As Munich celebrates another Oktoberfest, Conor Power visits the city and finds it has far more to offer than beer-soaked streets. Expect history, culture, fine food and shopping on a visit to the annual festival

Saoirse Ronan’s favourite nail salon will be painting works of art on to fingernails at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Gay Byrne presents a documentary on the Catholic Church in Ireland, Last Orders With Gay Byrne, at 9.35pm, RTÉ One on Tuesday.

Jean-Baptiste Seckler is from France, a country that until September had never hosted a commissioned mixed martial arts event. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has yet to brought bring its all-swinging, all-dancing, seemingly all-conquering circus to French shores.

Des O’Sullivan on the work of 19th century artist, James Mahony, who painted the major events of his time.

Taking a city break, here or abroad gives us time to stand, stare and listen, sometimes at no expense at all. 

Which foreign newcomer to Old Trafford said this during 2015?

A painting Vincent van Gogh created while briefly working side-by-side with his friend Paul Gauguin in the south of France has brought in $66.3m (€59m) at auction.

Leonard Nimoy, the actor known and loved by generations of Star Trek fans as the pointy-eared, purely logical science officer Mr Spock, has died.

Two inebriated Russians in a Siberian mining region both cut off their own left ears after betting on the result of an arm-wrestling contest, police said.

A "fake" Vincent Van Gogh painting found dumped in an attic has been revealed as a genuine artwork worth up to £30m.

A long-lost Vincent Van Gogh painting, the first full-size canvas by the Dutch master discovered since 1928, has been identified by the Dutch Van Gogh Museum .

Writing off Pádraig Harrington is a bit like writing off Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky — an exercise that’s likely to blow up in your face as the hero takes yet another horrific pummelling but somehow manages to haul himself off the canvas.

Here's what some of the world's most iconic paintings would have looked like if only the artists used pizza as their medium.

Manchester United’s joy was unconfined: a 20th title wrapped up well inside of April, the chance now of a record Premier League points tally, and all achieved with a magnificent demonstration of football artistry.

Imagine this scenario.

THE 2013 January exhibition of watercolours by JMW Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland includes the entire Vaughan bequest and five other watercolours acquired in recent years.

What I do: Paint in oils. Lately I’ve been writing plays and acting (of sorts)

Serbian police have uncovered a painting believed to be by French impressionist Paul Cezanne, which was stolen from a private Swiss museum in 2008 in one of the biggest art thefts in Europe at the time.

Sotheby’s will offer the only privately owned version of Edvard Munch’s haunting work The Scream at an auction in New York on May 2, where it is expected to fetch more than $80m (€60m).

Galway Fisherfolk by Augustus John from the Elizabeth Taylor art collection made £5,625 at Christie’s in London on Wednesday.

Raymond Keaveney’s stewardship of the National Gallery of Ireland has guaranteed its future, says Arts Editor, Marc O’Sullivan

Even Socrates regretted not getting to close the deal with the most beautiful woman in the world. But as he said, it can happen, and he could always say he at least got to dance with her

VISITORS to Cork city’s Bishop Lucey Park are in for a memorable festive treat over the coming weeks.

EXPERTS at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum remain unconvinced by a new book that claims the 19th century Dutch artist was accidentally shot by two teenagers and did not die from self-inflicted wounds.

Seán Scully insists his marriage and fatherhood have lifted the gloom in his monumental paintings, reports Marc O’Sullivan

TORTURED artist Vincent Van Gogh died this month back in 1890.

A man wanted in connection with a stolen drawing believed to be by Vincent van Gogh was arrested.

Eleven Egyptian government culture officials have been formally charged in last month’s theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum that had no functioning security alarms.

EGYPT’S top prosecutor says security lapses are to blame for the theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum.

Egypt’s culture minister said today that a stolen Vincent van Gogh painting said to have been recovered by airport police was still missing.

A stolen Vincent van Gogh painting valued at £32m (€40m) was recovered by police at Cairo airport today, the Egyptian minister of culture said.

A painting by Vincent van Gogh valued at £32m (€39m) has been stolen from a Cairo museum, the Egyptian minister of culture said today.

THE idea that drugs and alcohol can fuel creativity is a myth, it was claimed yesterday.

THE intellectualisation of soccer has, they say, always foundered on a one simple problem – football players. Unless, of course, you’re Dutch.

IT WAS going, going, Goon yesterday as the auctioneer’s hammer fell on Spike Milligan’s personal possessions, raising tens of thousands of pounds.

U2 rocker Bono has hailed guitarist The Edge as a "genius" - comparing his bandmate to famous artist Vincent Van Gogh.

Police refused to comment today on reports that four stolen paintings worth around €119m had been found in the car park of a Swiss mental hospital 500 yards from where they were taken.

Global warming experts are using the priceless works of British artist JMW Turner to try to track climate change over more than a century.

Two works by Francis Bacon are expected to go under the hammer for more than €35m today, Sotheby’s of London said.

One of Vincent Van Gogh’s last landscapes and a Turner masterpiece thought by many to have been lost are among the highlights at art auctions this autumn.