After paper-one left many English students 'beaming', paper-two provided a much more stern challenge.

Marian Keyes, Eimear McBride, and Edna O’Brien join JK Rowling and Harper Lee on a list of the 100 essential books by female writers from the past 100 years, according to a new poll.

The effort in some media quarters to explain Alan Hawe’s familicide as an expression of abusive masculinity is beyond stupid, writes Victoria White. 

Since reading Hillary Clinton’s memoir I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ‘difficult women’, writes Louise O’Neill.

IF, AS Farley and Roberts suggest — based on research by an American academic — that being a published poet is more dangerous than being a deep sea diver, then the premise of this book is self evident: Not alone should poets be uninsurable, but their company should be avoided at all costs.

Today is World Poetry Day, so Jonathan deBurca Butler asked a number of people to select their favourite work

Kerry theatre maker Dick Walsh goes beyond the conventional, while retaining his comic world view, writes Pádraic Killeen

BECOMING a mother is a life-changing experience for women, yet many pregnancy books tend to focus on the scientific element: the day-to-day development and growing changes of the baby inside the placenta, what to pack in your hospital bag and what to expect during labour.

AN UNEXPECTED distraction reared its head as Anglo-French new wave rockers Savages were deep into recording their second album, Adore Life, last year, writes Ed Power

ANY poetry-lover who encountered Ted Hughes at the Listowel Writers Week in the 1980s is unlikely to forget this Yorkshire-man’s overwhelming presence. 

Following today’s announcement of Cork Airport’s first transatlantic flights to the US with Norwegian Air, here are ten great things you can do in Boston.

Offering 25 bonus points for any student achieving a D grade or higher in honours maths was a risky educational experiment.

Harper Lee isn’t the only author who wrote a worldwide bestseller yet decided not to try to repeat that success. Brian Moss and Lorraine Murphy look at other members of this elite club

When you ask an Irish person about poetry, the majority suffer an acute case of Leaving Cert flashbacks — nightmarish visions of Sylvia Plath and Robert Frost float before their eyes.

Sympathetic glances on February 14 aside, being a singleton has many advantages, not least the huge amount of ‘me time’, says Louise O’Neill.

Ted Hughes’s life was marked by tragedy, but a new play recollects happier days spent in Co Galway with Assia Wevill and their children, writes Richard Fizpatrick

Margaret Atwood interrogates the myths around the idea of being a writer. Val Nolan is impressed by her conclusions.

IN 2009, The Antlers’ Peter Silberman wrote a concept album about a woman dying in hospital. Her malady was a metaphor: the LP was really about the breakup of a relationship (the particulars of which Silberman would rather not divulge). But he chose to call the record Hospice and critics assumed the story it told was true. That’s where things got complicated.

WELL, it’s finally here. After six years of work I’ve officially started what many people say is the worst few weeks of their lives.

For higher-level Leaving Certificate English students, Seamus Heaney appeared for a second day running — but it was an unseen poem of his that made yesterday’s long Paper 2.

POOR Peaches Geldof.

Leaving Certificate students continue to rely quite heavily on predicting which poets will be examined and memorising prepared answers, reports suggest.

Artful

The appearance of poet Sylvia Plath on Leaving Certificate English Paper 2 will have brought joy to a huge proportion of the 35,000 higher-level students yesterday afternoon.

The English papers faced by about 53,000 Leaving Certificate students were based on themes of storytelling and humour.

MOST mornings, I would have preferred to stay in bed than go to school: my shrunken uniform jumper, the politics of school corridors, monotone teachers, popularity contests (which I never won) and soggy sandwiches never appealed.

Life Saving: Why We Need Poetry, Introductions to Great Poets

John Keats

Between the Sheets: Nine 20th century Women Writers and their Famous Literary Partnerships

Aether, at Macroom Town Hall, sees four artists explore the idea of liminal space, says Tina O’Sullivan

Students at the all-Irish Coláiste Daibhéid in Cork City were pleased with the first Junior Certificate Irish papers.

The non-appearance of Sylvia Plath or Seamus Heaney was the talking point for most higher level Leaving Certificate English students last night.

Morning all!

YOUR columnist has been colder than he was yesterday in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, but not often. Thurles Sars and De La Salle played in what Sylvia Plath called the light of the mind: cold and planetary.

Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th-Century Women Writers

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has called for Ted Hughes to be honoured in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

AS students began into the drudgery of the 2007 State exams, there were no controversial questions on yesterday’s English papers.

Gwen Stefani is proud of her writing skills on No Doubt's album Return On Saturn, because she was able to articulate her inner turmoil.

IRELAND might not be playing in this month’s Euro 2004 tournament but soccer hero Roy Keane took his place in the limelight in yesterday’s Leaving Certificate.

Pregnant Gwyneth Paltrow is taking inspiration from her mother, Blythe Danner, who put her acting career on hold to raise Paltrow and her brother, Jake.

Gwyneth Paltrow shines in this biopic of poet Sylvia Plath but the film still fails to give us further insight into her life.

ACTRESS Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed how an acupuncturist helped her find love. The star credits the alternative therapy with guiding her towards a “new level” in her life.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her Coldplay frontman boyfriend Chris Martin have applied for a marriage licence in California’s Santa Barbara County, according to a report.