#oisin-hoy

#oisin-hoy

Choy-Ping Ní Chléirigh-Ng expresses that growing up in Wicklow as a mixed-race individual often felt isolating, as they navigated their identity in a small town.

Every time we read one now, I'm suddenly back in my attic room in Swansea 40 years ago, watching my dad turn the same pages.

"We met with linen and wool weavers and were blown away by the exceptional quality and beauty of the cloth they produced, as well as the depth of [textile] history in Ireland. We were in equal measure concerned by the decline in the number of weavers. They mentioned that they were losing out to cheaper cloth from abroad and that Irish buyers were few and far between."

Asking for a laptop as she lay in a hospital bed during a frightening cancer ordeal, Wicklow woman Elaine Murphy could hardly have imagined that those first taps on the keyboard would lead to her debut work of fiction, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, a Garden County mystery born from the darkest chapter of her life.

Carina Hedlund has visited Ireland over 30 times since 2011, capturing the warmth of the people she meets in the capital's pubs with her camera.

Ireland is an island where ridiculously beautiful sights pop up in the most unlikely of places, from gravity-defying sea stacks found at the end of a dirt road, to hiking trails that make you feel like you're walking on the moon.

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

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.

Female friendships have become the bedrock of some great stories in film, TV, and literature, highlighting their enriching and indestructible nature.

Our Government should support the Irish visual arts ecosystem a lot more, spreading the message that art is open and accessible to everyone.

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

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 get this feeling when you enter the Burren's limestone landscape. It has an energy, and a history that permeates. A dynamic entrepreneur, MacNamara champions slow food at her Galway restaurant, Ard Bia, and slow fashion through her homespun label, The Tweed Project.

The 24/7 grind of a politician is not for the faint-hearted as the likes of Simon Coveney and Catherine Martin will tell you. Former TDs who stood down or lost their Dáil seat at the last general election say why they haven't looked back.

Places to socialise are a key part of the culture in our towns and cities

Lying in my bed, I listened to what sounded like a woman screaming outside in the dark. I picked up my pen. A month of living in this Icelandic village and I was still unaccustomed to the impenetrable January gloom and the ferocity of the wind; its propensity to sound sentient. I had started to feel like the island was trying to tell me something, had a story it wanted me to write.

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.

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.

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;