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).

Macbeth’s dinner had Banquo.

The entirely predictable furore around child benefit reforms encapsulates so much of the dysfunction and evasion that have damaged this society.

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 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.