I became a chef totally by accident.

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

A factory in Kinsale has proved to be the perfect location to put on the Irish premiere of a typically energetic play by Enda Walsh, writes Alan O’Riordan

GIG WISE: With Electric Picnic out of the way, the next biggie on the Irish music horizon is the Guinness Amplify festival taking place through the five provinces on different weekends in September and October.

IN the arts, January is a quiet month. Yet last week, I saw two major plays, Druid’s production of Dion Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn and the revival of Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara.

I’M from a town in Co Clare. If I was around in that town 50 years ago, and got it into my head to make a movie, I can’t imagine where I would start.

Author John Healy will be a guest at the Electric Picnic next weekend.

THE REVIVAL of interest in baking has enticed people into the kitchens who might never have been seduced by a pot of stew or even a tagine.

Patrick Cooney spent a decade “dropping in and out” of the lives of four members of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy for his documentary, The Raj in the Rain, which will be screened on Sunday during the Kinsale Arts Festival.

Kevin Barry’s book combines everything from Portugese architecture to Traveller cant, he tells Richard Fitzpatrick

EVERY time I see a baby, I think to myself “I want your skin, newborn”.

Ireland’s love of whiskey and stout is well established. What is less known, perhaps, is that the country has a long association with the grape, too, longer than the arrival of Blue Nun on our shelves a few decades ago.

WHITE Rabbit, Red Rabbit is not your ordinary theatre production.

There’s no shortage of big names participating but Kinsale itself is the heart and soul of this summer’s arts festival, new director Marie McPartlin tells Jo Kerrigan.

MUSIC NEWS: The Stone Roses feature in the current issue of Hot Press with one of them mentioning their Féile appearance in Cork in 1995 as one of their top two memories of life in the band.

Tim Smit will be in Kinsale to talk about Eden, his plant project that blossomed in a Cornwall clay pit, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

Edward Thomas was killed at Arras in 1917, but had long been suicidal and disillusioned with his writing, says Richard Fitzpatrick

ENCOMPASSING all the art forms, as well as food-themed events and debate, Kinsale Arts Festival (Jul 7 to 15) really has something for everyone.

1. Kinsale Arts Festival, Co Cork

Cork’s city manager has criticised Fáilte Ireland over its lack of funding for St Patrick’s Day festivals outside the capital.