In Search of the Pope's Children may be pastiche television, and you can't believe all that David McWilliams so passionately tells you, but it's certainly better than the tired old Questions and Answers

On Saturday 28 October, some 250 people travelled to Shannon Airport to protest against its continuing use by the US military and the CIA. Their numbers were bolstered by three US military veterans, all of whom were once interrogators at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, but have since become anti-war activists. The state deployed some 150 gardaí, complete with surveillance cameras and a helicopter, to keep the protestors away from the airport. All of this happened without a mention in any national newspaper.

In the guise of Benjamin Black, John Banville has written a chilling crime thriller, writes Edward O'Hare

'Seventy-two years of Communist indoctrination and propaganda was drowned out by a three-ounce Sony Walkman," wrote PJ O'Rourke at the end of the Cold War. It was O'Rourke's contention that a whole totalitarian system was brought tumbling down because nobody wanted to wear Bulgarian shoes. O'Rourke said that Levi's 501 jeans, video players and a million other objects of consumer desire had helped to bring down the Stalinist statues. Desire won out and the hammer was sickled.

Two of Australia's grand old men of letters have new offerings. Things I Didn't Know is the truculent autobiography of veteran art critic Robert Hughes. A man who has lived life very keenly indeed, Hughes reminisces about his Jesuit education, his trio of catastrophic marriages and his hectic career which culminated with the publication of The Shock of the New, Hughes' landmark treatise on modern painting.

From The Late Late Show to The Panel, RTÉ's bank holiday viewing was a major disappointment

Doubt is missing the old-fashioned acting that the play needs but it is still a success, says Colin Murphy

Maura Harrington, one of the Shell to Sea campaign's leading personalities, has rallied against Margaret Thatcher, the EU and, now, against the Corrib gas pipeline. Justine McCarthy profiles the mother of four from Erris who won't give in to the oil industry.

Bertie Ahern will top the poll in Dublin Central in the next election. Rachel English spent time with him for her new programme, The Constituency (Saturdays, 6.02pm, RTÉ Radio 1), and you could see why he will get more votes than anyone else. They went at breakneck speed through the constituency, starting off at the opening of the crèche in Portland Place (pictured) and went on to Tolka Valley training centre, where Bertie presented beauticians with certificates, and on and on.

Belle and the Magic Makeover is book two in the Fairies of Starshine Meadow series. Despite the word "makeover" in the title, this book, happily, has nothing to do with TV beauty programmes where attempts to jazz up the dowdy often make me wish for the return of the bride of Frankenstein as a reminder of how to leave well enough alone.