Sell-out nights for Druid Theatre’s productions of John B Keane’s Sive and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot helped its box office income to climb by 38%, to €1.3m last year.

Galway’s European Capital of Culture project has awarded a €200,000 contract to a British company to monitor and evaluate the 2020 artistic programme.

The last Sonya Kelly play to visit Cork was How To Keep An Alien, which dealt with her fight to keep her Australian girlfriend Kate in Ireland.

Mick O’Dea is one of Ireland’s finest portrait painters, and he spent three seasons as the artist-in-residence at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, creating portraits of various participants. He tells Richard Fitzpatrick about those sessions, the fruits of which feature in a new exhibition

The characters in ‘Whistle’ and ‘Conversations’ strike home to my era of emigration and every era since, writes Victoria White.

Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy led tributes last night following the death of a giant of Irish theatre, Dan Donovan, who helped foster Murphy’s love of theatre and acting.

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Eugene McCabe’s 1964 tales of a rich farmer who encourages a neighbour to impregnate his wife was well ahead of its time, writes Alan O’Riordan.

Garrett Lombard and Druid’s other young guns were eager to put their spin on Beckett’s classic, writes Alan O’Riordan

Jude Law stars in The Young Pope on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Sunday.

Garry Hynes of Druid tells Padraic Killeen why they’ve revived Martin McDonagh’s modern classic

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As a society we can’t afford to designate the 20s as a second decade of adolescence, writes Victoria White

The embattled Labour leader has come out fighting after criticism of her performance in this week’s TV election debate. Joan Burton says she has no intention of “standing back” and “doing a little bit of Downton Abbey and the tea cups”.

Actors are not fearless. We are brave.

Kerry actress Aisling O’Sullivan is relishing the thought of bringing Druid’s Shakespeare extravaganza to Limerick and Skibbereen, writes Padraic Killeen

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Stuck for something to do this week? Then take a look at our recommendations.

From Nidge to Peaky Blinders, Ireland’s top casting directors discuss the secrets of their trade with Richard Fitzpatrick

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Bailegangaire will be staged alongside Tom Murphy’s new prequel to his classic play, writes Pádraic Kileen

It’s official. Amy and Brian really are our Kate and Wills.

Garry Hynes co-founded Druid in the 1970s, and is not going to stop and rest on her laurels yet.

For Garry Hynes, artistic director with Druid Theatre Company, 2014 has begun where 2013 ended, with the joyous revival of Dion Boucicault’s 1860 play, The Colleen Bawn.

Martin McDonagh took the theatre world by storm in 1996 following the premiere of his debut play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, in Galway.

Classical: Berlin Philharmonie, Live in HD

NOTHING beats a bit of Boucicault at Christmas.

Phil Chevron would have approved.

Druid’s acclaimed collaboration with Tom Murphy gave his work a new lease of life. Now it is reaching new audiences with a national tour, writes Pádraic Killeen

Martin McDonagh’s A Skull In Connemara is a macabre comedy, says Colette Sheridan

Writing and producing six plays in a day is the focus of 24 Hour Plays at the Abbey, says Pádraic Killeen

The huge box office success of John B Keane’s Big Maggie was one of the factors behind theatre company Druid recording a turnaround in its fortunes last year.

Steve Wall talks to Siobhán Cronin about celebrating 25 years of The Stunning and his role as Uncle Danny in Moone Boy

Imeall on TG4 kicks off its new season with a revealing interview with playwright Tom Murphy, says Richard Fitzpatrick

Tom Murphy’s emigration trilogy is “an inner history of Ireland,” Garry Hynes tells Alan O’Riordan

President Michael D Higgins will make his second official visit to London this weekend.

Garry Hynes of Druid Theatre in Galway on why she still marvels at John B’s huge ambition

JOHN BRENDAN KEANE is ten years dead today.

IN 2005, Galway theatre company, Druid, revived six works by the Irish playwright JM Synge.

Blind painter Pádraig Naughton is spearheading a national programme for greater inclusivity, says Carl Dixon.

Loughlin Deegan tells Alan O’Riordan how the Dublin Theatre Festival is making the most of the city’s talent

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PRESIDENT Mary McAleese and her husband, Senator Martin McAleese, were special guests yesterday afternoon at Druid’s performance of Martin McDonagh’s play The Cripple of Inishmaan on Inis Meáin, Co Galway.

COLLEAGUES from the worlds of theatre and television have paid tribute to actor Mick Lally, who died yesterday morning, aged 64.

The theatre world was tonight mourning the loss of Mick Lally, one of its most renowned actors.

ON January 27 last, RTÉ presented three programmes on Synge’s Playboy Of The Western World: Playboy 100: Playboys And Rebels (John Kelly); The Playboy Of The Western World (Garry Hynes and Druid Theatre), and Mighty Talk.

Theatre director Garry Hynes has joined Pope John Paul II, Hillary Clinton, John F Kennedy and John Hume in receiving the freedom of Galway city.