Eddie Hobbes has emerged as not just a television phenomenon but a political one as well. His Rip Off Republic series has done possibly fatal damage to the reputation of this Government.

At last the silly season is over, and not before time, as the major political parties kick off the new political season with a series of parliamentary meetings throughout the country. Last year, these meetings, especially Fianna Fáil's in Inchydoney, set a new agenda as the parties tried to market an image that would gather fresh appeal for the electorate.

As the dual mandate is phased out, Simon Coveney will soon have to choose between his seat in Brussels and his seat in Leinster House. He talks to Mary Regan

This week the American peace protestor, Cindy Sheehan, decamped from outside George Bush's ranch in Texas and began to move to Washington. Over the last few weeks the protest has grown to resemble something from the anti-Vietnam war protests in the sixties as people from all over the country joined her and international film crews watched the demonstration grow.

Bestselling author Jay McInerney considers Benjamin Kunkel's first novel, Indecision, one of the smartest, funniest coming-of-age novels in years

Intel founder Robert Noyce may be credited as the inventor of the integrated circuit, but according to Leslie Berlin's new book, he didn't do it single-handedly. By Clive Thompson

John Irving was in town last week, fresh from the Edinburgh festival to give a public interview to Myles Dungan for Rattlebag on RTÉ1. Irving was revealing and loquacious, holding forth on his absent father, (who died without the two meeting) the tattoos he got in research for his current epic Until I Find You and his current writing plans. He was slighter and smaller than expected and looked a good decade younger than his 63 years.

Billy Leahy travels to Palestine with an aid worker, to China with a face reader, to Vienna with a disillusioned student and back to contemporary Ireland, all without leaving the borders of the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios

In the same way as the excerpts from John McGahern's Memoir in two Saturday newspapers surely refreshed eyes and spirits tired of summer silliness, the author's reading on Book on One restored appreciation of the power of radio to make us listen and be moved and stunned and to emerge feeling a little bit kinder about the human race.

Colin Murphy is seduced by the music, words, bawdiness and fun of The Midnight Court in Feakle, Co Clare