Planning a trip to Dublin but strapped for cash? There’s no end to the free fun to be had all over the nation’s capital with museums, visitors centers, scenic attractions and tourists trails.

In “Turning Green,” an American-born teenager growing up in Ireland finds a novel way to finance his return to the freedom of New York -- by selling soft core girlie mags on the black market to the local men queuing up to buy them. The new film stars Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton and Colm Meaney, and features the debut of Irish newcomer Donal Gallery. We talk to the film’s writer and its young breakout star.

News from the 32: Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

News from the 32: Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

A mystery revolving around President Barack Obama’s Irish roots was solved when a tomb containing the remains of Obama’s Irish ancestor was discovered in the Irish medieval city of Kilkenny.

Irish-American actor John Cusack recently took a three-week vacation to Ireland to celebrate his mom’s 80th birthday, and luckily for his fans, he Tweeted his thoughts and pictures along the way.

There's just one person who has yet to figure out why U2 is the superstar band it is. Bono. The 49-year-old singer says something "very strange" happens when he walks into a room with bandmates Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. and the Edge.

The surname Curran is common in all four provinces in Ireland, but especially in County Donegal and throughout Ulster. The name is also prevalent in the south of Ireland, appearing many times in the County Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls of 1665-7. Currans showed up frequently as Waterford residents in the census of 1659.

WITH VIDEO: Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black professor at the center of the racial story involving his arrest outside his Harvard house, has spoken proudly of his Irish roots.

Irish doctors may hold the key to early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. An early diagnosis could help stave off the debilitating effects of the disease. Irish researchers were able to correctly identify 95 percent of 345 people who had progressed from mild cognitive impairment to early Alzheimer's.

On Wednesday Hugh Friel, Chairman of Tourism Ireland, announced the appointment of Niall Gibbons as the organization’s new Chief Executive, with immediate effect.

How does one try and visit all of Ireland in just two weeks? By cramming in as much as possible and hardly stopping to sleep! One American girl's first-time sprint around Ireland.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese and Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen led a string of tributes to the memory of the three young doctors, all friends and one a former Riverdance star, who are missing feared dead in the Air France trans-Atlantic disaster. McAleese said, “My thoughts and prayers, and the thoughts of everyone, are with the Irish families and the families of everyone on board at this very difficult time.”

Barack Hussein Obama is the descendant of Ohio and Indiana immigrants who came from the borders of Counties

Eddie Holt on Irish Finance Minster Brian Lenihan's declaration that it was our patriotic duty to support his budget. Maybe he should stick to the numbers and leave it to Irish individuals to decide how to express their love of country.

Today is the day that Trekkies have been waiting for – “Star Trek” opens in theaters across the U.S. And believe it or not, “Star Trek” has some Irish roots.

O’Connell Street’s Spire tops the list of must-see sites in Dublin, in a new study of photos posted on the Web site Flickr.

County Antrim native Deirdre Madden has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, Britain’s prestigious annual book award for fiction written by a woman, ahead of Nobel prize winner

Over the years, the crew of "Star Trek" has indeed boldly gone “where no man has gone before.” And occasionally, this has included remote, simulated villages in Ireland to fall in love with holographic Irish bartenders.

Colin Farrell attended two elite private high schools. Gabriel Byrne starting acting classes at the age of 29. See the different roads to stardom for top Irish actors.

The Man Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded to the best original work written in English by a citizen of either the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Four Irish writers have won the award since its inception in 1969, including two writers in the past five years.

Let's face it! Visitors to Ireland are spoiled for choice. From the windswept Cliffs of Moher to the misty Aran Islands, there are hundreds of must-see places on any tourist's itinerary. We've done our best to narrow it down to just 10 and we've got the pictures to prove it!

Pubs occupy a special place in a Dubliner's heart - and this list will show you why.

The pub is an essential part of Irish life. And although Irish pubs can now be found all over the world, from Lagos to Ho Chi Minh City, nothing beats the authenticity of a real, honest old Irish pub - the kind of place where to step into is to take a trip back in time.

Ireland's long and troubled past make it a good choice for history buffs. Its history is far more complex than might first appear - as such, it's the type of place where a bit of local knowledge can go a long way.

