Colin Murphy enjoys Rough Magic's Irish take on The Taming of the Shrew

Last week, as every so often, I glimpsed in passing a couple of newspaper headlines about some survey or other telling us that we are becoming increasingly apathetic and ignorant about politics. Two-thirds of us, or something (I couldn't be bothered reading it), don't know the difference between the Oireachtas and the Government; a shocking number think politicians do a good job but haven't a clue what they actually do; nine out of ten voters under 30 don't know the name of the Ceann Comhairle – that sort of thing.

Things piratical seem to be back in fashion for younger readers. Close on the heels (or should it be the gums) of The Legend of Captain Crowe's Teeth by Eoin Colfer, we have Marie Burlington's Lighthouse Joey.

There are only a few hundred involved in dissident republicanism despite efforts to recruit disaffected youth in Northern Ireland. Colm Heatley reports

Darina Allen on the history of the Irish cheese industry, and what makes our farmhouse cheddars some of the best in the world

An all-party motion calling for a full public inquiry into the 1988 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane is expected...

Joseph O'Connor is on a scholarship and writing his next historical novel based in New York City library. He talks to Ailbhe Jordan

The new chairperson of the RTÉ Authority is the apolitical daughter of a former TD. Behind a contrived air-head exterior there is a calculating, formidable executive, on whom RTÉ can rely. By Colin Murphy.

Colin Murphy is nearly overwhelmed by new Irish plays after a trip to Dublin's Project for The Gist of It

Channel 4 churned out yet another top 100: this time it was funny moments. Neither those, nor Des Bishop's final Joy in the Hood, were particularly funny, to the disappointment of Dermot Bolger