language’
Neil Jordan: the day I saw the generous side of Seamus Heaney
At a grand dinner many years ago, Heaney made a nice gesture in honour of my father, who had recently died
How lucky we are there was a man such as Nelson Mandela
Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart, wrote Yeats. The miracle of Nelson Mandela is that 27 years of imprisonment did not harden his soul
How lucky we are there was a man such as Nelson Mandela
The miracle of Mandela is that 27 years of imprisonment did not harden his soul
The meaning of my Wheatfield experience is that sometimes we must just say no
Opinion: Vaclav Havel taught us the useful lesson of the power of the powerless
Five days in Beckett Town: the best and the boldest of the Happy Days festival
A huge number of productions and premieres were stuffed into the Enniskillen festival, many of them performed in intriguing locations
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Stardust
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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