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Not one, but two, Brian Friel plays are being revived for the Dublin summer tourist season 2011. "Translations" opens at the Abbey Theatre tomorrow night whileÌý"Molly Sweeney" opens at the Gate Theatre tonight.Ìý

Dublin drama critic Sara KeatingÌýtold meÌýearlier today that she reckons Friel is the sexiest name to have above a theatre doorÌýto get the tourist bums on seats.Ìý

There were few tourist bums on the seats of the Guilhall chairs in Derry in September 1980 when "Translations" premiered along with a brand new theatre company Field Day.Ìý A hugely political play, set in a 19th century hedge school, that Field Day opening nightÌýwasÌýa cultural watershed moment inÌýDerry.ÌýThe Unionist mayor in the City Council then was Marlene Jefferson. She wasÌýthe first on her feet to lead the standing ovation after the first performance.

I wasn't there, much to my regret now. I remember my parents leaving our house to driveÌýfrom Newry to see it. It was a bit of a family affair; my mother's niece, Consolata Boyle, had designed the set and costumes, while my uncle Robert, a local builder, had built the set! But I've heard so much about the wow factor of that nightÌýthat somewhere in my imagination I have willedÌýmyself into the middle of the audience so much so that I can almost smell it!

One of my most treasured possessions, the thing to grab if the house is on fire, is a framed "Translations" poster from that first run in the Guildhall, courtesy of myÌýaunt Mairead who bequeathed it to me a few years ago.

My guilty secret is that I have never seen the play performed live, despite imagining myself there in the Guildhall almost 31 years ago now!ÌýSo I reckon my bum will be on a seat in the Abbey this summer!

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We have a new podcast! Arts ExtraÌýStrong Bits can be heardÌýevery Friday after the programme.Ìý Our first one featuresÌýone of Ireland's new wave of crime writers, Niamh O Connor, who combines life as a crime correspondent on a Dublin weekly tabloid with writing thrillers;Ìýwe review "Bridesmaids"; andÌý poet Derek Mahon remembers his friend and fellow poet the late James Simmons on the 10th anniversary of his death.

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I've been getting a lot of great new crime fiction to read lately. Up to, I suppose, the last 6 months, crime fiction has left me colder than a corpse in a cold case. My mother, on the other hand, devours it, with one hand on the remote control watching every conceivable permutation of crime on the tv. She can suss out whodunit quicker than the detective. But recently I've been dipping into some of the books landing on my desk with even greater relish. And you know what? An awful lot of is from Irish writers. I raced through writerÌý new book "Little Girl Lost", set in contemporary Derry with a young PSNI female officer as the central figure.

Last week it was a Scottish thriller writer with a very Irish theme. "" by Catherine Deveney hasÌýthe enigmatic byeline "Is it possible toÌýfall in love with the man who murdered your family?" It's about a Scottish woman whose 3 year old son and husband are killed in an IRA bomb in Glasgow 18 years ago, and, after years of "coping" with it, something snaps in her andÌýshe goes to Ireland to avenge her family.

The thriller quickly turns into a love story which some might find a bit far fetched, but it was written so well, I was still reading it with eyes burning with tiredness out of my sockets at 2am in an all night reading marathon.

Last night, it was and her new book "Taken".ÌýO'Connor , whose day job is as the True Crime editor of the SundayÌýWorld,Ìýreveals that she has taken to crime fiction toÌý"get around the restrictions of libel laws" (a point she makes in a newÌýessay collection "" edited by Declan Burke).ÌýO'Connor's latest crime fiction re -ntroduces Ireland's latest fictional cop, DI Jo Birmingham, whose search for the missing three year old son of a leading model takes her into a Dublin of celebrity, prostitution and gangland murders.

