With more than 65,000 days already lost to work stoppages this year, there are several potential flashpoint areas ahead, writes Stephen Rogers

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

SIPTU is to begin a campaign demanding pay rises for workers.

The leader of the country’s largest trade union will today announce a campaign for 5% pay rises across the economy and for the introduction of a minimum "living" wage of €11.45 across a number of sectors.

From Nidge to Peaky Blinders, Ireland’s top casting directors discuss the secrets of their trade with Richard Fitzpatrick

THREE years ago many Irish people had never heard of Mother Jones.

Is Eamon Gilmore already Labour’s lost leader before a vote has been cast?

Your recent article ‘Jobs plan a community service sentence’ demanded an immediate re-check to see where this was to happen, maybe North Korea or some other such off-the-wall dictatorship.

Damien Dempsey

Siptu president Jack O’Connor has announced his union has begun its “major push” for pay increases across the private sector.

The Inquiry is one of the gems from this year’s documentary strand at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival; although, technically, it’s a drama written from documentary evidence, as its screenplay is threaded with newspaper cuttings and British parliamentary reports.

Highlights include the finales of Homeland and Mad Men, and the new dating show My Best Shot

In honour of the centenary of the 1913 Lockout, the Abbey Theatre is closing out the year with a rare revival of James Plunkett’s play The Risen People.

I write this letter as I am very upset having just attended Mass in my parish of Parteen, Co Clare, and having listened to the priest speak of the month of the Holy Souls, I decided to visit my deceased relatives in Kilquane Cemetery, but it was locked.

POLITICS is rock ’n’ roll for the ugly, and the shucksters, bounders and bumpkins who hang about in Leinster House are a motley crew.

On this day, 100 years ago, 4,000 workers marched through Dublin, demanding recognition by employers for the ITGWU and the reinstatement of striking employees.

THE sun has set on another Dublin Fringe Festival and on the five-year tenure of its artistic director, Róise Goan. She should be proud of the performing arts festival, even if this year it was hit-and-miss.

In the pantheon of Irish patriots, a higher place might, under different circumstances, have been reserved for James Fintan Lalor.

Opening tonight in Dublin’s Smock Alley theatre, A Hundred Years Ago is a new play by RADE, a social project that helps drug users through immersion in the arts.

The re-enactment of the violent clashes during the Dublin Lockout was the centrepiece of the State commemoration to mark its 100th anniversary over the weekend.

The centenary of the famous Dublin lock-out has been marked with a state commemoration at a city site synonymous with Ireland’s largest ever industrial dispute.

Up to 80,000 people are expected to line Dublin’s main thoroughfare to mark the 100th anniversary of Ireland’s greatest industrial dispute.

A handwritten message from Jim Larkin advising union colleagues that "all must work together" is among the items on display at The "Dublin Lockout Exhibition" which is being launched today.

CELEBRATING the workers’ rights activism of Cork-born firebrand, Mary Harris, The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival takes place in the Shandon area of Cork city from Jul 30-Aug 1.

PRESUMABLY, if Edward Snowden ever returns to America, or is captured and brought there, he will meet at least the same fate as Jim Larkin.

One hundred years ago, employers in Dublin engaged in a lockout of 20,000 workers.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called on the Labour Party to collapse the Government.

THE organisers of the Dublin: One City, One Book Festival, which is the focal point for a month of literary events in April, have chosen well with this year’s selection, James Plunkett’s Strumpet City.

Big Jim Larkin was one of the hits of the Galway St Patrick’s Day parade — after being rejected by the city that prides itself on his legacy.

The Government did not need Siptu president Jack O’Connor to tell them that they are approaching endgame on the €3.1bn payment due next month.

NORMALLY at this time of year I go out and start collecting.

Former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and Brud Skehan recalled old times yesterday — when they were both young boys, 83 years ago.

The Labour Party has insisted “security concerns” led to the cancellation of a centenary commemoration which was due to be held in the town where the party was founded.

‘We never micro-manage these conferences,’ one minister said.

THERE is one group of establishment country-wreckers that has managed completely to evade any kind of accountability for bringing this country to ruin.

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.

AS you walk through the rows of monuments in Glasnevin cemetery the story of Ireland’s political, cultural and sporting past is everywhere.

THEY heard it like a whisper.

DUBLIN’S metro system could be fully operational by 2015 if planning permission for the e5 billion project is granted this year.

The president Mary McAleese will lead the ceremonies today marking the 100th anniversary of the country's largest trade union, SIPTU.

I ONCE worked for Denis Larkin. The son of the great Jim Larkin, and brother of Young Jim, also regarded as a great trade union leader, Denis was the least highly rated of the three.

Labour's Tommy Broughan, Terrence Flannagan of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil's Michael Woods have been elected on the fourth count in Dublin North-East.

Hollywood actor Patrick Bergin joined in the trade union May Day celebrations and praised a character he’s about to play on screen, Irish union firebrand Jim Larkin.

The Rev Ian Paisley has not approved any movie which is being planned about his life, he insisted today.