Welcome to the world of alternative truth The row that erupted after President Trump’s inauguration between Team Trump and the media about the attendance at the inauguration has thrown up some interesting attitudes to what some of us I suppose are old fashioned enough to call ‘truth’. Pilate may have turned away with the philosophical…
Peter Hegarty Greenpeace Captain by Peter Willcox with Ronald B.Weiss (Sandstone Press, £9.99) In his memoir, seafarer Peter Willcox drolly recalls the 30 years he has devoted to creating ‘chaos and spectacle’ to heighten awareness of destruction of the environment. Activism is dangerous. He was on board the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour in July 1985…
Tired of all the Bad News by Fr Bryan Shortall (Columba, €12.99) This might be just the book for The Donald when he feels particularly hard done by. But Fr Bryan, a Capuchin, while accepting that we seem to live in a period suffused by negativity, not just in the news but in life, has…
The Bible in One Year, New International Version read by David Suchet CBE (Hodder and Stoughton, £29.99; also available as a digital download) David Suchet is one of the popular and talented actors of his time, famous for in incarnation of Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Poirot (whose ‘little grey cells’ were informed by the conscience…
Vatican demands Order of Malta cooperate with commission The Vatican has demanded that a defiant Order of Malta cooperate with its inquiry which seeks to investigate the circumstances of the removal of one of the order’s most senior members. Following the sudden departure of Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager on December 8 amid allegations…
A participant paints a crucifix as part of a drug addiction rehabilitation programme at a Catholic church in Manila, Philippines. The Archdiocese of Manila built the rehabilitation centre for drug dependents amid Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, in which more than 6,000 people have been killed. Photo: CNS
“Confidence and hope” were the feelings reported last week among displaced Iraqi Christians as news emerged that forces combating so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Mosul have driven the terror group from all parts of the east-side of the city and are set to launch a final push for the remainder. The reports of elation were…
Dear Editor, Nuala O’Loan and Bishop Donal McKeown’s articles in The Irish Catholic of January 19 make for sobering reading, and should be read and reflected upon by any British – or indeed Irish – supporters of withdrawal from the EU. Ahead of last June’s Brexit referendum, Irish people north and south of the border…
Darragh McGann Darragh McGann describes how a year of loss and illness brought him back to God With the exception of two years, I have lived all of my life at home with my mother. My dad died before I reached the age of six and having been adopted as a baby, I didn’t have…
Andrew Carpenter Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel by John Stubbs (Viking, £25) It is hard to know what to expect from a new biography of Swift so soon after Leo Damrosch’s massive Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World (Yale University Press, £10.99pb) in 2013, especially if the latest book is clearly designed for the…