Hope Bord Failte aren't reading it. Emerald Noir lives up to itsÌýname!Ìý

I know that this day is coming around every year. The 16th of June. Bloomsday. The day on which James Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses" is set. Last year I thought I'd start reading it. I got as far as Chapter 1. It was a long chapter. And despite all the Joycean enthusiasts I talk to every year, I haven't started Chapter 2, and because I can't remember Chapter 1, I'm going to have to start re reading it. Now I feel trapped in a Groundhog Day Ulysses.ÌýBut now I've been given a Bloomsday 11thÌýHourÌýreprieve. Declan Kiberd,Ìýa Professor andÌýJoycean and author of "Ulysses and Us"Ìýhas told me to listen to it read.ÌýI've been really enjoying Jim Norton reading Gordon Bowker's biography of James Joyce onÌý³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 this week as the Book of the Week at 0945-1000. Bowker told me he loves it too, and actually recommended Norton to Radio 4, having listened to his audio book reading of Ulysses. So if it's good enough for Joyce's biographer then I'm away to buy it. And next year, I will be able to hold my head up high and say I've at least listened to the great book.Ìý

Yes I know everyone's raving about it, but I'm just not convinced by the universal praise being heaped on "The Shadow Line", the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 2 conspiracy series. Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante, who I interviewed earlier this week, told me she thinks it's "boring". I wouldn't go that far. Slow, mannered, knowing, but also frustrating.

I am a huge fan of many of the actors in it - Christopher Ecclestone, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sir Antony Sher and Stephen Rea. Rea, in particular, is a fabulous actor but I can't take him as Gatehouse in that silly hat, gloves and overcoat. He's constantly arriving at people's doors, silhouetted through the glass and back-lit like a Marvel character. Yes, I know, someone on Facebook put me right with "through a glass darkly", which is referenced throughout, Corinthians rather than the Ingmar Bergman film, but does everyone he visits have to have a glass-fronted door?

Anyway, at least he wasn't wearing the coat and hat in the hospital bed last week. I don't know, I know I'm being overly critical. My 20 something self back in the 'cough' 1980's (mid! 1980's) had a devotion to him like no other. When I was asked to help him with his lines for the Field Day Theatre Company production of "Saint Oscar" in the Foyle Arts Centre building in Derry , I do confess now that it was me, not him, who lost the place in the script several times.

All that said about "The Shadow Line", the record button is set for the last episode on Thursday night to find out how it ends. Finally.

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I went to see "Brendan at the Chelsea"Ìý recently, the play written by Brendan Behan's niece and directed by, and staring, Adrian Dunbar. It is so funny. IÌýlaughed so much, I actually snorted, (apologies to the man sitting beside me, who I think I startled!).Ìý

While Dunbar doesn't "look" like Behan, he inhabits him.Heavy laboured breathing, sudden mood swings, sparkling wit and energy that only an alcoholic in search of his next drink can muster. He is superb.ÌýSet in the infamous Chelsea Hotel in New York Ìýduring Behan’s second visit to New York, it was to be his lastÌýtime.ÌýÌýHe died a few months later.

I saw Adrian in the Lyric a few days later, he was coming in for the Sunday matinee, but going to pop in and see the preview of "Dockers" just before.ÌýI thought I should tell him how good I thought he was.ÌýHe was saying some people had been disappointed that there wasn't mention of Behan's Republicanism.ÌýI said it deserved to be seen wider afield.ÌýWith the Tricycle in London having an Irish season this summer (Billy Roche's "Lay me down SoftlyÌý"and Owen McCafferty's "The Absence of Women"), surely "Behan at the Chelsea" would be ideal for their audience? Apaprently someone from the Tricycle has been over to the Lyric to see it. Watch this space.

Anyhow, there we were, having a great old chat about Behan etc when my 3 year old came up and said loudly thatÌýshe wantedÌýto go to the toilet. "You better go" said Adrian. So we exited stage left.

Spoke to artist Jack Pakenham today and he was underplaying his starring role in Cashier Number 9's video for their song "Goldstar". He wanted to talk about his new Selected Works currently on show at the Linenhall Library. But I pressed him on the famous cartwheels now captured for all time. He may be in his early 70's but he can move! And now a global audience has the chance to see him in action! He told me earlier that when he was first asked to take part he said no. He didn't think the song was "rock n roll" enough and thought a girl would dance it better. ÌýFilm makers Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn tried again and he said yes. He seems slightly bemused by the whole experience, glad he did it, but more keen to talk about his poetry and his painting. He was in the famous Belfast Group with Heaney and Longley etc, but I reckon of the three, Pakenham is the one who can still do cartwheels!Ìý