Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier, with a new afterword (Vintage, £9.99 / €12.60) The author of this book would, I think, regard this ambition as the start of a race to the bottom. Jaron Lanier is a Jeremiah of the internet who has emerged directly from Silicon Valley.…
The Power of Thank You: Discover the God of Gratitude by Joyce Meyer (Hodder and Stoughton, £9.99 / €11.99) Each moment that you’re given,” Joyce Meyer writes, “is a precious gift from God.” How often were we told when small to ‘say thank’ on so many occasions? But how little it affects the adult world. Many are…
An exhibition by Anthony Kelly, Seán McCrum, Peter Reid, and Paddy Sammon in the Irish Architectural Archives, 45 Merrion Square; run to 29 March 2024; free The Ariège is a French department that lies in the Pyrenees between Carcassonne and the mountain state of Andorra. It is one of the least populated regions of France,…
St Brigid was recognised from an early date as one of the ‘Three Patrons of Ireland’. Born of the Celtic nobility, in Irish history and legend she has always held a premier place; and yet about her life and achievement there has always been, because of her early date, so soon after St Patrick, both…
The Great Dreamer: The Life and Mission of St Francis Xavier by Brendan Comerford (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £11.95) St Francis Xavier is among the most celebrated of the original body of Jesuits. He has been the subject of many biographies and devotional books in the past – the author mentions some of them on…
The other day to a female associate of mine (which is modern speak for my wife) who remarked to me that she had a clear recollection of a prayer used in her Dublin convent school in the early 1950s, she thinks about 1953, which the diocese had asked to be used in both schools and…
Miniature Masterpieces: Cultural identity, artistic expression and a century of Irish stamps, by Stephen Ferguson (National Print Museum, €12.00; also available from the GPO Archives & Museum) The first Irish stamps of the Free State were standard British stamps, adorned with King George’s head, over-printed for Irish use temporarily in the new domain. But soon…
Michael Healy 1873-1941: A Túr Gloine’s Stained Glass Pioneer, by David Caron (Four Courts Press, €55.00 / £50.00) Back in October 1906, Robert Elliot in his pioneering book Art and Ireland lamented that so many churches in Ireland seemed to prefer to fill the windows of their churches with stained glass imported ready made from…
A Nation is Born: Ireland in Colour 1923-1938, edited by Michael B. Barry and John O’Byrne (Gill books, €26.99 / £25.99) The title of this book is a complete misnomer. But then that is the sort of thing that happens when a complex subject is popularised for Christmastime consumption. Ireland in 1923 did not see…
Every year it has been customary on these books pages to recall aspects of the accounts of the Nativity given in two of the Gospels. Each year, surprisingly enough, there always seems something new to say. This is as true this year as in all those earlier years; all 2,000 or so of them going…