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. 

This is the 15th year in which we have had qualifiers and an All-Ireland quarter-final stage and results in the last eaight seasons alone combine to paint a very depressing backdrop, writes Brendan O’Brien

Everyman, Cork

It’s time for a return to the Marble City where Bia Beag are reprising their Meet the Bakers event (January 24). 

Ger Fitzgibbon has given Chekov an Anglo-Irish twist for his new play, writes Jo Kerrigan

Eamon McGee just couldn’t take it anymore.

A small, brown-skinned, wise-cracking guy in his mid-20s from Michigan, his name was Alex, and he kept the passengers on the funicular going up to Rio’s Christ The Redeemer statue royally entertained with stories of his adventures as one of the thousands of USA supporters who’d made the trip to Brazil for the World Cup.

Louis van Gaal admits he may not sign any more new players because of Manchester United’s impressive pre-season form.

Exhibition shows how female artists were often more innovative, writes Colette Sheridan

Stunning farm and period property at Warrensgrove is being sold in one lot.

Patrick Cooney spent a decade “dropping in and out” of the lives of four members of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy for his documentary, The Raj in the Rain, which will be screened on Sunday during the Kinsale Arts Festival.

Ruined, hauntingly beautiful, parts of our heritage, the abandoned mansions dotted throughout the country remain a link with a long-gone Ireland of aristocracy and ascendancy.

It’s not the same as New Zealand where every single All Black who pulls on that famous shirt will do everything in his power to avoid becoming a member of the first side to lose to Ireland.

Who Ate Auntie Iris?

WELCOME to the future.

THERE’S an effervescence about Alan O’Sullivan that provides a ready context for his role in preparing Kerry for a sixth All-Ireland final in-a-row.

INTERCOUNTY debuts are typically more entrances with a whimper, than intrusions with a bang.

Hurricane Gustav is expected to make landfall on the US Gulf coast today, three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans.

Rose Martin fishes out a gem called Otter Lodge near no-nonsense Castletownbere

I READ with interest the letter from Robin Bury headlined ‘Protestants targeted by IRA men with a personal agenda during War of Independence’ (Irish Examiner, July 10).