#jim-fagan

#jim-fagan

Dylan's choice of Patreon over Substack is puzzling, as many major artists have opted for the latter to connect with fans and share their thoughts.

"I wonder why I wanted to be famous," she muses now, as we sit across from each other in The Pavilion cafe in Cork.

A vision lay before him: Fleet Street blanketed with snow, silent, empty, pure white, and, at the end of it, the huge and majestic form of Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a spellbinding moment: the great thoroughfare temporarily devoid of carts and carriages, the cathedral looming blurrily out of the still-falling snowflakes a real-life snow globe.

Amano De Londra Miura showcased her stunning sean nós talents live on TV, putting the Irish language back on the map and highlighting its cultural importance.

Bryan Dobson stated, 'After nearly four decades at RTÉ, I found retirement to be a new chapter, filled with family time and personal projects.'

The star-studded trio were box-office television on The Sunday Game during the GAA championship for nearly three decades, ably assisted and guided by Lyster's genius as host.

You know, this story is a bit different, right? We always do the Bird-Magic thing where we combine the narratives of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. And really, what I wanted to do with this book was just tilt the camera a little bit differently, change that perspective and zoom in on that origin story in rural Indiana in the 1970s.

"I haven't heard him sing yet," Flannery confesses, in answer to the burning question, when we sit down after a rehearsal in Nuns Island theatre in Galway.

This weekend such a moment occurred. I never knew I wanted to see Harry Styles channel Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley in a silk blouson shirt and headband and canter around a stage.

You know, how on a crystal autumn morning everything seems lit up from within, the air sharp as glass, everyone grinning at the startling poem of it all? Then it begins to rain and by the middle of the afternoon it's still raining, and I go for a walk and my shoes get soaked and for the life of me I can't find my umbrella, and I realize with a sinking feeling that The Wet is upon me, moist and insistent.

With literacy rates declining across OECD countries, building healthy habits around books is truly essential. Allowing reading at dinner started as one of those on-the-spot parental solutions. Letting them have a copy of Bunny Vs Monkey or The Beano while they ate seemed like a more ethical solution for keeping them in their chairs for the duration of the meal than, say, duct tape.

I've never had a sense of direction. In a family where everyone knows where they're going, I'm the one who gets lost. When my son Charlie was small, he would listen as I outlined the day's itinerary-grocery store, library, post office-then interrupt. "Mama," he'd say, "I have a better way." And he did. He was five, and already knew where he was going.

Ever feel like you're playing a character in your own life? Like you're constantly adjusting your personality based on who's in the room, what they might think, or what seems "acceptable" at the moment? I spent years doing exactly that. Morphing into whatever version of myself I thought would get the most approval, the least conflict, or the best opportunities. It was exhausting, and worse, I started losing track of who I actually was beneath all those masks.

The Irish government will give 2,000 artists unrestricted weekly stipends in a program officials described as a "recognition, at government level, of the important role of the arts in Irish society." After a successful three-year pilot, the Irish government made its basic income program for artists permanent. Similar pilots have been launched here in the United States, but they're supported primarily by the nonprofit sector.

Finnegan's Wake: An Immersive Ghost Story, presented by 13th Floor Theater, plunges audience members into the beautiful, dysfunctional Finnegan-Plurabelle family. Scenic designer Treigh Buchet, lighting designer Meghan Schultz, and ephemera designer Michelle Josette Crashette transfigure the San Francisco Mint into an Irish family home on the banks of a mystical river. Audience members are free to explore the spaces before the show begins with libation in hand. When the dinner bell rings, the show commences.

SNA allocations fiasco has put the spotlight on Hildegarde Naughton once again The Government got an awful shock last week. Ministers suddenly discovered their policies were being taken seriously. There they were thinking their job was just to go around announcing hypothetical proposals and then letting them drift away in the hope the public would forget about the issue in time.

A legend, Seán was an iconic figure in Irish education, culture and traditional music who had an extraordinary impact on Irish music and song,

We had all the motivation we needed... this isn't a swift reaction, but a considered response to those that tried to silence us. And failed. Made with Dan Carey, a producer we are honored to have worked with. It's a more sinister sound... because these are sinister times. But also defiant and triumphant. Inspired by, and proudly named, "Fenian," who were warriors in Irish folklore, and later a derogatory term for the Irish.

No single musician better represents that contribution and its nearly forgotten history than pianist Sidney Porter. From 1941 until his untimely death in 1970, he cast a 6'8" shadow over Portland's jazz scene as both a performer and nightclub owner. Two months after he died, more than 3,000 people filled the Hoyt Hotel in a 10-hour show of respect that included 20 bands and more than 160 musicians.

The ghost of a previous lover is always a challenge, particularly if you (mistakenly) believe that she's actually dead. This is the unenviable situation for Lily, the protagonist of O'Farrell's second novel, who is swept off her feet by dashing architect Marcus and in short order moves in with him. Lily takes his assurances that her predecessor Sinead is no longer with us to mark a more permanent absence;

The extended footage of Welsh in conversation is certainly engaging, as he discusses his writing and the movies it created, and his own youth in Edinburgh. Some of the rest of the interviewees aren't quite so gripping, however, and the film is padded out with a fair bit of redundant anecdotage from people on the subject of getting hilariously wasted in Irvine's company or at least his approximate vicinity.

Skip to main content Illustration by The New Yorker; Source photograph Michael Lionstar Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen Sign up to receive our weekly Books & Fiction newsletter. Joseph O'Neill reads his story Light Secrets, from the January 26, 2026, issue of the magazine. O'Neill is the author of a story collection and five novels, including Netherland, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2009, The Dog, and Godwin, which was published in 2024.

Liadan Ní Chuinn was born in Northern Ireland in 1998, the year the Good Friday Agreement ended the Troubles, the decades of violence stemming from England's occupation of Ireland. Other recent fiction about the Troubles-the novels and Trespasses , the TV show Derry Girls (all excellent)-is set firmly in the last century, relegating the violence to history. Ní Chuinn's work does the opposite: Their new book of short stories, Every One Still Her e, is set in contemporary Northern Ireland.