Hands — first nights are all about hands. Hands for shaking, sweating, hugging, backslapping, pint-holding, but mostly clapping.

AS GUEST chef, TD Alan Shatter worked 12 hours straight on the day The Restaurant was filmed. But this was small fry for the former Justice Minister.

ANITA Reeves, who stars in a new production of the hit play Little Gem, jokes that she has been threatening to retire from her stage career for 20 years. 

Anita Reeves is relishing her new role as a worker in a nursing home, writes Colette Sheridan.

THEY say the play’s the thing.

When, last May, Drogheda woman Geraldine Kelly contacted The Tubridy Show about organising a reunion of hairdressers she’d worked with in a Dublin salon in the sixties, she did so more in hope than expectation.

God chose my path.

One of the most loved actors the country has ever produced, David Kelly, died yesterday evening aged 82.

“RTÉ was in total chaos at the time. It opened long before it should have.”

Boyzone star Mikey Graham revealed today that going on stage in pantomime will be like stepping back 30 years in time.

CONTROVERSY surrounds a new statue of IRA chief of staff Sean Russell, erected in Dublin this week to replace an earlier monument damaged by those protesting against the republican’s links to the Nazis.

Being finance minister in tough times is a dirty job — but someone’s got to do it, former ‘Minister for Hardship’ tells Caroline O’Doherty

Dubliners frontman Ronnie Drew is to be honoured by the Gaiety Theatre today for his contribution to the world of folk music.

An 18th Century nun, credited with establishing girl’s education in the State, was today named Ireland’s Greatest Woman.

DISGRACED Olympic swimmer Michelle Smith is in the running for the accolade of Ireland’s greatest woman after being nominated in a radio competition, it emerged yesterday.

NIALL TÓIBÍN has ‘cemented’ his reputation as one of the leading actors of his generation by adding his hand prints to the plaza outside the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.

Possibly, his handprints should have been cast in gold rather than the bronze in which the Gaiety Theatre last evening honoured Niall Tóibín.

THE panto! It was always one of the best parts of Christmas, though perhaps never to be the same again now that Maureen Potter is no longer here.

A book of condolences for the actor and comedienne Maureen Potter is due to be opened at the headquarters of the actors’ union Equity later today.

Figures from the world of the theatre and entertainment were at the funeral in Dublin today of popular actress and comedienne Maureen Potter, who died this week aged 79.

DOZENS of the stars of stage and screen turned out yesterday evening for the removal of one of the country’s most popular entertainers, Maureen Potter.

Dan Buckley

The actress and comedienne Maureen Potter has died at her home in Dublin aged 79.

Youghal has a new theatre. Eoin English reports on what it means for the town.

ANNA MANAHAN was delighted yesterday to receive recognition for her acting talents. Her handprints are immortalised on the forecourt of Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre, a distinction she shares with two other legends.

The 'black caper crime comedy' Headrush - written and directed by Shimmy Marcus - starts shooting in Dublin in November.