These days we hear a great deal about Catholic dioceses being united, and also of parishes being run together, all because of the critical lack of priests. The penchant of the administrative mind when faced by such a crisis to make the administrative area ever larger is always apparent. But is this right with parishes? How…
There is still time to catch the annual showing of the Henry Vaughan Bequest of Turner watercolours at the National Gallery of Ireland before it closes at the end of the month. It is in the Print Gallery, reached from Clare Street, and is free with no booking needed. The Henry Vaughan Bequest is a…
Becoming Human, Becoming Divine: The Christian Life According to Blessed Columba Marmion, by Columba McCann OSB (Veritas, €9.99/£8.50 – prices subject to change) This year marks the centenary of the death of Blessed Columba Marmion in 1923. This is an anniversary which will be of great interest to many across Ireland, given his Dublin birth…
Lead Kindly Light: Essays for Ian Kerr, Ed. Paul Shrimpton, (Gracewing £20.00/€22.75) This book is a festschrift to mark, the editor says, the fourscore years of the life of Ian Kerr, the Newman scholar. He succeeded to the eminence of the late Fr Charles Dessain who sustained over so many years the great project to…
The Art of Disagreeing Well: How Debate Teaches Us to Listen and Be Heard, by Bo Seo (William Collins, £14.99/€16.99) Bo Seo, the author of this very interesting book, is of Korean background but was raised in Australia. He made his name as a school and college debater, and went on to build on this…
The Most Estimable of Men: Judge John O’Hagan, Patriot, Poet, Scholar, Lawyer by Thomas J. Morrissey SJ (Messenger Publications, €19.95/£18.95) Having heard so much recently about patriots of later generations, it is very welcome to have a biography of a man of the Young Ireland movement – a book which will remind some and inform…
The Falling Dusk: The 2023 Lent Book, by Paul Dominiak (Bloomsbury, £12.99/€14.50) With Easter eggs, as noted above, already appearing in some shops (or so it is reported), it is certainly a good idea to give some prior thought to the season of Lent and the celebration of Easter. This book is not one of those…
This year the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity, according to the ancient Julian Calendar by the Egyptian Copts, took place last week with great ceremony. It brought into focus the cultural changes moving over contemporary Egypt where the Copts – who are miaphysites of ancient standing – now in accord with most other…
The passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI marks an important milestone in the history of the Catholic Church, in large part because of his role as a writer and scholar. All his life Joseph Ratzinger was an intellectual figure, a continuing student of theology and philosophy. He once said that “his only real friends were…
The release of files for the 1990s and earlier in January previewed Archives and the making of history This year’s release was a poor year for anything not related to Northern Ireland and Arms decommissioning. The flood of 6,000 odd files relating to Northern Ireland affairs seriously unbalances the release of files in other departmental…