Jul 6, 2026
At the recent Luke Kelly Festival, I was delighted to speak with Sabina Higgins (née Coyne) all about the Focus Theatre and Deirdre O’Connell. Bringing the Stanislavski acting system to Ireland in the 1960s, Deirdre transformed how young actors felt about the possibility of the theatre. The tiny Focus Theatre - with...
Jun 22, 2026
In October 1955, the visit of Yugoslavia to Dublin caused real division in Irish society. A top-class football side on the world stage, opposition to communism led Archbishop McQuaid and others to call for a boycott of the game. In a new book, Cold War Football: A History in Ten Matches, Alan McDougall and Tony Shaw...
Jun 6, 2026
There could be nowhere more fitting to discuss the life of Edward Fitzgerald than upstairs in the Lord Edward, as part of Culture Date with Dublin 8. That he was born into privilege is clear, but Fitzgerald also rejected it, his sister recalling that “he was a Paddy and no more; he desired no other title than...
May 27, 2026
John Gibney is co-editor of The Story of Us: Independent Ireland and the 1926 Census. On a sunny day, we sat on a bench dedicated in part to a man you’ll find in that census, and discussed what is in this extraordinary landmark census. We look at some interesting people, like the writer Dorothy Macardle, the widowed...
May 11, 2026
It would seem everyone in the city has an opinion on the shopping centre at the top of Grafton Street. With that in mind, it seems a good time for a potted history of it and the site it occupies. Controversial in its own day, the project was overseen by the architect James Toomey, though it fell somewhat short of...