The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is the largest-selling British national newspaper in the "quality press" market category. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, in turn owned by News Corp. Times Newspapers publishes The Times; the two papers were founded independently and have been under common ownership only since 1966. They were bought by News International in 1981; the Sunday Times occupies a dominant position in the quality Sunday market. While some other national newspapers moved to a tabloid format in the early 2000s, The Sunday Times has retained the larger broadsheet format and has said that it will continue to do so, it sells more than twice as many copies as its sister paper, The Times, published Monday to Saturday. The Sunday Times has acquired a reputation for the strength of its investigative reporting – much of it by its award-winning Insight team – and for its wide-ranging foreign coverage, it has a number of popular writers and commentators including Jeremy Clarkson and Bryan Appleyard.
A. A. Gill was a prominent columnist for many years, it was Britain's first multi-section newspaper and remains larger than its rivals. A typical edition contains the equivalent of 450 to 500 tabloid pages. Besides the main news section, it has standalone News Review, Sport and Appointments sections – all broadsheet. There are two tabloid supplements, it has a website and separate digital editions configured for both the iOS operating system for the Apple iPad and the Android operating system for such devices as the Google Nexus, all of which offer video clips, extra features and multimedia and other material not found in the printed version of the newspaper. The paper publishes The Sunday Times Rich List, an annual survey of the wealthiest people in Britain and Ireland, equivalent to the Forbes 400 list in the United States, a series of league tables with reviews of private British companies, in particular The Sunday Times Fast Track 100; the paper produces an annual league table of the best-performing state and independent schools at both junior and senior level across the United Kingdom, entitled Parent Power, an annual league table of British universities and a similar one for Irish universities.
It publishes The Sunday Times Bestseller List of books in Britain, a list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For", focusing on UK companies. It organises The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, held annually, The Sunday Times Festival of Education, which takes place every year at Wellington College; the paper began publication on 18 February 1821 as The New Observer, but from 21 April its title was changed to the Independent Observer. Its founder, Henry White, chose the name in an apparent attempt to take advantage of the success of The Observer, founded in 1791, although there was no connection between the two papers. On 20 October 1822 it was reborn as The Sunday Times, although it had no relationship with The Times. In January 1823, White sold the paper to a radical politician. Under its new owner, The Sunday Times notched up several firsts: a wood engraving it published of the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 was the largest illustration to have appeared in a British newspaper; the paper was bought in 1887 by Alice Anne Cornwell who had made a fortune in mining in Australia and floating the Midas Mine Company of the London Stock Exchange.
She bought the paper to promote her new company, The British and Australasian Mining Investment Company, as a gift to her lover Frederick Stannard Robinson. Robinson was installed as editor and she married him in 1894, she sold it in 1893 to Frederick Beer, who owned Observer. Beer appointed Rachel Sassoon Beer, as editor, she was editor of Observer – the first woman to run a national newspaper – and continued to edit both titles until 1901. There was a further change of ownership in 1903, in 1915 the paper was bought by William Berry and his brother, Gomer Berry ennobled as Lord Camrose and Viscount Kemsley respectively. Under their ownership, The Sunday Times continued its reputation for innovation: on 23 November 1930, it became the first Sunday newspaper to publish a 40-page issue and on 21 January 1940, news replaced advertising on the front page. In 1943, the Kemsley Newspapers Group was established, with The Sunday Times becoming its flagship paper. At this time, Kemsley was the largest newspaper group in Britain.
