From soup bowls to car brakes, Cork musician Alex Petcu is constantly searching for new sounds in the instruments he strikes, writes Ellie O'Byrne

He has yet to sit his final Leaving Cert exam but an 18-year-old student from Cork has received the single largest annual classical music in Ireland.

There have been renewed calls for Cork’s stalled €72m events centre project to be scrapped following confirmation that an alternative could be built within weeks for a fraction of the cost.

IN Hollywood it would have cost millions of dollars and taken months to shoot, but the burning passion of two film-makers and the support of a community created a powerful period drama in three weeks — and on a shoestring budget.

Veteran singer Van Morrison said he was “honoured and delighted” to have been granted the freedom of his native Belfast as it was announced he will play a free concert in the city to mark the accolade.

The commemoration of the centenary anniversary of the Titanic's ill-fated voyage continues this weekend, with a number of events planned.

A COMPANY has won a six-figure deal to clean the new House of Fraser department store in the showpiece Victoria Square shopping centre in Belfast, it has been revealed.

Fledgling opera singers are travelling from all over the world to compete in an Irish competition with the potential to launch them on the international circuit, it was revealed today.

TV movie pundit Barry Norman will be in Belfast next month to take part in a classic film night at the Waterfront Hall with the Ulster Orchestra.

CROWDS at Ennis’s St Patrick’s Day Parade yesterday witnessed a rare public outing from Eamon de Valera’s 1947 Plymouth Dodge.

Singer Neil Hannon will tomorrow take the Divine Comedy on a whirlwind tour of the country.

Northern Ireland is gearing up for a series of events to mark UK Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27.