It’s quite an achievement for a book to become a best-seller without any mainstream book reviews, and with little visibility in the bookshops. But Eoin Lenihan’s Vandalising Ireland reached the top of the best-seller list in non-fiction last weekend, sold almost entirely through Amazon (and published by Western Front, which specialises in a Christian worldview).…
Ever felt like cutting off all contact with your family? There’s a slew of self-help books currently published which encourage individuals to do just that. These bear such titles as ‘The Power of Parting: Finding Peace and Freedom Through Family Estrangement, by Eamon Dolan; Surviving the Toxic Family by Marina Williams; Rules of Estrangement –…
Who would have predicted, in 1534, when Henry VIII broke with Rome, that 491 years later, Henry’s successor, Charles III, would embrace, and pray with, the successor to Clement VII, Pope Leo XIV? What a historic moment this meeting has been, and what reflections it prompts about the course of history. Consider the long years,…
I have sometimes been asked by people in Britain: why are the Irish the most passionately pro-Palestinian of any nation? Why has Gaza been so central, even obsessive, to Irish politics, discourse and public demonstration? Gaza has taken more time in the Oireachtas than any other issue touching overseas policy. It has been a central…
If Dame Sarah Mullally, the newly-appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, has an Irish surname, it’s because she is married to an Irishman, architect Eamonn Mullally (they have two children, Liam and Grace.) Her appointment as the first woman to lead the Anglican Communion world-wide has been greeted as historic; yet the reaction has been ambivalent, sometimes…
I reported, over a month ago, on the ubiquity of the Union Jack and St George flags now so popularly flown across England. And since travelling between England and Ireland, I’ve noticed the Irish tricolour has been increasingly displayed in parts of Dublin, fluttering from private homes and from street furniture. And now, it seems,…
Self-help manuals are big business today (a book called Let Them continues to be a leading best-seller). One of the most interesting self-help philosophies, I’ve found, is Stoicism. Deriving from the classical world of Greece and Rome, the counsel of Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius encourage us to accept what we cannot change and focus…
It was hardly a great advertisement for Ireland when Pope Leo, as Bishop Robert Prevost, reported that when visiting this country he had been physically attacked in the street. This had occurred probably in 2007 (he came to Ireland twice, once in 2005 and then again two years later). “Never in my life have I…
Conversation overheard: “Are you going to see the new Downton Abbey film, when it opens this week?” “Oh yes! We’re booked for Sunday.” “Complete tosh!” “I’m sure it will be absolute nonsense! But the gorgeous costumes and posh interiors are just the kind of fluffy entertainment that helps us escape the dreadful realities of the…
What exactly is this ‘woke’ business?” asked an old friend, puzzled by the word’s ubiquitous use and the lack of exact definition. So, I thought I’d compile a simplified guide to an idea and a movement which wields power and influence in directing our values today. ‘Woke’ means replacing words like ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ with…