Many congratulations to Pawel Pawlikowski on winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Film - for Ida -  in what was certainly one of the most interesting categories this year.

Just been looking through my Auntie Brigid's book 'The Women We Wanted To Look Like' which was published in 1977 and which she gave me for Xmas that year! Great pictures by Bailey, Beaton, Barry Lategan, Helmut Newton, Man Ray, Parkinson, Peccinotti and many others. And beautifully written. It needs to be updated!

I've been looking through some old pictures and found this series of Courtney's Circus which I made in Connemara back in the early 1990s. I bumped into the Circus Strongman in my local shop. He was looking for a place to swim. I started following the circus and made a series of polaroids. You can see more of these here

Oh no, I hope these girls aren't getting sick again!

I've just been given a tour of Russborough House in Co. Wicklow which is owned by the Beit Foundation. Sir Alfred Beit was enormously wealthy (a fortune - and a major collection of paintings - inherited from his father) and bought Russborough in the early 1950s. He was an enthusiastic photographer and in his twenties and thirties made many 3D photographs - in both colour and black and white - which are amazing. This picture shows one of his early 3D cameras. Well worth visiting Russborough to see these pictures: http://www.russboroughhouse.ie

These girls love Spot!

Very much enjoying David Dawson's book of photographs about Lucian Freud: A Painter's Progress. Dawson worked as assistant and confidante to Freud for almost twenty years and recorded daily life in and around the studio. Freud had an extraordinary collection of art and in this picture we see a Bacon, an Auerbach and a Rodin!

Great night last night at the concert we organised as part of the Temple Bar TradFest to raise money for Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) - the NGO which I chair. The venue was St. Michan's Church and the artists were: Hare Squead, Leonard Barry and guests, The Young Folk, Twin Headed Wolf, Loah, Lisa O'Neill, Glen Hansard and Mundy. The picture is of the last five doing an encore of 'Like a Rolling Stone'.

Just seen this film at the Film Forum. It's good, neatly scripted and beautifully shot but perhaps a little formulaic. 

There are a wide array of pieces on show from as far back as the Jurassic Age, through the Bronze Age and the Middle Ages up until 2007. These include Ammonite from Lyme Regis, Ogham stones from Co. Kerry, Bogbutter, a cash register and a football. I really loved this picture from the Crawford School of Art life drawing class circa 1930.