Wednesday It’s 3.15pm and I am entering the tunnel – five days of bedlam and babel until the Booker Prize ceremony on Sunday. I drive from home to an airport hotel, change into a tux and charge to Dublin Convention Centre for the Irish Book Awards. Inside, RTÉ Six One News corner me and Other Paul, aka Paul Murray. He gives me a sharp hug.
How do we engineer humour so that it is more useful in life? We know, surely, that the most important part of it is not entertainment. The most important part is that it enables us to get along with other people, to cope with difficulties, to diffuse tensions, and to simply make life, in general, easier to get through.
Dee Barragry is the winner of the inaugural Staróg Prize, a new writing award for unpublished Irish children’s authors. Her winning novel, The Lampwick Chronicles, will be published by Walker Books. After a childhood in Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, she lives in Dublin and is a writer, artist and photographer.
The Candy Man is back in business. Playful, sarcastic, handy with a tune, Roald Dahl’s mischievous sweet maker has had quite the run. For some, Willy Wonka will forever be synonymous with the iconic Gene Wilder film. For others, Tim Burton’s trippy Noughties update, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is almost old enough to be considered a classic.
There are two reasons why people go to social media, says Michael Corcoran – the man who until earlier this month was in charge of Ryanair’s social media.