On 12 November 1945, Ian Fleming, who created James Bond, joined the paper as foreign manager and special writer. The following month, circulation reached 500,000. On 28 September 1958 the paper launched a separate Review section, becoming the first newspaper to publish two sections regularly. In 1959 the Kemsley group was bought by Lord Thomson, in October 1960 circulation reached one million for the first time. In another first, on 4 February 1962 the editor, Denis Hamilton, launched The Sunday Times Magazine; the cover picture of the first issue was of Jean Shrimpton wearing a Mary Quant outfit and was taken by David Bailey. The magazine got off to a slow start, but the advertising soon began to pick up, over time, other newspapers laun
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or international organizations. The main functions of diplomats are: representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state. Seasoned diplomats of international repute are used in international organizations as well as multinational companies for their experience in management and negotiating skills. Diplomats are diplomatic corps of various nations of the world. Diplomats are the oldest form of any of the foreign policy institutions of the state, predating by centuries foreign ministers and ministerial offices, they have diplomatic immunity. The regular use of permanent diplomatic representation began between the states of fifteenth century Italy; however the terms ‘diplomacy’ and ‘diplomat’ appeared in the French Revolution. Diplomat is derived from the Greek διπλωμάτης, the holder of a diploma, referring to diplomats' documents of accreditation from their sovereign. Diplomats themselves and historians refer to the foreign ministry by its address: the Ballhausplatz, the Quai d’Orsay, the Wilhelmstraße.
For imperial Russia to 1917 it was the Choristers’ Bridge. The Italian ministry was called "the Consulta." Though any person can be appointed by the state's national government to conduct said state's relations with other states or international organisations, a number of states maintain an institutionalised group of career diplomats—that is, public servants with a steady professional connection to the country's foreign ministry. The term career diplomat is used worldwide in opposition to political appointees. While posted to an embassy or delegation in a foreign country or accredited to an international organisation, both career diplomats and political appointees enjoy the same diplomatic immunities. Ceremonial heads of state act as diplomats on behalf of their nation following instructions from their head of Government. Whether being a career diplomat or a political appointee, every diplomat, while posted abroad, will be classified in one of the ranks of diplomats as regulated by international law.
Diplomats can be contrasted with consuls and attachés, who represent their state in a number of administrative ways, but who don't have the diplomat's political functions. Diplomats in posts collect and report information that could affect national interests with advice about how the home-country government should respond. Once any policy response has been decided in the home country's capital, posts bear major responsibility for implementing it. Diplomats have the job of conveying, in the most persuasive way possible, the views of the home government to the governments to which they are accredited and, in doing so, of trying to convince those governments to act in ways that suit home-country interests. In this way, diplomats are part of the beginning and the end of each loop in the continuous process through which foreign policy develops. In general, it has become harder for diplomats to act autonomously. Diplomats have to seize secure communication systems and mobile telephones can be tracked down and instruct the most reclusive head of mission.
The same technology in reverse gives diplomats the capacity for more immediate input about the policy-making processes in the home capital. Secure email has transformed the contact between the ministry, it is less to leak, enables more personal contact than the formal cablegram, with its wide distribution and impersonal style. The home country will send instructions to a diplomatic post on what foreign policy goals to pursue, but decisions on tactics – who needs to be influenced, what will best persuade them, who are potential allies and adversaries, how it can be done - are for the diplomats overseas to make. In this operation, the intelligence, cultural understanding, energy of individual diplomats become critical. If competent, they will have developed relationships grounded in trust and mutual understanding with influential members of the country in which they are accredited, they will have worked hard to understand the motives, thought patterns and culture of the other side. The diplomat should be an excellent negotiator but, above all, a catalyst for peace and understanding between peoples.
The diplomat's principal role is to foster peaceful relations between states. This role takes on heightened importance. Negotiation must continue – but within altered contexts. Most career diplomats have university degrees in international relations, political science, economics, or law. Diplomats have been considered members of an exclusive and prestigious profession; the public image of diplomats has been described as "a caricature of pinstriped men gliding their way around a never-ending global cocktail party". J. W. Burton has noted that "despite the absence of any specific professional training, diplomacy has a high professional status, due to a degree of secrecy and mystery that its practitioners self-consciously promote." The state supports the high status and self-esteem of its diplomats in order to
Ireland
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. In 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.6 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.8 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland. The island's geography comprises low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland, its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate, free of extremes in temperature. Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%, most of it is non-native conifer plantations.
There are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus moderate, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant; the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD; the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the 12th century Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became sovereign over the following decades, Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, as part of it, did the same. Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures in the field of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music and the Irish language; the island's culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, sports such as association football, horse racing, golf. The names Éire derive from Old Irish Eriu; this in turn comes from the Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning'fat, prosperous'. During the last glacial period, up until about 10,000 BC, most of Ireland was periodically covered in ice. Sea levels were lower and Ireland, like Great Britain, formed part of continental Europe.
