This now essential event is marked tomorrow with events of all kinds all over the cities, towns and counties of Ireland. For all the data about culture night, go to info@culturenight.ie. Wherever you live, whatever you care for, there will things for you in the programme. In my immediate location I am taken by the…
Admirabile Signum: The Meaning and Importance of the Nativity Scene Pope Francis (Veritas/Liberia Editrice Vaticana, €5.99) Here we are just back at school and college, and the first book about Christmas is already in the shops. What can this mean? Just as surprising is the name of the author of this little pamphlet. It is…
Still Points: A Guide to living the Mindful Meditative Way by Bro. Richard OFM Cap (Hachette Books, €14.99/£12.99) Bro. Richard Hendrick is a Capuchin priest-friar working in Dublin. He wrote a long poem Lockdown which went viral. It was picked up by both the BBC and by CNN in North America. From there it went…
Leaves from the Cotton Tree, Celebrating Thirty Years of the Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership, with a foreword by Claire Buckley, Ambassador of Ireland to Sierra Leone, edited by Joseph Bockarie and seven others (SLIP, Kilt ale, Dunsany, Co. Meath, €15.00 + $5.00 p+p; email martindillon@slip.ie for payment details.) The cotton tree of the title stands…
Journey into Light: The Challenge and Enchantment of Catholic Christianity by Roderick Strange (Hodder & Stoughton, £10.99/€12.99 pb) A concern of some parents’ over the last decades is a feeling that somehow schools do not seem to impart religion, by which they mean Catholic culture, to their children in quite the way it was once…
How to Succeed in Secondary School: A Practical Guide by Tony Bellew (Orpen Press, €15.00/£13.00pb) These first weeks of September, what with the anxieties of students of all ages about going back to school, the stress and strain on teachers, parents, and indeed families is very real. Their worries are not just economic, but also…
Under pressure of space this week, the series on places of faith, having encompassed lesser known aspects of Northern Europe, crosses the Atlantic, moving from the shrines of the Old World in Germany to the shrines of the New World in South and North America, from very ancient places honouring Jesus and the Three Kings,…
Who stole the Papal Stone back in 1854…and why? I recently came on details of what might be called an American Catholic mystery, which I thought I might share with readers. I am always amazed at the enthusiasm with which Irish Catholics, and indeed many American Catholics, embrace American conservatives. I am all for brotherly…
The Norwegians and Dublin’s Christ Church When we Irish set off on a holiday, or related pilgrimage (to repeat myself slightly from the other week), we inevitably turn south. Because of this we often miss many interesting things. It seems our chilled Hyperborean hearts need a large supply of those “beaded bubbles winking at the…
Prayer: Our Dialogue with God by Pat Collins CM, preface by Cardinal Seán Brady (New Life Publications, €18.00) Fr Pat Collins has been popular with many people for many years. This book is an epitome of the qualities that they go to his books to find. He sets out in his new book, which contains…