As holiday season kicks into gear, a number of broadcasters and authors tell Jonathan deBurca Butler which books they’ll be packing in their suitcase.

Traumatised souls. Murderous housewives. Wise-cracking hitmen. Bloody revenge. It’s all there in this excellent collection of short stories from Irish crime writers.

A pregnant woman has been jailed for stealing a bottle of perfume in a case in which a warrant was issued to ensure the key witness came to court.

Our pick of the best things happening in the cultural world this week.

Chucking in the day job and writing a novel is a dream many of us harbour but the reality can be far from glamorous, as many successful writers must still juggle their craft with a career.

Cork camogie captain Anna Geary, who is also the city’s 2014 Rose, has backed a huge charity cycle in West Cork which will help boost the coffers of six charities.

WHEN, in 2011, the RTÉ journalist Kathleen McMahon accepted a €600,000 advance for her debut novel, there was excitement throughout the organisation.

CORK Institute of Technology graduate, Sinead Crowley, has become became the first student from the college’s four-year honours Interior Architecture degree to win the National Interior Award.

Visitors were treated to a show of top class horses at last Saturday’s Belgooly Show which required lengthy deliberations before the judges could name their supreme horse champion.

The Abara film festival includes Music By Prudence, the Oscar-winning documentary, writes Colette Sheridan.