In a year that the heavy-hitters didn't quite deliver, Dan Brown's much derided and debunked thriller ruled. Ronan Browne looks back at fiction from 2004

Conall Quinn reviews some of the non-fiction Irish books published this year

The Colombia Three have been quickly forgotten in Colombia, writes Michael McCaughan

Eithne Earley-Jenkerson writes on Seamus Heaney's poem Postscript, Israel and her return to Ireland.

The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, éamon ó Cuív, has signed an order preventing the use of English-language or anglicised versions of place names in the Gaeltacht. The law is to come into force next March.

It has been well-signalled for some years now that care of the aged is going to be one of the most pressing, and most expensive, problems to confront us in the future.

Our Cara is dead. In the midst of the frenzy of meetings with governments and others, and endless flights across the Irish Sea, Cara Adams, a 10-year-old Rottweiler and a cherished member of our family, died.

France's best effort at a national title, Le Monde is a superb publication, but has never succeeded in being a newspaper for all of the country – and it's a big lossmaker. By Conor Brady

Elsewhere in this magazine last week, there was a piece about smokers. (See, I don't just limit myself to reading my own column – though naturally I read that first.)

Brace yourself for a media "Bertie-blitz" this weekend and next week as Fianna Fáil cranks up the PR machine to mark the Taoiseach's 10th anniversary as leader of Fianna Fáil on Friday.