Colin Farrell doesn’t like guns. In fact he actually hates even holding them he says, which is ironic because as he admits himself he often ends up doing just that in his films. 

One in four Irish people have had a close family member emigrate in the past four years, according to the latest survey.

Three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis made a surprise appearance at the American Ireland Fund dinner in New York, where he made an impassioned plea for funding for the Wicklow Hospice near where he lives in Ireland.

While bird watching in Alaska with his wife Laura and their three children, Toby Burke was suddenly forced to stand toe-to-toe with a brown bear to protect his family and walked away with only scratches and bruises. 

Michelle Dockery , the 31-year-old actress – who is best known for playing Lady Mary Crawley on 'Downton Abbey' – will lend her voice to an upcoming episode of the animated comedy.

Tony and Mary Heffernan are in a bid to open ‘Liam’s Lodge,’ Ireland’s first respite home for children who suffer from a range of conditions, from debilitating disorders to life limiting conditions.

Tom Mee (87), a Colorado man whose family trace their roots to County Cork, had heard a lot about traditional Irish wakes from his grandparents and had always wished he could be present at his own. On Monday night, Clancy’s pub in Athy, County Kildare, made his dream come true, he attended his own “fake wake”, casket, musicians and all.

Dubliner Johnny O'Callaghan is a successful LA-based actor, psychologist and adoptive dad. This week he’s at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York starring in his hilarious and uplifting one man show about his epic struggle to adopt a Ugandan orphan. He tells Cahir O'Doherty that because he was single, gay and a bit of a nomad no one expected him to become a father, but a trip to Africa to help others ended up turning his own life around.

Being Irish not just an Irish thing, of the 70 million people worldwide who claim Irish ancestry, only about 5 million are actually Irish citizens. This year, anyone with the slightest connection to Ireland has been invited home for The Gathering 2013. Some have viewed the initiative cynically, as a way for a bankrupt state to haul in a few extra tourist dollars. However, in the hands of ordinary people, the Gathering may yet prove to be a profound thing.

James Connolly Heron, the great-grandson of 1916 leader James Connolly, recently visited the historic properties on Moore Street, used as headquarters during the Easter Rising, and was disgusted with what he found. He found the building to look worse than before the protection order was issued in 2007.