Books

Peter McVerry SJ reviews a new book on Ireland's criminal justice system, which shows that policy is not based on data, but rather on intuition and a political desire not to appear soft on crime

A new book by Annie Ryan, that uses witness accounts from the Bureau of Military History gives a new insight into the 1916 Easter Rising, writes Diarmaid Ferriter

Bourne Again with The Bourne Legacy and two books, Emma Brown and Captain Pan, written as sequels to other authors' existing novels,  Poetry from Margaret Atwood and Nick Laird who will both be at the Dun Laoghaire International Poetry Festival.

Also included are the ever popular Jacqueline Wilson beloved by "Tweenage" girls. Zadie Smith's  book On Beauty and Clearing The Air: The Battle over the Smoking Ban. written by Michael Gilmore.

The third book in the story of the Shannon Harps GAA football team.

Richard O'Rawe's book which claims that the six H-Block hunger strikers were allowed to die purely for political expediency is reviewed by Hugh Logue who was part of the team that negotiated to end the hunger strikes

Kazuo Ishiguro's characters are often compelled by a sense of duty. In his latest book, Never Let Me Go, this is taken to a sinister extreme. Sinéad Gleeson meets the writer finds meaning in responsibility

Last Words

To mark Amnesty's International Women's Day Festival, Fishamble Theatre Company asked a group of writers to pen a story about a piece of clothing, for a one-off performance on 5 March. Here's what Maeve Binchy and Gavin Kostick came up with...

It would be too easy to describe this book as an account of a 12-year-old boy's walk through the events of the 1916 Rising as we follow young Jimmy Conway from the tenements of the inner city of Dublin to the salubrious suburbs of Ballsbridge in search of food.

The BBC have announced the list of books to be featured on their new series Page Turners which will begin its run this Spring; dates to be confirmed. By then, you'll have seen the books which will include Khaled Hosseni's The Kite Runner and Nigella Lawson's Feast, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi and this years Buffy  in the shops with their bright stickers, promotional stands and the queues which have become the order of the book club day.