By 16,000 BC, rising sea levels due to ice melting caused Ireland to become separated from Great Britain. Around 6000 BC, Great Britain itself became separated from continental Europe; the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC, demonstrated by a butchered bear bone found in a cave in County Clare. It is not until about 8000 BC, that more sustained occupation of the island has been shown, with evidence for Mesolithic communities around the island; these Mesolithic communities lived as hunter-gatherers across the island until about 4000 BC. Some time before 4000 BC, Neolithic settlers arrived introducing cereal cultivars, domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep, large timber building, stone monuments; the earliest evidence for farming in Ireland or Great Britain is from Co.. Kerry, where a flint knife, cattle bones and a sheep's tooth were carbon-dated to c. 4350 BC. Field systems were developed in different parts of Ireland, including at the Céide Fields, preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day Tyrawley.
An extensive field system, arguably the oldest in the world, consisted of small divisions separated by dry-stone walls. The fields were farmed for several centuries between 3500 BC and 3000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops; the Bronze Age – defined by the use of metal – began around 2500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel. According to John T. Koch and others, Ireland in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-network culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that included Britain, western France and Iberia, that this is where Celtic languages developed; this contrasts with the traditional view that their origin lies in mainland Europe with the Hallstatt culture. During the Iron Age, a Celtic language and culture emerged in Ireland. How and when the island became Celtic has been debated for close to a century, with the migrations of the Celts being one of the more enduring themes of archaeological and linguistic studies.
The most recent genetic research s
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the prime minister and head of government of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil; the word taoiseach means "chief" or "leader" in Irish and was adopted in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland as the title of the "head of the Government, or Prime Minister". Taoiseach is the official title of the head of government in both English and Irish, is not used for other countries' prime ministers; the Irish form, An Taoiseach, is sometimes used in English instead of "the Taoiseach". Outside of Ireland, the Taoiseach is sometimes referred to as the Prime Minister of Ireland. Leo Varadkar TD is the current Taoiseach. Varadkar is the youngest Taoiseach in the history of the Irish state, having taken office at the age of 38. Under the Constitution of Ireland, the Taoiseach is nominated by a simple majority of Dáil Éireann from among its members.
He/she is formally appointed to office by the President, required to appoint whomever the Dáil designates, without the option of declining to make the appointment. For this reason, it is said that the Taoiseach is "elected" by Dáil Éireann. If the Taoiseach loses the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann, he/she is not automatically removed from office but, rather, is compelled either to resign or to persuade the President to dissolve the Dáil; the President may refuse to grant a dissolution and, in effect, force the Taoiseach to resign. The Taoiseach may lose the support of Dáil Éireann by the passage of a vote of no confidence, or implicitly through the failure of a vote of confidence. In the event of the Taoiseach's resignation, he/she continues to exercise the duties and functions of his/her office until the appointment of a successor; the Taoiseach nominates the remaining members of the Government, who are with the consent of the Dáil, appointed by the President. The Taoiseach has authority to advise the President to dismiss cabinet ministers from office, advice the President is required to follow by convention.
The Taoiseach is further responsible for appointing eleven members of the Seanad. The Department of the Taoiseach is the government department which supports and advises the Taoiseach in carrying out his/her various duties. Since 2013, the Taoiseach's annual salary is €185,350, it was cut from €214,187 to €200,000 when Enda Kenny took office, before being cut further to €185,350 under the Haddington Road Agreement in 2013. A proposed increase of €38,000 in 2007 was deferred when Brian Cowen became Taoiseach and in October 2008, the government announced a 10% salary cut for all ministers, including the Taoiseach; however this was a voluntary cut and the salaries remained nominally the same with both ministers and Taoiseach refusing 10% of their salary. This courted controversy in December 2009 when a salary cut of 20% was based on the higher figure before the refused amount was deducted; the Taoiseach is allowed an additional €118,981 in annual expenses. There is no official residence of the Taoiseach.
