Jamie Johnson, Noah Murphy, Maggie O’Connell, Charlie Stubbs, Shakes, The Blok, El Matador. Are we seeing the emergence of a crop of fictional footballers worthy of standing on the shoulders of giants like Roy Race, Blackie Gray, Tommy Barnes, Billy Dane, Hamish Balfour, Johnny Dexter and Glipton Grasshoppers’ star man Ross Nelson?

A book written by a Limerick ICA member has made the top 10 bestseller list in hardback non-fiction. Limerick Federation’s contest/ produce officer Theresa Storey recently published her first cookery book, Fruit on the Table.

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

All In The Cooking is back by popular demand… I’ve just received a copy from O’Brien Press who had the foresight to reprint Part 1 which was originally published in 1946. 

The Hog, The Shrew And The Hullabaloo

Suzanne Harrington asks whose genius idea was it to cut children’s books while still funding animal suffering?

I am concerned about the reduced Arts Council funding for O’Brien Press; this has been cut by 84% from €63,000 in 2014 to €10,000 in 2015.

2014 has been a remarkable year for Irish writing by any standards.

IT would have been yesterday, a Monday in November, 94 years ago, that Luke O’Toole, the general secretary of the GAA, walked through the early-morning mist and the blood-stained, bullet-ridden grass of Croke Park, shadowed by a journalist.

BUBBLE TROUBLE

A group of Cork-based comic book artists have released their first anthology in the midst of what is being describd as a new golden age of comics, writes Don O’Mahony.

World Book Day, the greatest annual celebration of books and reading on the planet, takes place tomorrow and the good news is that all school children can get a token to be exchanged for a special free publication in their local bookshop.

WILL SLINEY is an illustrator with Marvel Comics. It’s his dream job.

There are a couple of distinguishing aspects to Dublin’s largest book festival.

A talented Irish artist hopes that his gory reworking of Ireland’s first superhero will inspire a Hollywood blockbuster.

WILD and foraged foods are once again becoming part of chic restaurant menus as well as family meals.

“Nothing prepares us for the ferocity of grief,” writes Alice Taylor at the start of her book on bereavement. “Someone who was part of your world is gone, and has taken a chunk of you with them.”

Author Alice Taylor lauds the community spirit that comes into its own this time of year, says Colette Sheridan

Artemis Fowl The Last Guardian

We are going through a baby boom. In 2011 there were 74,648 births registered in Ireland, a 29% increase on the births of a decade previous, in 2001. With each of those births also comes the dad conundrum — traditionally sidelined, often willingly, throughout pregnancy and birth by all and sundry, medical professionals, friends, family, even partner, new dads have often struggled to find their precise role in the grand scheme of things.

Here is a summary of each of the short-listed books.

Taking Sides by Brian Gallagher (O’Brien Press; €7.99) is a very apt title as the story is set in the early twenties when the newly independent Ireland rushed headlong into a bloody and divisive civil war.

The Irish and English may have a lot in common, but not when it comes to crisps, writes Dan Buckley

The decade that saw Ireland relax after years of austerity is celebrated in a new book of photographs, writes Jo Kerrigan

VICTIMS’ organisation One in Four has called for a statutory inquiry into Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid, as it emerged that gardaí are investigating two complaints of abuse against him.

IT’S that time of year again and, along with other non-perishables, good drink can make a great celebratory Christmas gift — from a simple single bottle costing a tenner or €20, through to a delivery of a case of luxury wines.

Muriel Bolger

THE story of the Titanic may take a Cork-born children’s author on a voyage to international acclaim.

IGGY AND ME by Jenny Valentine (Harper Collins; €5.92). It’s end of term and little Iggy is worried. “Who will look after the hamsters and the guinea pigs?” she asks.

MATTHEW’S GOALS by Michael Hardcastle (A&C Black; €5.92). Soccer-mad Matthew forgets to close the door of his mum’s freezer, leading to the worst punishment possible — being banned from playing soccer just as an important fixture is looming.

TWEET, Tweet in the Tree by Julie Fletcher and Anna Lubecka (Caterpillar Books, €6.30) is a handy-sized board book for toddlers aged 18 months who are at the stage of identifying animals and birds. The loud colours and simple shapes, along with easy rhyming read-aloud words, create the perfect bedtime book.

DESPITE being one of Ireland’s smallest counties and overrun by people, Dublin is remarkably well endowed when it comes to wildlife.

The Butler’s Pantry: Recipes for All Seasons, by Eileen Bergin, is published by O’Brien Press at €24.99.

MICHAEL FOLEY has won the Boylesports Irish Sports Book of the Year Award for ‘Kings of September’, his account of the 1982 All-Ireland football final in which Offaly foiled Kerry’s bid for a historic five-in-a-row.

A Dublin-based publisher distributed more than 200 free books across the capital this weekend to encourage more children to read.

The first-ever Polish language book by an Irish publisher will be released today to cater for the estimated 200,000 Poles living and working in the country.

HARRY Potter watch out.

Muck and Merlot - Tom Doorley is one of Ireland’s best known commentators on food and wine.

IN THE foreword to Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA (O’Brien Press, 25), Brendan Anderson explains that Cahill, a former chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, spoke to him “frankly about those things that he is free to speak about”.