Maybe we aren’t so racist or misogynistic after all. Perhaps it is strength, hard work, and decency we value above hate, writes Joyce Fegan

Wednesday evening had been intended as Cinema Evening, a new picture house having opened around the corner and being in need of investigation and appraisal. Given my enduring weakness for high-school movies there was only going to be one winner: Booksmart, in which two clever students realise on the eve of graduation that they should have worked less and played more, upon which they hit the town and attempt to cram four years of lost fun into one night.

I’M by nature an unseemly healthy individual, who rarely gets anything worse than a headache. However, In the past few days I’ve been decidedly under the weather, writes Tric Kearney.

It’s usually around this time that I’m asked to share any advice I might have for the newest college freshers and I look over my shoulder, panicked, searching for a Real Adult in the vicinity. 

She has overcome obstacles, from shyness to cancer to advancing in the once male-dominated bastion of the GAA committee room. So thriving as the first female chair of Cork County Board won’t faze Tracey Kennedy. But she does want to represent females in the GAA and be an effective voice for inclusiveness and change...

Peter Dowdall on two books that are well worth their place on any gardener’s bookshelf this season

Chanel started the trend in the 1930s, and this season, pockets were all over the catwalks again. But they signify so much more than just a mere fashion trend, says Annmarie O’Connor

During the three-course dinner, a performance of scenes from esteemed actors of Austen's greatest dramas by Classic Times Theatre Company.

Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen still fascinates. Mary Leland surveys a new biography of the famous writer that reveals the financial struggles of the Austen family at the edges of Georgian gentility

“If the written word could cure rheumatism I think hers might, like a dock leaf laid on a sting”

Here's your lunchtime news bulletin.

Today marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. Olivia Kelleher looks at why modern audiences are still very much enamoured with her.

Eleanor McEvoy suffered the tragic loss of her collaborator while making her new album, writes Ed Power.

On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, Olivia Kelleher, talks to Trinity lecturer Daragh Downes about the woman, her talent and her legacy

At 73, and with more than 100 books and millions of sales under his belt, Michael Morpurgo is as enthusiastic as ever about the importance of ‘rattling good yarns’, writes Marjorie Brennan.

IN a world often too glum, in a world where scepticism is increasingly a plausible reaction to nearly any suggestion, we use escapism as a refuge. We use it as a safety valve so we might not, as Col Brandon threatened in Sense and Sensibility, run mad. 

Joanna Trollope still turns heads. It is not just that she carries herself with such dignity and grace, with her English charm and impeccable manners. It is also her ability to win fans all over the world.

After being heaped with praise for Brokeback Mountain and other films, the director isn’t exactly happy at the reaction to his latest offering, writes Will Lawrence.

Here’s your latest arts and entertainment round-up with Des O’Driscoll.

Oscar night is nearly upon us and there have been a few surprises — and some apparent snubs — in the shortlist, says Esther McCarthy.

With the release of T2 Trainspotting later this week, Declan Burke selects a list of films he believes are superior to their literary source.

English teachers at schools everywhere ought to plunge into this thoroughly impressive and convincing re-reading of Jane Austen’s works — but it will throw all their lesson plans into disarray.

Getting away from it all is best experienced at a full-on yoga and sleep retreat, says Claire O’Sullivan.

2,000 years of history, John Chambers finds there’s more to the historic town of Bath than buns and Jane Austen.

BEST BACKPACKS: The back to school range at Little Ones in Ennis includes beautifully illustrated backpacks and lunchbags from Crocodile Creek. 

This best of this week’s new films in Irish cinemas.

A new film starring Kate Beckinsale is just about to arrive in cinemas, called Love & Friendship.

The cast is back for Alice Through the Looking Glass, and it's looking even more mental this time around. George Clooney is up in a drama from director Jodie Foster and there's a comedy shot in Ireland called Love and Friendship.

All your entertainment news

Critically acclaimed director Whit Stillman is coming to Ireland to present his latest film and to take part in a live Q&A at the IFI in Dublin.

Dublin provided the perfect backdrop for Whit Stillman’s raunchy adaptation of one of Jane Austen’s lesser-known works, writes Helen Barlow

The summer movie season is almost upon us, with blockbusters galore, and some of them don't even have superheroes in them. Not many we'll admit... here's looking at you Independence Day!

Just because a woman engages in ‘sexting’, her credibility in making a complaint to gardaí should not be damaged, the jury in a trial of man charged with sexual assaulting a mother of two has been told.

You might expect hefty Russian tome War And Peace to be the book that people are most likely to have lied about reading. 

Brought up as the eldest of seven, Clár was always interested in words. 

Des O’Sullivan on the sale of historic Irish documents and paintings.

"Get real. Terry Pratchett is not a literary genius"

Summer time should mean expeditions and adventures out of doors but it feels like we haven’t moved beyond March.