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"When earlier Irish writers came across references to dancing in the Bible, they described the action using words for "performing feats" and "leaping"."

Whiskey, dancing, insults: the history of Ireland in 100 words

History / 17 hrs

Is it time to shake up how artists get paid by Spotify and other streaming services?

Why 90% of your streaming cash goes to acts you may not like

Music business / 14 Oct

Why so serious? Joaquin Phoenix in Joker

What Joker tells us about victimisation, crime and discontent

Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders

Who were the real Peaky Blinders?

Peaky Blinders / 08 Oct

"The 'Michaelmas goose' is traditionally roasted and eaten on that day"

Geese, daisies and debts: Michaelmas customs in Ireland of old

History / 27 Sep

"A complete knowledge of a language is not a pre-requisite to either speaking or writing it" Photo: Getty

Is learning another language really like eating a meal sideways?

Language / 30 Sep

"Creating public spaces that are lively, engaging, interesting and accessible requires vision and planning"

How do we restore life to our public spaces?

Brainstorm / 24 Sep

Acclaimed conductor JoAnn Falletta. Photo: David A. Beloff via Getty Images

What does a conductor really do?

Lana Del Rey: "call her Doris Doomsday" Photo: Darren Gerrish/BFC/Getty Images

Songs for the end of the world: pop music and climate change

Climate Change / 17 Sep

Lady Gaga: common ties with Mahler, Philip Glass and Slade

Pop's long and winding road to the courts

Music business / 12 Sep

Boris Johnson attempts to conduct the media orchestra at yesterday's meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin

What could Boris Johnson learn from an orchestra conductor?

Politics / 10 Sep

"From the very beginning, Live Nation pursued an expansion policy of mergers and acquisitions, buying up smaller promotions companies and venues at a tremendous rate"

Who are Live Nation, the company now behind the Electric Picnic?

Music business / 29 Aug

"New additions to a dictionary of medieval language are lost words that have been rediscovered"

10 medieval Irish words we didn't know about before now

Gaeilge / 27 Sep

How many of these tents will be left behind by revellers in Stradbally next Monday morning?

The environmental cost of dumping your tent at Electric Picnic

Environment / 26 Aug

"What has emerged is that the desires fomented by the Counterculture have created new opportunities for exploitation and control that we are only now coming to realise"

The Great Hack: from the Counterculture to Cambridge Analytica

Social Media / 27 Aug

James Joyce: portrait of the artist as a young cattleman

What did James Joyce have to say about the Irish beef industry?

James Joyce / 20 Aug

"How we move, what we look at, who we talk to, what we feel as we move: these are central components of our experiences" Photo: Getty Images

Why walking is good for you

Walking / 16 Aug

"40% of young Irish women aged 18 to 25 are dissatisfied with their bodies"

Why body-positive role models like Lizzo matter

Body Positivity / 16 Aug

Festival traffic jams didn't begin with All Together Now. Roads choked with traffic for the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Woodstock at 50: mud, drugs and rock'n'roll

Woodstock / 12 Aug

Is this the real Roy Orbison or a hologram? "Perhaps the most haunting aspect is the possibility of bringing artists back for an on-stage life after death experience"

Why do we keep resurrecting the dead in popular culture?

Pop Culture / 15 Aug

Convicted rapist and serial killer Rodney Alcala is featured in Murder Made Me Famous. He was dubbed the "Dating Game Killer" because of his 1978 appearance on US TV show The Dating Game in the midst of his murder spree.

How healthy is our obsession with true crime?

True crime / 09 Aug

"The originality of Black Spot lies in its extensive use of imagery from the popular repository of Celtic mythology, cleverly reworked for the 21st century"

How Celtic history is ripe for use in modern TV and film

Folklore / 07 Aug

Donald Trump meets Peter Griffin on Family Guy

How to resist the cultural turmoil of the Trump years

Donald Trump / 07 Aug

"Experimental composers are killing classical music by exposing the classical music audience to their experiments"

Is experimental music killing classical music?

Did these lads go to the moon or a film studio in Los Angeles?

Why the moon landings footage would have been impossible to fake

Moon landing / 19 Jul

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