The Fall of the House of Ulster (with apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)

An Irishman’s Diary: "I wended my weary way through the Dark Hedges of the bleak Ulster countryside, dispirited anew by the dreariness of its steeples"

At Swim-two-bards – Frank McNally on a long literary week in Boston

An Irishman’s Diary

Coronavirus: France turns to literature amid the despair of pandemic

Paris Letter: The French are finding relevance in books about epidemics and confinement

Is this a good time to pile your money into a Persian carpet?

These unique artworks transform a living space. But do your homework before investing

Presumed innocent: a history of adolescent sexuality

From acknowledged reality to hidden taboo, the representation of sexuality in art and culture has a long and difficult history

Mullets, Pokemon, leg warmers and 29 other fads we should be mortified by

Before mocking fidget spinners, cast your mind back to the crazes you got caught up in – embarrassing, isn’t it?

A race against time in a macabre labyrinth

Kathlyn O’Brien speculates on identity and mortality in ‘Altered Light’, while Michael Beirne creates strange, hallucinatory visions of his own inner world in ‘Sahasrara’

‘Ragtime’ author EL Doctorow dies at age 84

Doctorow was born in New York and named after American writer Edgar Allen Poe

Weird, whimsical and other-worldly: Wireless Mystery’s live radio plays

Forget ‘Serial’: these live radio plays will have you shivering in your seat

Album review: Larkin Poe – Larkin Poe

I’m a changed man, said the General with a faint smile

Not another bungled affair at 3am with some unfortunate actress in the foyer of a five-star hotel, I thought

Cult musician Lou Reed who walked on wild side

After a long career one of rock music’s most influential alternative music figures has died aged 71