Did Charles Dickens execute the most audacious literary fraud ever or was the Pickwick Papers a work of stunning originality? Mary Leland unravels the threads of a riveting fictionalised account of the book’s origins.

Room, Sing Street, and My Name is Emily look set to be the big winners at the Irish Film and Television Awards (Iftas) as they have bagged eight nominations apiece.

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail accepts Croke Park’s plans to scrap the All-Ireland U21 football championship may have been hasty.

Dublin GAA secretary John Costello has accused Croke Park top brass of behaving like Ebeneezer Scrooge after their request for a share of the gate receipts from the Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland semi-final replay yielded the “princely sum” of €7,500.

Christmas has become a commercial behemoth and it reminds Liz O’Neill of her Dad too much. So she, like Americans for the first time, is off to sample the delights of Cuba

Even the biggest Scrooge has a Christmas carol that transports them to another place. Helen O’Callaghan chats to four well known faces and voices about their favourite.

This week, we review computer-animated romp Penguins Of Madagascar, Bill Murray stars in bittersweet comedy St Vincent, Jude Law plays a submarine captain in thriller Black Sea, dysfunctional families in Men, Women & Children, a father vows to save Christmas in Get Santa and subterranean horror The Pyramid.

Recently, the Tánaiste was interviewed on The Week In Politics.

Well Christmas 2013 is nearly upon us and with less than a week to go I must admit this year has been ok.

We’re talking to you, Scrooge.

Katie Price is launching her own YouTube channel.

The Government’s insistence that the decision to significantly cut the respite care grant was necessary and unavoidable rings hollow when you consider that it has, in the same budget, forked out a colossal €59.2m to the horse and greyhound racing sector.

Wigan 0 Arsenal 1

Dickens once toured Ireland reading A Christmas Carol. Now, actor Clive Francis is doing likewise, writes Colette Sheridan

Dickens’ Irish tour in 1858 attracted some over-enthusiastic fans, writes Robert Hume

Reformed miser Ebenezer Scrooge has been voted the most popular Charles Dickens character, according to a poll held to mark the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth.

LOWER-RANKED staff at EBS are preparing to strike throughout Christmas week after being told they will not receive their traditional extra month’s salary with their December pay cheque.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has called on disgruntled Fine Gael and Labour backbenchers to rebel over the Government’s austerity measures.

Costing north of €500, daytrips to Lapland aren’t exactly a holiday for the masses. Not to worry, writes Pól Ó Conghaile, there are lots of winter wonderlands right here at home

PARTY season is upon us once more — and the North star isn’t the only thing that will shine this Christmas.

Now that the kids are fully settled back at school, the lazy hazy days of summer seem like a lifetime ago.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL would have us believe Scrooge learned from his mistakes.

A BRITISH court will decide today whether to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has become the scourge of the US establishment, on £200,000 (€234,500) bail over accusations of sex crimes in Sweden.

JOHN TERRY hopes to play in the FA Cup final on Saturday after a scan showed no broken bone in his right foot.

Bookmakers are taking a miserly approach over the likelihood of an historic fourth successive victory for Kauto Star in the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton tomorrow.

Simon Cowell reopened his war of words with Louis Walsh last night, branding the Mayo man “the Dark Cloud of X Factor” and “Scrooge”.

Dickens’ classic morality story has been brought to the screen so many times that the redemption of old miser Scrooge is well known to us, and difficult to present in a new and engaging way.

Jim Carrey says his latest film, ‘A Christmas Carol’, mirrors his own journey out of depression.

McConaughey faces a dilemma concerning the films he makes and the direction his career takes: too many fluffy films and a career if not exactly going downhill then certainly stalled.

Ghosts of budgets past, present and future make an appearance, says Political Reporter Áine Kerr.

THIS IS probably the worst time of the year to be short of cash, a truly appalling time to be poor.

Jim Carrey's fans are in for a festive treat - he is to star in a new animated adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol'.

LAST week I was very morose (in case you hadn’t noticed). I was being haunted by the Chelsea Ghost of Christmas Past.

IF MENDING fences was Clive Woodward's plan, he used the wrong hammer.

PLAYERS’ UNION boss Gordon Taylor has admitted traditional Christmas parties are an accident waiting to happen.

A leading British regional airport faces a “crippling” strike over Christmas in a row over pensions, union leaders warned today.

Southampton 3 Portsmouth 0

INSTEAD of doling out hair shirts in next week’s Budget, Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy is uniquely placed to give the economy a badly needed shot in the arm by borrowing to fund capital projects and underwrite the soaring cost of benchmarking.

I WONDER where Cork’s Christmas spirit was one day this week when a young man buying gifts for family and friends was accidentally knocked from his wheelchair – not once, but twice –