A British MP whose campaign had a huge bearing on freeing the Birmingham Six will be guest speaker at a festival in Cork to honour another human rights champion.

Apart from the unsettled weather, there was a distinct Down Under feel to the first night of the 59th Cork Film Festival at Cork Opera House.

Cork International Short Story festival kicked off at Triskel Christchurch last night with a reading from famed US writer Richard Ford.

THREE years ago many Irish people had never heard of Mother Jones.

IF you chose your concerts wisely this past Cork jazz weekend, your experience would have belied the negative media previews, which focused on the dilution of jazz in favour of a mélange of soul, rock and pop.

Ever since he first walked out onto a Cork Jazz Festival stage alongside, of all things, turntables and mixers, Courtney Pine has been a firm favourite with Leeside audiences. He’s been getting crowds dancing in the aisles during the festival since the late 1990s, placing his muscular, dizzying sax playing in all manner of musical contexts.

CELEBRATING the workers’ rights activism of Cork-born firebrand, Mary Harris, The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival takes place in the Shandon area of Cork city from Jul 30-Aug 1.

The deferral of gas boiler maintenance in council homes across Cork City as part of a €1.2m cutbacks package raises serious health and safety issues, it was claimed last night.

THE 53rd Corona Cork Film Festival opened yesterday with the screening of Burn After Reading, the latest Coen brothers film starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

JAZZ reigns in Cork this bank holiday weekend with a powerful blast coming last night from the organisers, who are promising the city’s best-ever Guinness international festival.

The Cork Film Festival will get under way on October 12 with the premiere of the Irish film, Song for a Raggy Boy, based on a true story by Patrick Galvin