Uncertain Passage, by Paddy Bushe (Dedalus Press, €12.50pb / €20 hb) Paddy Bushe’s latest book, Uncertain Passage, is a triumph. His poems, like the blackbird in his eponymous haiku, are “So ordinary / Yet still incomparably / The sweetest of all.” Like the goldfinch of another haiku, his wise words illuminate us. A poet…
Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, why so many became Catholic in the 20th Century, by Melanie McDonagh (Yale University Press, £25.00 / €28.99) Melanie McDonagh is an Arklow woman, educated at Cambridge after school in Ireland, who has had a stellar career in London journalism. Among other accomplishments as a columnist, she has carved…
A member of the federal Religious Liberty Commission has been ousted after a hearing this week that featured tense exchanges on the definition of antisemitism. The ousted member, Carrie Prejean Boller, had defended prominent commentator Candace Owens, who routinely shares antisemitic conspiracy theories. Prejean Boller, a model turned conservative activist who converted to Catholicism last…
The Testament of Ann Lee (R) is a visceral, high-voltage musical directed by Mona Fastvold. It stars Amanda Seyfried as the eponymous 18th century founder of the woman-led ‘Shaker’ religious cult. The daughter of Mancunian Quakers, Lee came from a poverty-stricken background. When she was 22 she joined a sect run by ‘Mother’ Jane Wardley,…
At least 69,000 families have been affected and 22 people have died in flooding triggered by extraordinarily heavy rains in northern Colombia. The Church has been working since the beginning of the crisis to deliver food and clothing to people who have lost everything, as well as to provide spiritual and emotional support. About 9,000…
Confluences of Law and History. Irish Legal History Society Discourses and Other Papers, 2011-21, ed. by Niamh Howlin & Felix M. Larkin (Four Courts Press, €55.00 / £50.00) Usually, edited collections of historical essays are thematic and derive from papers presented at a conference. However, the papers presented in this edited collection received their original…
At the planned synod conference in Germany, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz would like to broaden the thematic horizon. It will be about “addressing questions of passing on the faith and evangelisation,” said the bishop at the Mainz event ‘One Church, Many Paths,’ over the weekend. He hopes that ideas will be formed “that are…
So, Lent has begun again and many of us fall into familiar patterns – hopefully we will celebrate Easter as better people, closer to God. Divine Sparks with Aine Lawlor (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) delved into past and present Lenten practices. Aine Lawlor believed things hadn’t changed much over the years in that respect, especially…
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil Matt. 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matt. 4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. Matt. 4:3 The tempter came…
When I was growing up in the 1980’s, there was a dream that most of us had of meeting the right person, falling in love, settling down, getting married and having a family. Somehow, that was the goal and the norm of how life was meant to work out. There was a natural connection between…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan