Inside the Monkey House: My Time as an Irish Prison Officer by John Cuffe (Collins Press, € 12.99) John Cuffe dealt with some of the most depraved and violent people in this country during his 30 years as a prison officer, between 1978 and 2007. During his long years in Arbour Hill, where the worst…
Living Stream of Catholicism: View of the Catholic Church Through the Centuries by Eamon Flanagan (St Pauls, £7.95) The author sets out to highlight the living stream of Catholicism throughout the centuries and this he achieves in prose and poetry. At the outset he divides world history into a number of segments which will be…
Lady Macbeth (18) People usually talk about Shakespeare’s ‘Big Four’ – Hamlet, Lear, Othello and Macbeth – as his pre-eminent works. I wouldn’t argue with that. If the first three have a fault it’s that few members of their casts can hold a candle to the main character. Not so with Macbeth. Lady Macbeth matches…
It was a week of high drama, in reality and in fiction. The absorbing crime drama Line of Duty came to the end of its fourth series on BBC 1 last Sunday night and what an impact! This show has been consistently the best crime drama that I’ve seen on TV in the last few…
Felix M. Larkin Ireland: The Autobiography – One hundred years in the life of the nation, told by its people ed. by John Bowman (Penguin Ireland, €25/£20) Shakespeare’s stage Irishman in Henry V, Captain Macmorris, famously asks “What ish my nation?” He answers his own question with these words: “Ish a villain, and a bastard,…
The principal of the Co. Down primary school whose choir got a standing ovation from the judges on Britain’s Got Talent at the weekend, has said the school is “overawed by the reaction that the children received”. Mrs Sorcha Lyness told The Irish Catholic that “to see everyone on their feet was just phenomenal and…
Fr Vincent Sherlock Nobody was as surprised as myself. Ed Sheeran was playing his second concert in Croke Park and the reviews of the first concert were incredible. I thought about what a positive influence Ed had been in the lives of 160,000 plus people over two nights. My being there, I thought, had some…
Government demands that schools reduce uniform costs to ease parents’ financial pressures have been criticised as reactive and unacceptable micro-management by the president of the body which represents faith-based schools in Ireland. Speaking at the AMCSS/JMB annual general meeting in Killarney, Fr Paul Connell said the planned changes would do “little or nothing to reduce…
The DIT student volunteering committee has presented Sr Stan Kennedy with its inaugural ‘Social Justice Hero’ award, in recognition of her work supporting Ireland’s most vulnerable, at the launch of a new website Studentvolunteer.ie/DIT: Ciarán Freeman (Student Volunteering Chairperson), Sr Stan Kennedy with her Social Justice Hero award and Emmet Jordan-Kelly (DIT Student Volunteering Development…
Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt last week may have been one of the shortest overseas trips so far in his papacy, but it may prove one of his most important. Friday morning saw the Pope arriving at Cairo airport and being officially welcomed to Egypt at the Heliopolis presidential palace, before joining the chief imam…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Mags Gargan
Courtney McGrail
Greg Daly