Forget the new Star Wars – instead catch Luke, Leia and Han in the long-lost ‘Holiday Special’Last week the long-awaited trailer for Star Wars Episode VII was released. True fans, however, know that it’s really Star Wars Episode VIII.Fri Dec 05 2014 - 07:00
Late Late Toy Show kids steal the show from TubridyToy Show show begins with a dementedly frenetic, child-infested dance-numberSat Nov 29 2014 - 16:25
A mouthful of pig testicles washed down with tearsWelcome, once again, to the jungle, where Ant & Dec steal the sanity of celebritiesFri Nov 28 2014 - 08:00
Water world: meet the protestersWho are the people fighting the water charges, running the protests and taking to the streets to object to the installation of meters?Sat Nov 22 2014 - 01:00
Using the slaughter of the first World War to make us buy groceries? Bah, humbugThe Sainsbury’s ad strives to make us associate the tragedy of a generation with self-service checkouts and shopping trollies and Christmassy feelingsFri Nov 21 2014 - 11:30
Patrick Freyne on Made in Chelsea, Life is Toff and How Rich Are You?The rich are the ideal subjects for fly-on-the-wall, scripted-reality television series. They’ve been ignoring the help for millennia, so it’s no bother to them to ignore a camera crew.Fri Nov 14 2014 - 02:00
Alan Cumming: ‘Something was not quite right about my father’When the actor was told by his cruel, ailing father that he was not his son, the revelation inspired a memoir that puts a positive spin on a tough childhoodFri Nov 14 2014 - 01:00
Graham Norton talks up dogs, booze, divas, IrelandThe TV chat show host shares his witty take on, among other subjects, why people get the dogs they deserveMon Nov 10 2014 - 12:00
‘Love/Hate’ goes out with a predictable bangReview: The drama’s body count became its biggest appeal – and its biggest drawbackSun Nov 09 2014 - 23:31
Mavericks. Moguls. Millennials. It must be the Web SummitPeople say ‘disruption’ and ‘ecosystem’ a lot and talk about selling their companies the way Buddhists talk about nirvana. They all seem to enjoy being at the Web Summit, in Dublin, but what exactly are they up to?Sat Nov 08 2014 - 01:00
‘I inhale food much like whales go about eating plankton. I’m not proud of this. Feck it. Yes I am’Patrick Freyne, journalistFri Nov 07 2014 - 12:49
Naomi Klein on climate change: ‘This is our last chance’When it comes to climate change, capitalism is the problem, says Canadian author and activist Naomi KleinSat Oct 25 2014 - 01:00
Superheroes may be irrational and silly, but they make really good tellyGet your cape, Patrick Freyne is forming a new Justice LeagueFri Oct 24 2014 - 06:53
From The Sandman to Astonishing X-Men - the 10 greatest superhero comic stories ever toldIn celebration of a misspent youth, Patrick Freyne runs through his favourite superhero comicsThu Oct 23 2014 - 22:11
Slideshow: The 12 labours of Enda KennyAn exhibition in Russia has likened the ‘glorious achievements’ of Vladimir Putin to the labours of Hercules. We tried to do the same for Taoiseach Enda Kenny ... a labour in itselfSat Oct 18 2014 - 04:00
Starmus: a festival of the starsAt Starmus Festival in Tenerife, the superstars of science and megastars of music bring cosmology to earthSat Oct 18 2014 - 01:00
A day rehearsing an opera for farters and drunksI know nothing about opera, but I’ve been sent to practise with professionals for the part of Papageno in The Magic Flute, which is ‘as lowbrow as opera gets’. It sounds right for meFri Oct 17 2014 - 01:00
Experience these potatoes – 'The Apprentice' is back, and the boastful gibberish is better than everThis week, we learned that, ike wildebeest, business folk are easily spooked - at one point, a swagger of apprentices ran aimlessly down a street. “We don’t know where we’re going,” one wailedFri Oct 17 2014 - 00:00
Bernard Sumner: ‘I’m happier in myself. Better behaved. Less of a f***ing idiot’He took a bath on ‘Blue Monday’, lost a pile in the Hacienda and was part of a scene that has become music myth. Bernard Sumner of New Order on living in the presentSat Oct 11 2014 - 01:00
Spar warsThe owner of the Spar group has announced 50 new shops, adding to its 400-plus across the Republic. Does the spread of the convenience chain mean the demise of the traditional local shop?Sat Oct 11 2014 - 01:00
All bicep, all heart: Is competitive arm wrestling a real thing? Damn right it isReality TV doesn’t get much musclier (or funnier) than ‘Game of Arms’Fri Oct 10 2014 - 01:00
Remembering the day Gay asked Bill to explain the burning millionHe was once worth a million quid; have a look, he'll tell you what he did ...Thu Oct 09 2014 - 21:56
Patrick Freyne: on Connected, the camera never blinks back tearsA powerful TV series draws us into the lives of others. But are we all just a little TOO connected?Fri Oct 03 2014 - 00:00
Simon Cowell gets his bread, and we get The X Factor circusesLouis Walsh, Leni Riefenstahl and ‘Logan’s Run’ – what more could you want from Saturday-night television?Thu Sept 25 2014 - 14:48
Freyne goes DowntonPatrick Freyne anticipates the new series of Downton Abbey which starts on SundayFri Sept 19 2014 - 01:00