In 2008 it was reported speculatively that the former Steward's Lodge at Farmleigh adjoining the Phoenix Park would become the official residence of the Taoiseach. The house, which forms part of the Farmleigh estate acquired by the State in 1999 for €29.2m, was renovated at a cost of nearly €600,000 in 2005 by the Office of Public Works. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not use it as a residence, but his successor Brian Cowen used it "from time to time"; the words Tánaiste are both from the Irish language and of ancient origin. Though the Taoiseach is described in the Constitution of Ireland as "the head of the Government or Prime Minister", its literal translation is chieftain or leader. Although Éamon de Valera, who introduced the title in 1937, was neither a Fascist nor a dictator, it has sometimes been remarked that the meaning leader in 1937 made the title similar to the titles of Fascist dictators of the time, such as Führer and Caudillo. Tánaiste, in turn, refers to the system of tanistry, the Gaelic system of succession whereby a leader would appoint an heir apparent while still living.
In Scottish Gaelic, tòiseach translates as clan chief and both words had similar meanings in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland. The related Welsh language word tywysog has meaning, it is hypothesized that both derive from the proto-Celtic *towissākos "chieftain, leader". The plural of taoiseach is taoisigh. Although the Irish form An Taoiseach is sometimes used in English instead of "the Taoiseach", the English version of the Constitution states that he or she "shall be called... the Taoiseach". In 1937 when the draft Constitution of Ireland was being debated in the Dáil, Frank MacDermot, an opposition politician, moved an amendment to substitute "Prime Minister" for the proposed "Taoiseach" title in the English text of the Constitution, it was proposed to keep the "Taoiseach" title in the Irish language text. The proponent remarked: It seems to me to be mere make-believe to try to incorporate a word like "Taoiseach" in the Eng
Bertie Ahern
Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste and Minister for Arts and the Gaeltacht from November 1994 to December 1994, Deputy Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994, Minister for Industry and Commerce in January 1993, Minister for Finance from 1991 to 1994, Minister for Labour from 1987 to 1991, Government Chief Whip and Minister of State at the Department of Defence from March 1982 to December 1982 and Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1986 to 1987. He served as a Teachta Dála from 1977 to 2011. In 1994, Ahern was elected the sixth Leader of Fianna Fáil. Under Ahern's leadership, Fianna Fáil led three coalition governments. After Éamon de Valera, Bertie Ahern's term as Taoiseach is the longest. Ahern resigned as Taoiseach on 6 May 2008, in the wake of revelations made in Mahon Tribunal, was succeeded by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.
The Mahon Tribunal in 2012, found that Ahern, while not judged corrupt, had received monies from developers and the Tribunal disbelieved his explanations of those payments. Fianna Fáil proposed to expel politicians censured by the tribunal, but Ahern resigned from the party prior to the expulsion motion being moved. In November 2016, it was announced that a decision had been made by Fianna Fáil to give Ahern the option of rejoining the party. Ahern was born in Drumcondra, the youngest of five children of Con and Julia Ahern, both natives of County Cork, who married in October 1937, they settled at Church Avenue, where they resided for the rest of their lives. The other four children are Maurice, Kathleen and Eileen. In Dublin, Ahern's father worked as a farm manager at All Hallows Drumcondra. Ahern's brother Noel is involved in politics and represented Dublin North-West in Dáil Éireann. Ahern's father Con was born into a farming family near Ballyfeard, located near Kinsale, County Cork, in 1904.
His mother came from a farming background and was from near Castledonovan, west County Cork. Ahern's father, Con left County Cork and went to Dublin in the early 1930s to train for the priesthood, but did not complete his studies with the Vincentian order, he had fought in the Irish Civil War. He was a supporter of Éamon de Valera and the Anti-Treaty IRA, he was a member of the 3rd Cork Brigade of the IRA. He remained a militant Irish Republican for decades after the War of Independence. Con Ahern died in 1990. Ahern's mother, died in 1998, aged 87 years. Ahern was educated at St. Patrick's National School, Drumcondra and at St. Aidan's Christian Brothers, Whitehall, he received his third level education at the College of Commerce, part of the Dublin Institute of Technology. Ahern has claimed or it has been claimed by others in circulated biographies that he was educated at University College Dublin and the London School of Economics, but neither university has any records that show Ahern was one of their students.
