Richard and Judy have finished introducing their summer reading list, guaranteeing instant success for the featured texts. If you doubt us, take a look at the current UK top-six bestsellers, five of which come from their list.

Only one of the Project's Make Your Move billboards seems to have gleaned a significant public response, and it wasn't a positive one. By Billy Leahy

Dermot Bolger edits a new anthology of poems and stories
from residents of south Co Dublin, who share their bittersweet reminiscences on the subject of home. By Erik Salholm

The last-minute replacement of an actor in Pyrenees provides Colin Murphy with a unique opportunity to watch the dramatic process

Perhaps it was Sam Smyth's treat to himself to have the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, on Today FM's Sunday Supplement on the day of his birthday. Smyth, McDowell and Mairéad McGuinness had some cosy chats, pretty much agreeing on immigration, identity cards, policing and prison services. They would though, wouldn't they?

There is a great joy in being able to speak Irish. My conversational Irish is still quite limited. But I try to learn a little bit every day. Even one word or a phrase. When I first started to try to make public remarks through the medium of Irish, I was ridiculed by many of my detractors. But I persevered. I'm still not proficient, but I get great satisfaction in the number of strangers who speak Irish to me. In west Belfast, which has its own thriving Gaeltacht quarter, it is possible to do business through the medium of Irish in local shops, pubs and other places.

Up from the row of grey subway steps, into the sunlight. I started walking a bit hastily, not quite sure which way to go. I was looking for Brooklyn College, but the area I came upon was a fairly rough-looking one. Small brownstones, shattered stoops, bent ironwork railings, mismatched curtains, radios propping open the windows. Music wafted out and seemed to hang in the air, then drop. Women sat on the steps, with the street-corner stare of those who have seen too much. They looked along a row of dented cars and broken fire hydrants.

The judges on Dragon's Den choose whether or not to break the hearts of eager inventors, while in the strange world of The Honourable Scaffolder, being killed or spared depends on how much you're willing to pay

The news that RTÉ had requested the Mayo County Sheriff to collect from Beverley Flynn the sum of €1.8m owed in costs arising from Flynn's unsuccessful libel action against the station would, in a properly functioning democracy, have occasioned outrage. The untrammeled glee in media circles at Beverley Flynn's situation is not merely unedifying – it reminds us yet again of how poorly adapted our media are to promoting the interests of democracy.

The brutal killing of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison on 1 August turned the media's attention to the appalling state of Ireland's prisons. The following day, the Irish Times reported that Michael McDowell had ordered an independent report into the killing. Conor Lally predicted the inquiry would be likely to "expose major failings" in the system. He was able to make this prediction with confidence, since the problems in our prisons are well-known and have been repeatedly highlighted and faithfully ignored in recent years.