He may be the second-most powerful politician in Ireland but it’s surprising how little most of us still know about Eamon Gilmore. In a surprising new book Leading Lights, the Labour leader reveals the people who have inspired him, setting out his vision for a better Ireland in the process. By Ed O’Hare.

A notable feature of election 2011 was the fate of numerous Irish political dynasties - Lemass-Haughey, Hanafin, Andrews, the narrow escape for the Lenihan and Cowen names. Owen O’Shea’s new book, Heirs to the Kingdom, examines how a handful of families have kept control of political power in Kerry since the War of Independence, and asks if this really serves the interest of the Irish people. Edward O'Hare has read it.

Unavailable for years, Anthony Cronin's The Life of Riley is a first-rate comic novel, about life in the bohemian Irish cultural scene of the 1960's, that also manages to pack a serious punch. Ed O'Hare pays tribute.

Unnatural Pursuits and How's That For Telling 'Em, Fat Lady?, playwright Simon Gray's painfully funny account of two shambolic productions of his works in London the 1980's, are the most amusing and eye-opening theatrical memoirs yet written. By Edward O'Hare.

Charles Dicken's novels like A Christmas Carol may be much-loved classics but today's readers should not ignore the ingenuity of their social commentary nor forget that their anger at injustice was born of Dickens' own childhood deprivation. By Edward O'Hare

Of the multitude of Irish books published this Christmas Great Endeavour, Michael Smith's superb celebration of Irish Antarctic explorers, is the one that deserves a place beneath the tree. By Ed O'Hare

For all its benefits the internet might not be the universal friend we believe. In his new book The Shallows Nicholas Carr argues that it has a serious drawback: it is turning us into superficial minds addicted to information highs and endangering our ability to contemplate deeper questions of existence. By Ed O'Hare.

America, September 2006.

It's a misconception that for the first two thirds of the 20th century Ireland existed in a kind of self-contained cultural bubble, safely removed from the artistic developments unfolding at a dizzying rate elsewhere.

Of the many commentators who have examined the global economic collapse few have looked outside the business sector at the wider forces which have brought it about.