He worked in the Accounts Department of the Mater Hospital, but though a self-described accountant, as in a TV interview with Bryan Dobson in 2006 and radio interviews during May 2008, with George Hook, on his party's website, he never qualified as a member of any accountants' association. The Irish Independent described him as an accounts clerk. Ahern is an vocal fan of sport, he attends Dublin matches in Croke Park. He supports Manchester United F. C. and attends matches at Old Trafford and rugby matches at Lansdowne Road. He appeared as a pundit on RTÉ Two's The Premiership programme in 2001. Ahern first became involved in a Fianna Fáil by-election campaign in 1965, climbing lamp posts to hang election posters in Drumcondra. During the campaign, Ahern met future Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. Ahern became a member of Fianna Fáil at the age of 17, in the 1969 general election he assisted with the election campaign in his constituency. Ahern's first ran for office during the landslide 1977 general election, when Fianna Fáil formed the last single-party majority government with a 20-seat Dáil majority, the largest ever.
Ahern received 4,000 first preference votes in the newly created Dublin Finglas constituency and was elected with transfers from other candidates. He was elected to Dublin Corporation at the 1979 local elections for the Cabra East-Finglas West Local electoral area, he switched to the North Inner City LEA before standing down before the 1991 local elections. In subsequent elections Ahern became one of the highest vote-getters in the country. In his Dublin Central constituency Ahern was described as: During his first years as a Teachta Dála, Ahern was an anonymous backbencher, but did display ambition. In 1979, when Charles Haughey and George Colley, both constituency colleagues, fought a divisive battle for the position of party leader and Taoiseach, Ahern is believed to have backed Haughey. Ahern had served on a health committee with Haughey in the mid-1970s. Following Haughey's victory, Ahern was appointed Assistant-Government Chief Whip. In 1980, due to the illness of the actual Chief Whip, Seán Moore, he was running the office.
Ahern increased his personal vote in all three general elections of 1981 and 1982 out-polling his running mate, George Colley a candidate for Taoiseach. In the short-lived Fianna Fáil government of 1982, Ahern served as Government Chief Whip. Fianna Fáil were consigned to the opposition benches for five years. During this period Ahern became Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Labour. In 1986, he became Lord Mayor of Dublin. During his tenure he organised the Dublin Mille
Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright, journalist and poet. Tóibín is Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2017. Hailed as a champion of minorities as he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award, that same year he was named by The Observer one of "Britain's Top 300 Intellectuals" despite being Irish. Tóibín was born in 1955 in County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland. Tóibín's parents were Michael Tóibín, he is the second youngest of five children. His grandfather, Patrick Tobin, was a member of the IRA. Patrick Tobin took part in the 1916 Rebellion in Enniscorthy and was subsequently interned in Frongoch in Wales. Tóibín's father was a teacher, involved in the Fianna Fáil party in Enniscorthy. Tóibín grew up in a home where there was, he said, "a great deal of silence". Unable to read until the age of nine, he was overcome by a stammer.
He received his secondary education at St Peter's College, where he was a boarder between 1970 and 1972. He spoke of finding some of the priests attractive. In July 1972, aged 17, he had a summer job as a barman in the Grand Hotel in Tramore, County Waterford, working from six in the evening to two in the morning, he spent his days on the beach, reading The Essential Hemingway, the copy of which he still professes to have, its "pages stained with seawater". The book developed in him a fascination with Spain, led to a wish to visit that country, gave him "an idea of prose as something glamorous and shaped, the idea of character in fiction as something oddly mysterious, worthy of sympathy and admiration, but elusive, and more than anything, the sheer pleasure of the sentences and their rhythms, the amount of emotion living in what was not said, what was between the words and the sentences."He progressed to University College Dublin, graduating in 1975. After graduation, he left for Barcelona. Tóibín's first novel, 1990's The South, was inspired by his time in Barcelona, as was, more directly, his non-fiction Homage to Barcelona.
