Culture | Books, Music, Theatre, Film & The Arts

Something For The Weekend: Hugh O'Conor's Cultural Picks

As an actor, Hugh O'Conor has been a fixture on our screens for more than three decades - now he's making a splash behind the camera with his debut feature as director...

Something For The Weekend • 19 Jun 19

Listen: Alan Corr on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue

For RTÉ Arena, Alan Corr reviews Martin Scorsese's new Netflix documentary chronicling Bob Dylan's legendary Rolling Thunder Revue - all, it transpires, may not be as it seems...

Film • 18 Jun 19

On Bob Dylan: "He thinks for us, speaks for us, sings for us"

Pop culture and high culture collide in Harvard University, where classics professor Richard F Thomas teaches a course on Bob Dylan.

Music • 05 Dec 17

Master Zimmerman
Appealing new book about the man and his lyric writing from Harvard Classics Professor Richard F Thomas

Reviewed: Why Dylan Matters by Richard F Thomas

Harvard Classics professor Richard F Thomas brings his academic expertise to bear on the songs of Bob Dylan in this engaging account.

Culture • 04 Dec 17

The Rattler #3: Jim Carroll on Conor McPherson's Bob Dylan play

It began with a cassette. My English teacher decided that the time had come to introduce a bunch of young bucks to Bob Dylan's greatest hits and that's where the cassette came in.

Culture • 04 Sep 17

Listen to Bob Dylan's brilliant Nobel Prize lecture

Bob Dylan has finally delivered his Nobel Prize lecture. And, in true Dylan fashion, it's rather unique.

Music • 06 Jun 17

Allen Ginsberg:new collection gathers piquant and provocative lectures from 1977 concerning the Beats, along with great poems.

Allen Ginsberg - The Best Minds of My Generation

In 1977, American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) taught a course on the literary history of the Beat Generation, conjuring again those luminous names, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso, with some great poems from Corso also included.

Books • 10 May 17

Irish artists celebrate Bob Dylan - hear this, Robert Zimmerman

To mark the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Bob Dylan, some reflections on favourite lyrics from his back pages, taken rom the current edition of Trumpet, Poetry Ireland's essential literary pamphlet.

Poetry • 08 May 17

Conor McPherson on his new Bob Dylan-inspired play

Conor McPherson talks about getting the rights to use Bob Dylan's music in his new play, Girl From the North Country, which opens in London's Old Vic Theatre this July.

Theatre • 22 May 17

Genius musician and song-writer Robbie Robertson as he features on the cover of his capacious memoir, Testimony.

Robbie Robertson – Testimony

Robbie Robertson is the second member of The Band - following the late Levon Helm - to pen a memoir which details the extraordinary years touring with Bob Dylan and years spent as a singer-songwriter with the self-sustaining unit of that name.

Culture • 20 Dec 16

Read Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize acceptance speech

As you may already know, Mister Robert Allen Zimmerman was officially awarded the Nobel Prize Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 over the weekend. Here, we reprint his speech in full.

Culture • 12 Dec 16

Bob Dylan for Dublin show in 2017

He can't make it to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony, but the predictably unpredictable (and perpetually freewheeling Bob Dylan) will be bringing his Neverending Tour to Dublin next year.