Digitization of the Irish historic records has been slow, and most Irish records are not available online at the moment. Some research can only be carried out in Ireland. This is where you might want to commission an Irish researcher, to access records that are not available outside of Ireland, or to help you to "bust a problem or obstacle" that you may have come up against in your Irish research.

President Barack Hussein Obama is the newest member of an exclusive club of 20 U.S. presidents who claim Irish ancestry. Obama's Irish roots go back to his great-great-great-grandparent, Falmouth Kearney, who left Moneygall in Co. Offaly in 1850 to seek his fortune as a shoemaker in the New World.

Civil and human rights campaigners from Britain, Ireland and the U.S. gathered at Trinity College in Dublin on Saturday, February 14 for an all-day memorial conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the murder of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

An international conference to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the murder of human rights solicitor Patrick Finucane will be held at Trinity College in Dublin on Saturday, February 14, organized by the group British-Irish Rights Watch. The one day conference will start with the recollections of Finucane's wife Geraldine, followed by a series of lectures and discussions from prominent panelists on the issues of policing, inquests, detention, prisoners' rights, the intimidation of lawyers and collusion. Scheduled speakers at the all-day event include Inez McCormack, the former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions; Clara Reilly, chairperson for Relatives for Justice; Mike Ritchie, director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice; Judge Peter Cory, former member of the Supreme Court of Canada and BBC journalist John Ware.

Every year since 1901, the international Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. There is an elite group of Irish and Northern Irish scholars and activists who have won this prestigious award.

Silicon Valley's top innovators and business leaders have some strong advice for Ireland's emerging technology sector.

In a conference at Trinity College in Dublin last week Silicon Valley's Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) told the audience that Irish technology start-ups need to develop global ambitions if they want to attract overseas investors.

While in Ireland the group met with Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen and President Mary McAleese, and stressed that Ireland needs to invest more in the technology sector.

IT certainly hasn't been smooth sailing for the ambitious Broadway production of The Pirate Queen produced by John McColgan and Moya Doherty.

It has managed to stay afloat despite the nearly universal pans from the professional critics while entertaining a number of people who have seen it and given standing ovations to the cast.

From my own informal sampling and I have seen it twice myself I sit squarely in the middle on its achievements plus and minus.

Miss Ireland 2007 was crowned last weekend in Cork.

The 21-year-old Blathnaid McKenna is quite a stunner, though it's hard to tell by the accompanying photo due to the pile of feathers she's plopped on her head. (What is it with European women and hideous hats?) McKenna also qualifies as an all-Ireland winner, as she hails from Co.

IS it me or is time flying by way too fast? There is news this week that a number of U.K.-based Irish artists are being honored for their accomplishments.

Her book is titled In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, and while it's already been released in Ireland and the U.K., where the British-born Mirren is a legend, it won't be available in the U.

WHILE Paul McCartney seems to enjoy helping himself to a new single American lady on a regular basis, his very estranged wife Heather Mills keeps on shooting her mouth off.

Her latest rant - which was restrained, by her standards - came last week in Dublin, where she was made an honorary patron of the august Philosophical Society at Trinity College. Past patrons include Al Pacino, Helen Mirren and Archbishop Desmond Tutu .

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, Irish people all over the U.S. are preparing to celebrate the national holiday.

UNIVERSITY College Dublin hosted Will Ferrell last month, and now Trinity College will confer an honor this week on another A-lister, Oscar winner Helen Mirren, originally British but maintaining a deep love for the Irish.

The college's Philosophical Society will make Helen an honorary patron, providing the star with a great excuse to head over for a quick break.

"One of my ex-boyfriends went to Trinity College, many, many moons ago," Mirren told the Irish Independent, "but now I can boast to him, 'I've been to Trinity College as well.

ON Thursday, March 13 the legendary Irish tenor Ronan Tynan will step onto the stage at Manhattan's famed Carnegie Hall to perform in a concert billed - accurately enough - A Great Night for the Irish.

Celebrated for its stunning acoustics, a concert at Carnegie Hall is always a moving and incredible experience. You can literally sit anywhere and know that the sound will be amazing.

Cry Baby, the sweetly subversive Broadway follow up to the Tony Award winning Hairspray, is a $12 million musical comedy set to blow the roof of the competition when it opens this Thursday. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell, the show's writers (and Broadway legends in their own right).