Having returned to Ireland in 1978, he began to study for a master's degree. However, he did not submit his thesis and left academia, at least for a career in journalism; the early 1980s were an bright period in Irish journalism, the heyday of the monthly news magazine Magill. Tóibín became the magazine's editor in 1982, remained in the position until 1985, he left due to a dispute with Magill's managing director. The South was followed by The Story of the Night and The Blackwater Lightship, his fifth novel, The Master, is a fictional account of portions in the life of author Henry James. He is the author of other non-fiction books: Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border, The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe. Tóibín has written two short story collections, his first and Sons, which as the name suggests explores the relationship between mothers and their sons, was published in 2006, was reviewed favourably. His second, broader collection, The Empty Family, was published in 2010, was shortlisted for the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
Tóibín's play, Beauty in a Broken Place, was staged in Dublin in August 2004. He has continued to work as a journalist, both in Ireland and abroad, writing for the London Review of Books among other publications, he has achieved a reputation as a literary critic: he has edited a book on Paul Durcan, The Kilfenora Teaboy, The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction. He has written a collection of essays, Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodóvar, a study on Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory's Toothbrush. Tóibín sent a photograph of Borges to Don DeLillo, who described it as "the face of Borges against a dark background—Borges fierce, his nostrils gaping, his skin stretched taut, his mouth amazingly vivid. DeLillo seeks inspiration from it. In 2011, The Times Literary Supplement published his poem "Cush Gap, 2007". 2012 brought the publication of The Testament of Mary. In 2014, he released his first full-length novel since Brooklyn, a portrait of a widowed mother of four in Wexford struggling through a period of grief, entitled Nora Webster.
In 2015, ahead of the Marriage Equality referendum, Tóibín delivered a talk titled "The Embrace of Love: Being Gay in Ireland Now" in Trinity Hall, featuring Roger Casement's diaries, the work of Oscar Wilde, John Broderick and Kate O'Brien, Senator David Norris's 1980s High Court battles. In the same year, he released On Elizabeth Bishop, a critical study which made The Guardian's Best Books of 2015 list twice. Tóibín has said, he does not view himself as storyteller. He has said, "Ending a novel is like putting a child to sleep – it can't be done abruptly."Tóibín works in the most extreme, austere conditions. He sits on a uncomfortable chair which causes him pain; when working on a first draft he covers only the right-hand side of the page.
Business & Finance
Business & Finance is a fortnightly Irish business magazine published by Belenos Publications, established by Hugh McLaughlin in September 1964. It provides news and analysis on Irish and international news stories; the readership is made up of business professionals, including senior level business leaders such as CEOs and heads of functions. It is a sister title to Magill; the magazine has been published continually since its foundation in 1964. At the beginning of the 2000s the magazine was published on a weekly basis; the parent company is Belenos Publications, which acquired the magazine in 2001. Business & Finance is edited by John Walsh, who took over after the departure of controversial economist Constantin Gurdgiev. Contributors include Richard Delevan, Gavin Miller, Nicole Matthews, Sarah Gilmartin and teic.ie editor Adam Maguire. The magazine claimed a readership of over 55,100 and a bi-weekly circulation, according to an ABC circulated audit, of 15,767 for the period 1 July to 31 December 2008.
Published are the annual "Top 1000 Companies in Ireland" and the "Who's Who in Irish Business". Other publications include the Life Sciences Review for news and updates for the life sciences industry in Ireland and Green Business which focuses on the implications of the move to'green' for the business community. Business & Finance Media Group have an Events Division, which manages several awards and events including the Business & Finance US Business Awards, Business & Finance Awards, Golden Spider Awards, the International Financial Services Summit. In 2009 it launched the inaugural Business & Finance Asia Pacific/Ireland awards. In the portfolio is the Top 1000 Companies in Ireland Database and a real-time online news portal. Moranna Ltd. the company publishing Business & Finance, folded in early 2011 owing more than €500,000. A new debt-free company was established to continue publishing the magazine. Business & Finance Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland Business & Finance Official site Business & Finance Asia Pacific/Ireland Awards
