‘Were You at the Rock’: the History of Mass Rocks in Ireland by Tony Nugent (The Liffey Press, €10.95) The Mass Rocks of Killybegs: Ten Pilgrimages to Sacred Places in Killybegs Summer 2013 by the Killybegs Mass Rocks Committee (Killybegs Parish Office, €15.00 + p&p; tel.: 00353 (0)74 9731013) It is by one of those…
Philosophical insights unfathomed
Frank Litton These days we worry about how the social media is affecting our relationships. Is the diligent Facebook user dodging the task of sustaining friendships for a less demanding and rewarding electronic substitute? If Facebook does little for friendship, its ubiquity bears witness to the importance of the idea of friendship. Friendship is important.…
Stalwarts of the Kingdom
J. Anthony Gaughan His Cork-based publisher describes Richard McElligott as “a Kerry partisan”. That, however, does not prevent the author from providing a splendid account of the GAA in his native county. The earliest chapters are the most important. They describe consistent progress, but there was considerable chaos and confusion. Clubs were established, but some soon…
A landmark document
Though well covered by all the media on its appearance this English language edition of the Pope’s first apostolic exhortation may come to be seen as an import landmark document, similar to Mater et Magister issued by John XXIII. This challenge to ‘complacency at every level’ should be widely read by all Catholics, who have…
Recollections of 1913
100 Years Later: The Legacy of the 1913 Lock-Out, edited by Mary Muldowney with Ida Milne (Seven Towers, €12.99/£10.99)
The many faces of C. S. Lewis
The A-Z of C. S. Lewis, by Colin Duriez (Lion Hudson, £14.99 / €17.99)
The people and the Fourth Estate
Democracy and Media Decadence, by John Keane (Cambridge University Press, €21.58 pb / £17.99)
The Other Side of the Story
Unheard Story: Dublin Archdiocese and The Murphy Report, by Pádraig McCarthy (Londubh Books, €14.99 / £17.99; ISBN 9781907535352)
Marking Twelfth Night
This week has seen the passing of Twelfth Night, on the eve of the Epiphany, the feast celebrating the visit of the Wise Men to the birthplace of Jesus. Traditionally this marked, not so much the realisation of Jesusís divinity, as the end of the long winter season, the first tremor of spring perhaps, the…
The year that was: 1983
Examining the National Archives

Peter Costello