‘The joke is on Ross and people like Ross’Journalist, author and Ross O’Carroll Kelly creator Paul Howard talks about his new book, his columns and his sense of humourMon Sept 08 2014 - 01:00
Paul Howard: 'What I learned From making Anglo The Musical'Ahead of the launch of his new Ross O’Carroll-Kelly book, Keeping up with the Kalashnikovs, Paul Howard tells Patrick Freyne about the musical nightmare that drove him to gin and helped him lose a stone in weightSun Sept 07 2014 - 08:40
Three days, one field and 41,000 party Picnic peopleFancy dress is mainstream, toddlers are a must-have accessory. It’s Electric Picnic 2014Mon Sept 01 2014 - 07:10
Do drones dream of Electric Picnics?Introducing Steve, the Irish Times flying robot cameraSun Aug 31 2014 - 23:34
“I view Electric Picnic as a sporting event”Patrick Freyne on a festival filled with mud, music, madness ... and a bleeping Deprogramming MachineSat Aug 30 2014 - 13:30
24 Hours in Temple BarIt’s different things to different people: party zone, bohemian quarter, workplace and home to 2000 people. We spend a day and night in Dublin’s Temple Bar, to find out what really happens there over 24 hours. Quite a lotSat Aug 30 2014 - 01:00
That blinding, deafening, sinking Titanic feelingThe Titanic Experience in Belfast is one of the most visited tourist sites on the island, and surely one of the loudestFri Aug 29 2014 - 01:00
A good year for the 2014 Roses? The harvest is assuredFellow culchies know this festival is all about renewing the land for another yearWed Aug 20 2014 - 07:27
Bonnie Tyler: ‘There’s nothing I won’t talk about’Tyler was a country-rock chanteuse before an operation to her larynx transformed her into the husky queen of the power ballad. She will soon take Total Eclipse of the Heart to Electric PicnicWed Aug 20 2014 - 01:00
A quest with Game of Thrones fans through a fantastical land – Co AntrimThe Trip: We visit the place where Melisandre gave birth to a shadow assassin, drive slowly past the site of Castle Black, and see the Giant’s Causeway, which is not in the show (but was built by giants)Mon Aug 18 2014 - 01:00
Culture Shock: Heard the one about the Catholic, the Protestant and the sitcom?What’s the difference between ‘Fawlty Towers’, ‘The Office’, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’? From the way they’re made to the way their audiences respond, each has its own, almost religious approachSat Aug 02 2014 - 01:00
Television: OM Dieu, a ‘Reign’ of error, and the towns of Ireland up in arms‘Reign’ oozes anachronisms; you’ll find a more authentic torture and dark intrigue on ‘Shakedown the Town’Sat Jul 26 2014 - 01:00
Television: Desperately seeking a political edge to these saucy servants of the richThere’s a Marxist message about class struggle deep in ‘Devious Maids’, but it’s been lost under the sex and sillinessSat Jul 19 2014 - 01:00
A tale of two communities in Rathkeale: ‘We live in the same space but different worlds’The settled people of Rathkeale often wish the town’s Travellers would disappear – and the feeling seems to be mutualSat Jul 12 2014 - 01:21
Trust busters and monkey boxing: why Netflix watches everything you watchTodd Yellin talks about how his company strives to individualise content in order to give us what we wantThu Jul 10 2014 - 01:00
Garth Brooks fans lick wounds at news of cancellationSome blame the licensing process but others blame the promoterWed Jul 09 2014 - 01:00
The man behind the Harbo mouthpieceLovin’ Dublin’s controversial owner and ex-contributor Niall Harbison talks about selling a business for millions, writing a book and demonising the less well offSat Jul 05 2014 - 01:00
Methadone: the ‘government drug’The State is official opiate supplier to 10,000 people. Methadone stabilises, and sometimes even saves, the lives of heroin users, but many are in their second decade of dependencySat Jun 28 2014 - 01:00
Ann Widdecombe: ‘I’m a feminist in the 1970s sense. Now it’s a big whinge’The former Conservative minister left politics in 2010, but has not lost her merciless directness. She talks about being single, Cameron’s ‘obsession’ with image and trying to get Patsy Kensit to MassMon Jun 23 2014 - 01:00
Meatballs, flatpacks and plenty of novelty: A visit to Ikea’s HQMore than just a cut-price furniture store, the Swedish company likes to see itself at the forefront of an urban design revolutionSat Jun 21 2014 - 01:00
Shirts and inhibitions shed before mighty SolIt was all smiles and free ice-cream on the lawns of Stephen’s GreenThu Jun 19 2014 - 01:00
The last of the Blasket evacuees: ‘We weren’t great mixers on the mainland’Gearóid Cheaist Ó Catháin has published a memoir that recalls life on the Great Blasket island, the evacuation of 1953-1954 following a panicked plea to De Valera, and why he might never returnMon Jun 16 2014 - 01:00
Culture Shock: My soccer heroes? Roy Race and Billy’s BootsWorld Cup? What’s that? ‘Roy of the Rovers’ was much more exciting than the real thingSat Jun 14 2014 - 01:00
The life span of a man: what men worry about, and what they should worry aboutAnd the real health risks for men, as explained by Dr Ian Banks of the European Men’s Health ForumTue Jun 10 2014 - 01:00
