Christmas in Cork has been saved after City Hall secured enough funding to stage the city’s hugely popular Glow festival again this year.

Here’s what’s going on in the world of Irish food...

IN John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, Mexican pearl diver, Kino, basks in the ‘song of the family’. On the other side of the ocean, traditional Irish singer, Seán Keane, also has a family song, titled ‘Home’.

Des O’Driscoll with the latest entertainment news and events

Dominic Moore is an actor and puppeteer from Cork. His one-man show Mr Punch is playing the White Horse in Ballincollig, Co Cork, tonight, and he also has a role in Jack, a new play by Declan Hasset about Jack Lynch, which plays at Ballymaloe Grainstore and the Everyman in March.

MUSIC NEWS: It takes a lot to get Pink Floyd back together for anything, and while there are no signs of any music collaborations, the three surviving members have at least joined forces to release a statement on behalf of cause they’ve long been supporters of. 

Until a deluge split the heavens at lunchtime on Sunday, many were increasingly inclined to believe rumours that Satan was spotted somewhere east of Shanagarry bearing a bagful of souls, his part in a Faustian bargain that saw the 2016 Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food & Wine bask in an utterly improbable mini-heatwave while the rest of the country took to the lifeboats.

Eoghan O’Sullivan shares the latest news from the world of showbiz

Stars of the future from CIT Cork School of Music will delight the audience with their performances in the inaugural Ballymaloe Young Musicians Concert this week.

One of the world’s longest-running film festivals is rolling out the red carpet for a special guest next week who was tracked down after 40 years thanks to the Irish Examiner

Film Festival signals return of Lasse Hallstrom’s Chocolat

MUSIC NEWS: Hozier’s latest video, for ‘Someone New’ off his debut album, features Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer. 

He may have been a famous Bond villain, but Mathieu Amalric was very much the hero in Cork as he opened the city’s French Film Festival.

MUSIC NEWS: Reginald D Hunter’s series, Songs of the South, is essential viewing for music fans tomorrow night (BBC Two, 9pm), and this second episode is all the more attractive because it is followed by a new documentary on James Brown. 

Looking for plans for the weekend? Here’s a list of what’s on and where.

THOUGH just over a debilitating chest infection, singer-song writer Eddi Reader is full of the joys of life and music.

The Menu returns once again with his Yuletide roundup of the very best of 2014 to fill the Christmas Hamper as well as his food awards, The Munchies, a tip of the hat to those who labour long and hard to make local, sustainable Irish produce to a world-class standard.

Colette Sheridan reveals why you just can’t be late for East Cork’s Early Music Festival.

MUSIC NEWS: The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue and co have been busy touring, with Hot Press also reporting the band recently shot the video for their single ‘Superheroes’ in a township in Johannesburg.

MUSIC NEWS: Beyoncé has posted a short teaser trailer for the upcoming 50 Shades Of Grey movie on her Instagram account — although it seems fairly ironic that the singer, a key figure in the ‘Ban Bossy’ campaign for young girls, should lend her support to a film based on a book which has been criticised for its portrayal of women and overt sadomasochist themes.

GIG WISE: All roads lead to Longitude in Marlay Park, Dublin, this weekend, and stage times are available on the festival’s website.

AT 9.30am on a glorious Saturday last year, I paused at the entrance to the Ballymaloe Grainstore; was I really going to pass up a rare blast of Irish summer sunshine to instead sit indoors and listen to two guys talking?

Whisk her away from the daily grind with some great trips, treats and events, selected by Pól Ó Conghaile

Over the course of The Menu’s career as a professional stove-jockey many moons ago, the apex of his career remains a prolonged spell as apprentice to sorcerer Seamus O’Connell of the Ivory Tower.

Michael Harding, author of the bestselling memoir, Staring at Lakes, feels privileged to be touring, reading from his book and chatting to audiences. He will be at the Ballymaloe Grainstore on Nov 7 as part of a national tour.

BEHIND brand Rebecca Storm are two leading players: front of house is Rebecca the dazzling singer with a string of hit musical hits — Blood Brothers, Evita and Les Miserables — to her name and backstage is her husband/musical director Kenny Shearer.

Even if you don’t know your radishes from your rhubarb, there is something for all the family at the first Ballymaloe Garden Festival which takes place this weekend at the East Cork gardens located around Ballymaloe House and Ballymaloe Cookery School.

I’ll be 50 years on the road this year. I started when I was 16 and I still love performing.

Vincent Cassel in La Haine, the film that made his name and which is as provocative today as it was in 1995.

Matthew Zajac tells Colette Sheridan about unearthing the surprising truth about his father’s wartime service