The man who hosts the drive-time show with the second biggest radio listenership in Dublin votes Fine Gael and laments for an Ireland of the past. Colin Murphy talks to George Hook about his difficult rise to fame through catering and rugby, his radio show and his views on modern Ireland
Eamon Casey returns to haunt an already cowed Irish Catholic hierarchy. By Vincent Browne.
Maureen Dowd, a sexy, controversial hard hitting New York Times columnist, describes herself as a paid contrarian. Her latest book on the battle of the sexes reads 'like a Cosmopolitan article that has been stretched way beyond its elastic limit'. It is badly reserached, unsubstantial and based on select anecdotes, desrcibed by the Wall Steet Journal as a 'stinker'. Marion McKeone writes from New York on Dowd – the media phenomenon and her book.
He has made himself into a very marketable franchise in media, consulting and laterally, show business. John Byrne profiles David McWilliams on the launch of his début book.
Born in Spiddal, Co Galway, Gráinne Seoige was raised conventionally by her father, Mairtín, a Garda, and her mother, Phil. A native Irish speaker from Inishmahon, Phil raised her children in a bilingual household. Gráinne Seoige's sister, Síle, is also a television presenter, currently working with RTÉ and TG4.
Gráinne Seoige is the face behind the take over
of the Irish media by foreign corporations
Once a feared leader of the Official IRA, Seán Garland now faces extradition to the United States on foot of international counterfeiting charges. More isolated than at any other time in his life, it may represent his toughest test yet. Profile by John Byrne
Bret Easton Ellis's new novel is about an author called Bret Easton Ellis being haunted by characters he has created. So where does fiction stop and life take over? And is the writer of American Psycho a 'method writer'? He tells all to Nicola Reddy
In 1993, Irvine Welsh became a literary and youth culture celebrity with Trainspotting, a book about nihilistic drug-addicts living in the worst part of Thatcher-era Scotland. Now he's a rich man living in Ranelagh. He talks to John Byrne. Photograph by William Hederman
She started her stage training aged three, had her first TV role at four and had a hit single at 17, but Samantha Mumba's career never went as stellar as many predicted and in the past year all we've heard about her are boyfriend rumours. Now her star may finally be on the rise again, with a role in new Irish movie, Boy Eats Girl. By Colin Murphy