Belfast and beyond

Best of luck to all those nominated for this year's Academy Awards. Particular kudos to Kenneth Branagh, director of Belfast, who has a...

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England 2 Germany 0

Around a century ago, Ireland was plunged into a bloody civil war. The conflict pitted neighbour against neighbour, divided families, a...

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Last night’s TV

I don't know if "enjoyed" is the right word, but last night's RTÉ One programme on #partition, as part of the #DecadeofCentenaries, cer...

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Last night’s TV

Last night, Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody centred on a case of coercive control which ended, tragically, with the death of the...

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Sign language

Philip Roth once said that people tended to glamourise the process of writing a book. He compared it to building a wall: you put one br...

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What’s in a name?

All professions use jargon: terms which are familiar to insiders – and not to those outside the fold. It’s partly a kind of secret code...

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Tina Forever

Last night we watched the documentary film Tina, about the remarkable life of rock ’n’ roll legend Tina Turner. When we talk about “leg...

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I Blame Jaws

I blame Jaws. Not the things in your mouth: they can be useful – for eating, for example. No, the film about the big shark. Before that...

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