Izz Alkarajeh emerged from direct provision to open one of Cork’s most exciting new restaurants – Izz Cafe. Joe McNamee on our new migrant chefs, their respective cuisines and the impact on our native dishes

At a time when freedom of speech is under constant threat, we all need to do our best to protect it. At this particular time in history, no one can afford any more silence, writes Joyce Fegan.

The Larry Nassar scandal in the States has been rolling on for quite a while, and even though it ostensibly came to some kind of conclusion last week, the aftershocks continue to ripple outwards.

A Moscow cinema that had been showing a satirical film about Soviet leader Josef Stalin in defiance of an official Russian government ban cancelled further screenings today.

Police have shown up at a Moscow cinema that screened a satirical film about Soviet leader Josef Stalin in defiance of an official Russian government ban.

Russia’s Culture Ministry has banned a satirical film about Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s death from cinemas following criticism from communists and others that the British-French production made a mockery of Russian history.

From Birdman to her latest role in The Death Of Stalin, Andrea Riseborough is fast becoming one to watch, says Esther McCarthy.                       

David Creedon has been nominated for the Hennessy Portrait Prize for his picture of Billy Ramsell. It’s the latest addition to his hugely impressive body of work, writes Marjorie Brennan.

THE dispute between the country’s rail unions and Irish Rail shows no sign whatsoever of being moved towards a settlement: the unions — four of them — have started their one-day strike programmes, and warned that they are thinking about action that will close the network during the Christmas and new year holidays. And there’s talk of walk-outs hitting bus services early in the new year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly denounced Soviet-era political repressions, describing them as a crime that should never be forgotten.

The president cannot be tamed, so it is time to put the national interest ahead of party politics, says Nina L Khrushcheva.  

History, or at least one version of it, suggests that tomorrow week— October 31— we should remember that date as the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Last week a former master of the Coombe Hospital, Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, complained that people are “firmly pro-choice or pro-life; nobody seems to live in the space in between”.

IT’S almost 54 years since the world has had to consider the consequences of a nuclear confrontation in any real way. 

If you remove the vestige and emblems of the past, do you erase the memory of what they represented too? asks Clodagh Finn

The people in the dock were either going to emerge as heroes or as martyrs, writes Fergus Finlay.

PRESIDENT Trump’s relentless, dishonest attacks on media might be seen as a back-handed compliment to those who report on his inanities, ineptitude, and his disdain for much that is good in our world but far too many of his supporters swallow the Barnum and Bailey harrumph hook, line, and sinker to make that indulgence possible.

The creed that freedom and the rule of law are inextricable has formed the backbone of democratic theory at least since the time of Cicero, writes Vittorio Bufacchi.

The story of immigrants fleeing their motherlands for the wealthier West is a pertinent one for our times. However, in The Patriots, the impressive debut novel from Sana Krasikov, the tables are turned.

The incumbent seemed a certainty for re-election, until the ruling party of his own country, Poland, turned against him, writes Slawomir Sierakowski.

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An all-Russian musical extravaganza is coming to Cork and Cathy Desmond has everything you need to know ahead of time.

All the spark needs to ignite a full blown bonfire of humanity is empathy, writes Suzanne Harrington

The love between the two characters of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ was based on real life, but the truth was repressed both by biographers and by Boris Pasternak’s family. That has now changed, writes Sue Leonard.

The Egyptian-Revival style was made popular by a little French man with a huge vision, writes Kya deLongchamps.

British, French, and German leaders and bureaucrats realised after World War II that only an economically stable ‘United States’ of Europe would guarantee peace, says Kyran Fitzgerald.

Russia and its military has proven prowess in learning lessons from its failures, writes Geoffrey Roberts

US: When a Detroit pizza delivery driver was injured in a car crash a suburban police officer took the food to its destination.

The Soviet leader did not bang his shoe on the desk at the UN, says granddaughter  ,but few nations are immune to diplomatic blunders

The Ukrainian singer who pulled off a surprising victory at the Eurovision Song Contest said: “If you sing about truth, it can really touch people” after she defeated musical and political rival Russia.

Darryl Broe is ignoring history when he objects to American soldiers using Shannon Airport (Irish Examiner, Letters, May 6).

John Lloyd would have all 500 million of us in the European Union retreat into our bunkers because a few criminal fanatics want to murder their fellow citizens [Nail in the European Union coffin, March 24].

Why is it necessary for the centrepiece of the 1916 celebrations to be such a military occasion? asks Fergus Finlay

What difference do individuals make to history? This question is explored in Margaret McMillan’s new book, History’s People. 

JULIAN BARNES transports us back to the former Soviet Union’s days of “endless terror” for his first novel since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2011. 

Seventy years after his speech on the Cold War, Churchill’s words still linger writes Geoffrey Roberts.

Some of the stranger stories from around the globe