A glimpse into Paradise
Billy Leahy looks at two artists exhibiting at the Douglas Hyde gallery emerging Irish artist Mark Garry and San Francisco-based Laura Owens
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Birds: Mistle Thrush
At 27 cm in length, the Mistle Thrush is significantly larger than the similar Song Thrush, the bird with which it is most often confused. A common though wary resident of parks, woodland and large gardens all over Ireland, it often visits playing fields and large lawns in search of worms and other invertebrate food. It also eats fruits and berries, especially in the winter.
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Updike's other America
John Updike's new novel tells the story of an 18-year-old New Jersey high-school student who believes that his faith in Islam is threatened by the materialistic, hedonistic society he sees around him in a slumping, suburban factory-town in America. Reviewed by Robert Stone
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Books for every taste
A recent UK poll of book sales showed that the ever-growing number of outlets that sell books are catering to vastly different tastes.
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Pageboy Danny
A review of Pageboy Danny by Brianog Brady Dawson. Illustrated by Michael Connor. O'Brien Press €5.99
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Football fever
Just when you thought there was no medium left for football to invade Donald Mahoney compiles this summer's essential soccer reading list
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I'm back in business
George Bush may not be out of trouble just yet but the return of Republican election campaign strategist Karl Rove and the US president's recent visit to Baghdad will not do his ratings any harm, writes Marion McKeone
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Catherine Butler's memories of Charlie
Two weeks ago we commenced the serialisation of Catherine Butler's memoirs of her time as personal assistant to Charles Haughey. Catherine's intention was to publish this material in advance of Charles Haughey's death. While he saw the first installment (published on 8 June), we do not know if he read it before he died on 13 June.
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Child protection guidelines not working
The ISPCC has said the State guidelines on reporting child sexual abuse are not working. The criticisms of the Children First guidelines are contained in the ISPCC's submission to the Office for the Minister for Children. In the aftermath of the Ferns report, the Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, announced a review of the guidelines. The Children's Rights Alliance, representing over 80 organisations, also said the guidelines were not working in their submission to the office.
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New York's naked truth
He has become a New York institution. He stands in the middle of Times Square, in his tighty-whiteys with the words "Naked Cowboy" emblazoned in blue, white and red across his buttocks. Tourists stop to take a photograph and stuff a dollar into his boots. Big boots. He can make up to a grand a day, he says.
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The art of 'chokes
Artichokes are best served simply with a bowl of melted butter. By Darina Allen
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Political cowardice bars sane response to criminality
Ten years ago, in the aftermath of the emotional trauma that erupted on the murder of Veronica Guerin, the Oireachtas passed a raft of legislation to combat what was seen as the menace of organised crime. It was asserted hysterically that the crime bosses threatened our democratic institutions, that her murder represented an assault on freedom of the press, that crime was out of control. Promises were made to "hunt down" her killers, a new innovation was introduced into our criminal justice system – without any legislative backing – the use of "supergrasses", a practice that when introduced in Northern Ireland was widely criticised down here.
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Haughey vilified in death
The print media turned venomously on Charles Haughey after his death. The tabloids salivated over gossip about his private life. But even the more sober evaluations were almost unanimously vituperative, most especially the Irish Times. In a defining news feature, published on Saturday 17 June, Peter Murtagh claimed the 1982 Haughey government represented the most serious threat to democracy since the civil war.
Vincent Browne analyses the claims
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Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2006-06-22
The clarion call of Ulster Unionism in 1912 was: "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right", not Ireland will never have Home Rule. Jack Lane (Village 8-14 June) continues to propagate blatant falsehoods relating to the aims of Carson, and the UVF, insisting that the intention of Ulster Unionists was to prevent the implementation of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland, to the point of skulduggery at a high constitutional level (the 1914 Home Rule statute).
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Labour mayor for Dublin
Dublin City Council is set to elect Paddy Bourke, a Labour Party councillor, as the capital's mayor on 26 June. Bourke has already won the Labour Party nomination in a vote among labour councillors and Labour's partners in the so-called "Democratic Alliance", Fine Gael, will also back him on 26 June. In order to be voted in he needs the backing of one other councillor – Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the PDs and Independent councillors having an equal number of votes as the Labour/Fine Gael coalition. It is thought that some Independents will back him, in particular Wendy Henderman, the only PD councillor.
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Haughey
I guess I was barely a wet week in this wet place back in 1985 by the time various people had opened my wide American eyes: the Leader of the Opposition and Taoiseach-in-Waiting, Charles Haughey, was a scoundrel, probably a criminal, and a philanderer whose lovers could be pointed out as they made their various appearances in the media.
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Summer confusion
Éanna Ní Lamhna alerts us to a dramatic and confusing new arrival to our gardens
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Newspaper Watch: Mail vs Indo: the pot versus the kettle
A front page story in the Sunday Independent of 18 June described public dismay and "astonishment among ordinary people" as Terry Keane sold her story to Ireland on Sunday. The publication of her account of her affair with Charles Haughey, so soon after his death, was sure to "pile further agony upon the family" and was likely to lead to a "public backlash" against Ireland on Sunday.
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