Amy was “an OK actress” and later a social worker and a psychotherapist before realising that her childhood love of reading and her parents’ jobs as journalists were clues to her true calling. She spoke to Sue Leonard.

New Florida million-dollar home has nice view, but built on wrong lot

I LEFT the cyber world with all its virtual distractions and came back down to Earth — not with a crash, but with a gentle soft landing — at Carrig Country House Hotel, off the Ring of Kerry.

100 years ago today Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’ shocked class-ridden Victorian Britain, writes Robert Hume.

THE celebration show now underway at the Lavit Gallery in Cork entitled RHA in the South features paintings and sculptures by invited members from the Royal Hibernian Academy.

CORK Craft Month, which runs until September 8, showcases the enormous range of ways in which Irish craft and its history can be invoked, questioned or celebrated.

BEFORE Art Deco mesmerised a generation of collectors in the 1970s and ’80s, the design period of Arts & Crafts was the last style group that purist antique dealers would acknowledge as properly antique.

Carl Dixon on how Cork Craft Month showcases local talent and initiative

CELLMOUNT LOOP, DROUMILLIHY WOODS, CO CORK

This week Esther N McCarthy goes digging for some garden paraphenalia to tempt the most fresh-air averse into the great outdoors.

RIGHT around this time of year I get ready for my beauty New Year’s resolutions: take care of my hair, wear less mascara, defuzz my legs more often.

Robert Hume casts his eye over the ads in this newspaper 100 years ago to see what was on offer for Christmas presents

A 28-year-old dairy farmer with a fondness for the annual “Pig and Porter” tag rugby competition has been chosen by Macra na Feirme as young farmer of the year.

Carol O’Callaghan looks at morsels of madness we might have once rejected as frivolous but now add finish to a room.

If similar surveys were undertaken in other countries, the results would be pretty much the same, writes Fr Seán McDonagh

DESCRIBED as “the first major biography in 35 years of the greatest British artist of the late 19th century” this handsome volume is far more than that, and provides a wide-ranging introduction not only to late 19th century art in Britain but also to key figures in the Arts and Crafts movement such as William Morris.

EVERY bit as genteel now as it was a century ago when built, the Edwardian semi-d Villa Nova is a big Cork city home buy, full of pleasant original features, and standing proud.

Pope Benedict XVI has sacked an outspoken Australian bishop who called on the Church to consider ordaining women and married men.

With beautiful gardens, elegant extras and handsome interiors, Chaffinch Hall is a delightful buy, Tommy Barker reports.

THE death of Mel Gibson’s career has been greatly exaggerated.

A “chilled-out” concert promoter claimed tonight that he was not out of pocket after settling a court case with pop legend Prince.

The musician Prince was described in the Commercial Court today as being "one of the least clear people" that a senior executive at one of the worlds' largest entertainment management companies has ever dealt with.

An agent who acted for Prince in negotiations for a gig at Croke Park in 2008 has said he was only told by Prince two weeks before the gig that the artist was not going to play in Dublin.

Rock superstar Prince will not be appearing as a witness in a High Court case arising out of a dispute over the cancellation of a concert the musician was due to perform in Dublin in June 2008.

BONNETS and hips, curtain swags and swagger — you can go one of several ways with the houses called Ashley.

Katie Price is to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Rolling Stones guitarist has teamed up with British heritage store Liberty of London to design a range of clothing and accessories.

An agent representing both Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott has denied the pair have fallen out over their new Robin Hood movie 'Notthingham'.

A PENSIONER who fooled the art world for years by selling fake antiques his son had “knocked up” in his garden shed avoided a jail sentence yesterday.

SENTENCING has been adjourned for a pensioner who fooled the art world for years by selling “antiques” his son had “knocked up” in his garden shed.

A valuable literary collection including letters and a manuscript by WB Yeats will go under the hammer today.

Prayers were said at Waltham Abbey today for the “tortured soul” of a crazed axeman who went on a wrecking spree in the historic church.