Local actor Cathy Belton is proud to be leading the charge at the Galway Arts Festival, writes Padraic Killeen

Gordon Elliott has started the new season as he ended the old and registered a 31/1 treble with Ibsen, Le Grand Chene and Ultimate Horseman in Downpatrick last night.

Kala Brandy, winner of her bumper in Wexford in March, might be capable of landing the Irish Stallion farms Mares Maiden Hurdle in Cork tonight for Paul Townend, fresh from his three winners at the Punchestown Festival last week, and his dad Tim.

Artemis Fowl creator Eoin Colfer was happy to switch to drama for a play in his hometown, writes Marjorie Brennan

After a stint in the West End as an understudy to Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Brian Fenton is back on home turf for a starring role in an adaptation of Tom Barry’s memoir, Guerilla Days in Ireland.

The stage adaptation of the Irish film 'Once' has won two gongs at the Laurence Olivier Awards in London overnight.

STALWART of Cork theatre, Michael Twomey, is directing Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband to celebrate 50 years of the Everyman Theatre Company.

IT’S been a rare Irish summer of glorious sunshine and so the Gate Theatre’s new production of A Streetcar Named Desire couldn’t arrive at a more apt time.

Navan on Tuesday and Punchestown on Wednesday provided valuable lessons for any punters who thought they had this game cracked.

He wore the English crown, but he ended up defeated, humiliated, and reviled.

Sizing Europe duly landed the Grade 1 Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase at Leopardstown yesterday, but, like Arvika Ligeonniere the previous day, was less than impressive.

Professor Andersen’s Night

It’s been a slow and steady rise to stardom for Damian Lewis. But now he’s hit the jackpot with an Emmy win for his role in Homeland. He talks to Craig McLean about fame, fatherhood and fan clubs.

Pat Smullen moved within one of Joseph O’Brien in the race for the Jockeys Championship when Along Came Casey, trained by Dermot Weld for his mother, bolted-up in the Next Meeting At Gowran Park October 5th & 6th Handicap last evening.

Check out our tips from today’s horse races from around Ireland and the UK.

Pan Pan’s take on Henrik Ibsen’s classic tragedy toys with its title but is otherwise true to his vision, says Pádraic Killeen

A West Cork village is gearing up for an influx of more than 3,500 people next month as locals make final preparations for one of the most prestigious drama festivals on the national circuit.

The accused ringleader of a terror plot in Norway has rejected charges that he conspired with al-Qaida to attack a Danish newspaper, saying he was planning a solo raid against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo.

THREE men accused in Norway of an al-Qaida-linked plot to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad pleaded not guilty to terror charges at the start of a trial seen as a key test of Norway’s anti-terror laws.

New biography of James Joyce shows he was ready to sacrifice everything for his art, down to the last supportive woman, writes Thomas McCarthy

Sport has got it badly wrong in the new reality where people are going to count every cent, and the era of building big stadia, and expecting to charge high prices to fill them, is over.

IN An Enemy of the People, a village doctor discovers that the waters of the health spa are contaminated.

Hugh Grant thinks he’s a “very limited” actor.

David Hasselhoff is desperate to prove he's more than just a TV and pop star - by trying his hand at a William Shakespeare play.

The King and Queen of Norway continue their three-day state visit to Ireland today with Queen Sonja attending the opening of a seminar on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen at Trinity College, Dublin.

King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway today begin a three-day state visit to the Republic of Ireland.

Holly Hunter is to follow in Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna and Nicole Kidman's foot steps by appearing on the West End stage.

Star Trek: Nemesis is Patrick Stewart’s third big screen adventure as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise, and it could well be his last.