While the BBC examined the days leading up to the London bombings last July and spoke to survivors of the bus bombing, Channel 4 superbly recreated the terror of one night of the Blitz

Colin Murphy visits the new Mill Theatre in Dundrum town centre

Michael McDowell's simultaneous presentation of a new defamation bill and a new privacy bill was greeted with mixed reactions by the newspaper industry.

We all know, in this part of Ireland, that the North is awash with sectarian hatred and bigotry. However, we prefer to close our eyes and our ears, pretending either that both sides are just the same, or that republicans have in some mysterious way "provoked" the sectarianism that is endorsed by unionist politicians, especially in the DUP but not exclusively so.

Dante Club author Matthew Pearl's latest literary thriller is fun summer escapism of the highest order. By Edward O'Hare

The audio books market has a new player as users of computers or new music technology get used to changing how they purchase their books. The iTunes music store is selling a wide selection of US-dominated books on www.iTunes.com to download to your home computer or iPod.

The most corrupt legal entity in the democratic world may be about to change. I refer to the family law system of England and Wales, of which I have some personal experience. It is no small thing to call it more corrupt than the Irish family law system, but I don't lightly describe it in these terms. The prospect of a change arises from a Court of Appeal ruling last week ending the automatic ban in England and Wales on identifying children involved in family court proceedings.

And so it is that a small church on the east side of Manhattan, a famine church built by Irish shipwrights, is in danger of being knocked to the ground.

Sometime during a school visit, children ask how many books I have had published and I have to count the titles out loud so as not to forget any of them.

Queen Elizabeth I wasn't the only red-headed woman wielding power in 16th-century England – another was building an entirely different empire. By Adam Goodheart