An interview with Johnny Giles

Reviews and listings of Film, Galleries, Music, Pubs, Restaurants, puppetry and more in the coming months...

Below is a list of some of the year's best recordings in classical, traditional and popular music. Prices vary mysteriously from shop to shop, but the index numbers should help you find or order ariy of them. You might also check the catalogues for recommended prices! Incidentally, Ian Fox informs us that if)77 marks the centenary of the gramophone .. Edison having filed his phonograph patent on December 4, 1877

A personal choice by Magill's writers

Magill's Big List of presents from 35p to £200 to take the headache out of Christmas Shopping. By Gabrielle Williams

Memories by Jack Lynch, Nora Connolly O'Brien, Martin Smyth, Dervla Murphy, Michael Hartnett, Bernadette McAliskey

THE TINSEL and glitter of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes has tarnished a bit in recent years. By Pamela Readhead

THE GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL AGENCY, FOIR TEO, HAS PUMPED 20 MILLION POUNDS INTO AILING COMPANIES OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS. TOM ANDERSON ASSESSES ITS PERFORMANCE

Our telephone service is a national sick joke. The postal service isn't much better. It's hard to open a newspaper without reading about another strike. Victorian attitudes to staff relations mean that things are going to get worse. By Liam O'Toole

THE BRITiSH used to describe the Irish in much the same terms as the Irish themselves now describe the itinerant. The descriptions, then as now, had elements of 'fact in them. We were dirty, we were ignorant, we were fractious, and superstitious. All of these characteristics, however, were a direct result of our oppression. Denied access to education, ignorance was inevitable. Taxed for improveements to our houses, we lived in hovels. Denied the rights accorded to others, we fought for these rights and our only consolation in times of desperation was our religion.