"WE'RE squeaky clean," sing the glee club boys at the start of Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell's marvelously witty new musical Cry Baby.

When Hans van den Broek, the Dutch narrator of Joseph O'Neill's masterful new novel "Netherland" meets Chuck Ramkissoon, a Trinidadian trickster on the make, he's led - albeit reluctantly at first - toward a new and more expansive life.

For Hans, a prosperous financial analyst, the move to New York has brought with it an unexpected and prolonged unhappiness for the first time in his life. Then, moving uptown to the Chelsea Hotel in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, his wife tells him she wants to return to London, taking their young son.

ROBERT Redford is 71 years old, and he'd still give any young buck in Hollywood a run for their millions both in the looks and intelligence department, if his trip to Dublin last week is anything to go by. Redford received an honorary degree from Trinity College, alongside the likes of former Irish President Mary Robinson, and he spent a couple of days in the city touring around and taking in the sights and sounds. He spoke at a public forum in Trinity on the eve of his conferral and had some interesting things to say about his life and political views .

WILL Ferrell brought along his Irish American sidekick in the film Step Brothers, John C. Reilly, for a week of business in pleasure in Dublin that just wrapped up. The visit marked Ferrell's second trip to the Emerald Isle this year - in January he gave an hilarious speech at University College Dublin, dressed in tight fitting Irish rugby gear, to accept an award.

This week New York's first ever Irish theater festival will take to the stage, featuring nine exciting new plays by Ireland's most celebrated playwrights. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to the festival's artistic director George Heslin about how and why he made this extraordinary new festival happen.

THIS weekend New York's first ever Irish theater festival, called 1st Irish 2008, will begin at the Theaters.

After their shows last spring supporting Irish traditional super group Celtic Woman, it's finally time for the High Kings to step out on their own. Their U.S.

Disco Pigs

By Enda Walsh

1st Irish Theater Festival

Theater,

New York

IT'S an age-old story - boy meets girl, they fall in love, the girl has second thoughts and the boy takes it out on his unsuspecting community. In Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs the community in question is Cork city, and the retribution is swift and deadly.

First performed over 10 years ago in Ireland where it quickly became a cult hit on the Irish theater scene, Disco Pigs has just been revived in time for the 1st Irish Theater Festival in New York, and it's hard to image a more polished performance of this disturbing, memorable play.

NYU'S Glucksman Ireland House will feature a special performance by Seosaimhin Ni Bheaglaoich (Josephine Begley) of the famous Dingle family that has been in the forefront of traditional music from the West Kerry Gaeltacht for so many years.

Educated at Trinity College in Dublin, she hosted a 1980s CCE TV series for RTE called The Mountain Lark that featured traditional music and dance, and with Radio na Gaeltachta where she was recognized as one of Ireland's finest singers in the Irish language.

She was also a founding member of Ireland's first all female group MACALLA where her rendering of the title track of their first album Mna na hEireann still stands out in my memory.

STYLE maven Tommy Hilfiger makes a visit to Ireland this week to receive an honorary award from Trinity College, and more importantly, at least for his company's bottom line, he'll open up a new Tommy flagship store on Grafton Street in Dublin.

The petite prince of fashion will also travel to Galway during his two day stay in Ireland to greet his well-heeled customers who patronize the Tommy store in Galway City. And deep-pocketed you must be to buy Hilfiger stuff in Ireland, as the mark-up is astounding compared to what we pay here.

A YEARLONG study by an Irish historical research group has uncovered fascinating new details about Senator Barack Obama's Irish ancestry. Among the recent discoveries, researchers announced that Michael Kearney (Obama's sixth great-granduncle) was an 18th century business mogul who opposed political corruption in Dublin, and was widely celebrated in the city politics of his day where he won a landslide election to city Dublin City Council.The study also revealed that John Kearney, another relation, would be a distant cousin of Obama's, and went on to become the Provost (or head) of Trinity College Dublin, and later the Bishop of Ossory.

Dublin: The wind and rain lashed furiously on the tarmac at Dublin Airport, rocking our Aer Lingus Airbus like a gondola exposed to the elements on a mountaintop. We hadn't packed any sun block for this post-Christmas 2000 family trip to Ireland, but no one had told us we'd be landing in the monsoon season. It had proved impossible to land at Shannon Airport in the west, where the storm was said to be really raging.