Leinster House: A House with Three Lives An exhibition at the Architectural Archive 45 Merrion Square Until November 25; admission free, 9am-5pm. In recent months anyone going down Kildare Street in central Dublin and passing the noble facade of Leinster House, one of the city’s finest public buildings, will have been able to read the…
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir by Philip Yancey (Hodder and Stoughton, £12.50/£10.99) Considering how influential they are, the forms of faith in the United States are very important, even when not to the taste of Europeans. The tropes of the Episcopalians, the bare style of the Congregationalists, these would be familiar, with echoes of…
The Song of Brigid’s Cloak by Catherine Ann Cullen Illustrated by Katya Swan (Beehive, €14.99/£14.99) There has been great interest in St Brigid of late among historians and writers. Some of these have been in their way controversial; but there is nothing controversial about this little book. It is altogether delightful. Award-winning children’s poet Catherine…
Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Hodder & Stoughton, €23.99/£25.00) Dr Lucy Worsley has become very much a fixture on our small screens, with a distinct penchant for dressing up in period costumes, which to some leaves an impression of history as mere fancy dress with a modern accent, rather than the…
Neil Jordan: Works for the Page, by Val Nolan Jr. (Cork University Press, €39.00 / £35.00) Neil Jordan’s career as an artist has been a curious one. He started, as so many writers do, by publishing a slim book with a short-lived and long vanished Irish publisher. But then a period of time working for…
Turner: The Sun is God, Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, mounted in association with the Tate Gallery London; runs to 6 February 2023; Beit Wing, Rooms 6-10; tickets €5 (entry free on Wednesdays, 9.15-11.30 am) Curated by Niamh MacNally and David Blayney Brown Many years ago the English painter John Piper remarked that…
Lydia: A Story by Paula Gooder (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99 / €19.99) A couple of weeks ago, over a Saturday lunch, we were discussing with a friend in her large rural garden, the question of those recent novels which mix history and fiction. The case in point was Colm Tobin’s book on Thomas Mann. I…
The tenure of Dr Sean Rainbird at the National Gallery ended in September. During his reign he was active in bringing to the Merrion Square Gallery a series of European derived exhibitions which were of immense interest, lively Continental experiences for visitors to enjoy. The Board of the Gallery announced back in August that the…
In the School of Saint Benedict: Benedictine Spirituality for Every Christian by Dom Xavier Perrin OSB (Gracewing, €11.99/£9.99) The author of this little book is currently the superior of Quarr Abbey, beautifully situated overlooking the sea on the Isle of Wight. This was where the Benedictines of Solesmes in Sarthe in the Pays de Loire…
“Your Word is a Lamp on my Path”: Reflections on the weekday readings for the liturgical year 2022-2023 by Martin Hogan (Messenger Publications, €19.95/£18.95) Martin Hogan is the curate at Finglas, Finglas West and Rivermount. Readers can imagine just how busy he must be in his pastoral work. The service to the city comes after…