Pick any day in August 1969 and one issue dominated the news agenda — the North. This was the beginning of The Troubles and a period of some of the bloodiest violence that would leave a mark on the province for decades to come.

August of 1969 was a month of events in Northern Ireland which have echoed down through history.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven, as Wordsworth mused in reference to the Limerick hurling set-up in the spring of 2019.

This week we meet up with Mark Cagney, the 60-year-old host of TV3’s Ireland AM.

* My Family is a Zoo by K Gerrard, Illustrated by Emma Dodd (Bloomsbury, €9.00).

NOTHING will come of nothing, King Lear famously declares as he considers dividing his kingdom between his daughters commensurate with their expressions of love for him.

Justin Kurzel’s version of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (15A) opens with an extraordinarily vivid battle scene, as loyal Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) goes to war on behalf of King Duncan (David Thewlis).

With roles as Macbeth and Steve Jobs, Irishman Michael Fassbender is currently the hottest actor in the business, writes Helen Barlow

Michael Fassbender has become a Hollywood star by not adhering to expectations. Rivka Galchen meets film’s enigmatic outsider.

A soldier sets his eyes on the Scottish throne.

A ROLLER-COASTER campaign saw Scotland flirt with freedom but finally decide to switch back to safety mode and snuggle up to the south after all.

“Oh shut up, Baldrick – you’d laugh at a Shakespeare comedy.”

Macbeth’s dinner had Banquo.

BROODY, brisk, and bracing, Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest and punchiest tragedy. A new, energetic production of the macabre play is being staged at Smock Alley by Fast Intent theatre company.

President Michael D Higgins will visit London and Scotland this week.

His plays are renowned, but a new book unravels the mystery of the man, says Rita de Brun

MOST mornings, I would have preferred to stay in bed than go to school: my shrunken uniform jumper, the politics of school corridors, monotone teachers, popularity contests (which I never won) and soggy sandwiches never appealed.

Michael Fassbender is set to star in a new adaptation of 'Macbeth'.

The sports coach in Waterford being investigated for the abuse of teenagers in the 1980s has admitted he may have abused up to 30 boys.

James McAvoy is set to star in the remake of 'The Crow'.

People have been saying things about sport for a long time now, often saying them on television; for the purposes of entertainment or enlightenment or devilment or to obtain a small fee or maybe to express bewilderment at fresh proposals to rework the national leagues.

David Bowie wanted his new album cover to be as "minimal and undesigned as possible".

Joseph O’Brien emerged from rain-lashed Ballybrit last night with a 55/1 treble, achieved on Eye Of The Storm, Cairdiuil and Chamonix, and a two-day careless riding ban handed down after a manoeuvre on Chamonix before the halfway point of the featured Ardilaun Hotel Oyster Stakes.

Shane ‘Dusty’ Foley completed his second double in consecutive days when scoring on Uleavemebreathless and Macbeth at Roscommon last evening, bringing his seasonal tally to 45.

Dermot Weld and Pat Smullen have solid prospects of a treble at Roscommon this evening, with the duo’s Supernovae the nap choice in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Maiden.

The history of these islands and their peoples can be read through their castles, ruined or restored, finds Mary Leland

I HATE to quote the Scottish play, but that line from Macbeth has never been so apposite.

Five-year-old mare Midnight Soprano continued her remarkable rate of progress when getting the better of Ascot Gold Cup candidate Saddler’s Rock and odds-on favourite Unaccompanied in the Listed Seamus & Rosemary McGrath Saval Beg Stakes in Leopardstown last night.

CHICAGO, almost certainly a fair way down the pecking order at Ballydoyle, looks good enough to land the nap in the Events At Tipperary Racecourse Maiden at Tipperary tonight.

ALEX FERGUSON’S 70th birthday at Old Trafford appeared to have been stage-managed like a North Korean state event.

Some of the most popular lines we attribute to historical figures are in fact misquotes. Dan Buckley shares some of the classics

FRED Fenster lived up to his billing as a handicap snip when justifying 9/10 favouritism in the www.tehtote.com/mobile Handicap in Navan yesterday.

FRONTIER is the nap choice to land the www.thetote.com/mobile Maiden, on what is a dreadful programme at Navan this afternoon.

A READER tells me a pair of racing pigeons, with rings, arrived at his farm four months ago, stayed around the yard and have now hatched two eggs, both parents sitting.

THE legacy of the late Tony Gregory helped his election agent of more than 30 years, Maureen O’Sullivan, win his Dáil seat in the Dublin Central by-election – signalling the end of the Ahern-dominated era in the constituency.

AS students began into the drudgery of the 2007 State exams, there were no controversial questions on yesterday’s English papers.

IF you’ve just unearthed that Christmas book token from down the back of the sofa, here’s a sure-fire way to turn it into literary gold: pop around to your local bookstore and exchange it for a copy of “The Damned United” (Faber).

The Examiner’s football correspondent Liam Mackey likes a good argument when he hears it, and he’s got strong views of his own. Today, and every Tuesday, he will be acting as referee on your opinions on the Premiership.

THE MARTINS at Togher Church near Dunmanway returned from Africa to find their homes newly-painted white to match the new paint job of the church, on the eaves of which they annually raise families.

Daniel Bryan tonight became the second of the final four Big Brother contestants to be voted out of the house.

By Ronan Mullen I WOULD have liked to write about Saddam Hussein this week, and how his capture might offer a new prospect of stability in Iraq. But I have something more serious to write about, something deeply troubling.

CONCERNED English teachers are horrified at the shocking violence in the latest Irish production of the Shakespearean play, Macbeth.