With Ireland chosen to host a major exhibition on European craft, we’re treated to everything from unconventional ceramics and traditional basket making, to the application of new technology, writes Carol O’Callaghan.

Carol O’Callaghan previews an event in Cork attracting some of the biggest names and influencers in design and craft-making today

This week Esther N McCarthy fills her hand-made basket with some early seasonal treats.

1. As suggested by the name, all the pieces on I am of Ireland are just that, inspired and shaped by our rural landscapes and made on this island.

There has to be more tax incentives to promote investment in Irish companies so they can grow in scale, according to technology entrepreneur Joe Hogan.

Each week Esther N McCarthy scouts around for interesting pieces for your interiors. This week she discovers tea towel kitchen art and iconic time pieces.

Twenty-four business leaders have been shortlisted for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award 2011.

FARMERS in the Republic are at a competitive disadvantage compared to renewable crop growers in the North, according to one leading miscanthus grower.

JHM Crops Ltd have announced an agreement with Bank of Ireland on a new funding structure for miscanthus growers.

THE 2011 bioenergy scheme will be formally announced in the coming weeks, JHM Crops, based in Adare, Co Limerick, has claimed following discussions with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

A CAMPAIGN to promote the growth of miscanthus should now be initiated by Energy Minister Eamon Ryan, it was suggested yesterday.

DETAILS of Government support for the use of miscanthus as an alternative to peat in power-generating stations will be made known today.

THE first logs made in Ireland from miscanthus, a renewable fuel crop grown by farmers, have gone on the retail market in Limerick.

A LIMERICK company is planning to help plant 10,000 acres of elephant grass.

THE demand to grow miscanthus cane, otherwise known as elephant grass, has increased dramatically in Munster and Galway in the past three months, according to JHM Crops, based at Kilfinny, Adare, Co Limerick.

THE committee set up to conduct an inquiry into the Dublin Bus tragedy met for the first time yesterday as two of the victims were buried.

British troops today told how they caught a local Baath party kingpin with millions of Iraqi dinars and torture equipment stashed in his home.