Some of the world’s biggest names in Hollywood are currently filming on these shores as a wave of movie and TV productions get underway.

Our regular contributors select their highlights of the year.

Irish actress Denise Gough tells Jeananne Craig why she couldn’t be happier with the gritty lead role in Paula

Some great things to see and do this week. 

Research shows most women regret one-night stands. Apart from not enjoying the experience, there is a host of other health and safety risks associated with having sex with a stranger, says Áilín Quinlan.

A boom in ticket sales for works by Irish playwrights Brian Friel, Enda Walsh, and Conor McPherson contributed to the Dublin Theatre Festival last year recording a greater than threefold increase in profits to €107,626.

Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer has written a play based on his oldest friend’s diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, writes Colette Sheridan

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Twenty years after his classic play pushed him into the limelight, Conor McPherson is doing his best not to let the ageing process diminish his spark, writes Padraic Killeen

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I’m pretty chilled out. The thing about being an actor is, at the end of the day, it’s just a job.

The stage of The Curious Incident could be one of the highlights of the Dublin Theatre Festival, writes Padraic Killeen

Here’s five suggestions for things to look out for in the week ahead.

The winner of the ICCL Human Rights Short Film Awards will be announced this Thursday following a gala screening of the six shortlisted films in the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin. The jury includes director Lenny Abrahamson (Adam and Paul, Frank) and playwright Conor McPherson.

ON MY cycle home, I passed two of Samuel Beckett’s namesakes: the beautiful bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava and, just east of that, along Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, the LE Samuel Beckett, the Naval Service’s new patrol vessel.

IT STRUCK a sensitive nerve when the poet WJ Mc Cormack, aka Hugh Maxton, this week defended Aosdána’s annual funding of €2.7 million by mentioning that Fair City cost €11 million. This fact was met, according to an RTÉ report, with laughter from the floor of Aosdána’s general assembly meeting at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.

Modern American politics and 1950s’ Ireland might not be the most obvious of bedfellows, but TV viewers will discover over the next few days that these seemingly diverse settings have much in common.

Michael Hilliard Mulcahy’s play, Beyond the Brooklyn Sky, deals with the generation that emigrated from Ireland in the 1980s and returned, some without having fulfilled their dreams.

Eugene O’Brien’s award-winning debut play, Eden, is coming to Cork’s Everyman Theatre as part of a nationwide tour.

Give Me Your Hand is a play with a simple premise that has been hugely successful both in Ireland and internationally.

With the Section 481 production tax relief extended until 2020, the Irish film industry breathed a sigh of relief after some pre-budget suggestions that the scheme might have been axed.

His father was a famous singer, but Phelim Drew’s first love was acting, writes Colette Sheridan

MUSIC NEWS: Thom Yorke of Radiohead has unveiled some tracks from his Atoms For Peace project during a DJ set in the US.

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

CARRYING 160 years of Queenstown/Cobh history, the Convent of Mercy property in one of the very best viewing perches in Cork harbour has been put up publicly for sale.

Bonfires lined the roads and hundreds of cheering supporters turned out to greet the victory cavalcade of a rural drama group which has won first prize in a prestigious national competition.

Kilmeen Drama Group were worthy winners of the RTE All-Ireland Drama Festival in 2011.

It may be small but it’s one of the top nine drama groups in the country — now West Cork’s Kilmeen Drama group is to perform its latest prize-winning play at Cork Opera House.

Comedian Frankie Boyle will have shows in Cork and Dublin next December.

FOR an actor, every new part is both a challenge and an opportunity, and the most important journey that you will ever undertake.

Ciarán Hinds, star of film and TV, returns to the Abbey after 20 years, in Juno and the Paycock, says Pádraic Killeen.

Pulitzer Prize nominee Will Eno suggested collaboration with Cork actor and Beckett interpreter Conor Lovett, says Richard Fitzpatrick

Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan, and Stephen Rea are among a host of Hollywood stars battling it out for an Irish Film and Television award.

AN award-winning film by acclaimed Dublin playwright Conor McPherson will be among a raft of Irish productions showcased at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

An award-winning film by acclaimed Dublin playwright Conor McPherson will be among a raft of Irish productions showcased at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

Irish actor Jim Norton has won a Tony Award in the United States for his performance in Conor McPherson's 'The Seafarer'.

The country's National Theatre, The Abbey has announced it's taking it's latest production The Seafarer to three locations around the country.

Culture Ireland has congratulated the Irish theatre artists who have received five nominations in the 2008 Tony Awards for achievement on Broadway.

IRISH actor Jim Norton has scooped a prestigious Laurence Olivier theatre award in London for his performance in Conor McPherson’s play The Seafarer.

MORE than 3,500 writers, musicians and artists have been granted 100% tax exemption in the last seven years, it emerged yesterday ahead of the findings of a review being carried out by the Department of Finance.

A dramatisation of the 1998 Omagh bombings which left 29 people dead was among five films nominated for a prestigious Irish award tonight.

THE country’s top film-makers and screenwriters appealed to the Government yesterday not to axe the valuable tax incentives enjoyed by the Irish film industry.