The Ulysses Project: Architecture and the city through James Joyce’s Dublin: an exhibition created by Freddie Phillipson, in collaboration with Drawing Matter Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Mondays to Fridays, 9am -5pm, runs to August 19. The centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses passed this year with a few serious…
The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies by Irving Finkel (Hodder & Stoughton, £25.00/€29.99) This is a fascinating yet grim book which describes in detail the beliefs of the cultures of Mesopotamia concerning the departed dead. The author, who is the senior assistant keeper at the British Museum, is in charge of the written relics…
The World of Books Rathcormick: A Childhood Recalled, by Homan Potterton, with an Introduction by William Trevor (Merrion Press, €12.95/£12.99) This is a very welcome republication of a book first issued over two decades ago by another publisher. It was then hailed by William Trevor as “a wholly delightful memoir of lace-curtain Protestants in 1950s rural…
Image & Vision: Reflecting with the Books of Kells by Rosemary Power (Veritas, €24.99/£22.00) Rosemary Power has written two earlier books on the world of Celtic Christianity, one of which deals with Colmcille and Iona. She also lectures widely on themes in this area of scholarship to non-academic audiences, thus passing on the latest aspects…
For me Rosemary Power’s book provoked thoughts on a very different topic. There are insights of interest on every page of the author’s exposition. Yet there are comments one might question. She describes the churches in the Middle East and North Africa as on the ‘fringe’ of Christendom. But this was surely not the case:…
Living with Motor Neurone Disease: A complete guide edited by Dr Marie Murray, in collaboration with the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (Atrium/Cork University Press, €14.95/£12.95) Though first recognised back in the 19th Century, Motor Neurone Disease became more familiar a century later through the widely publicised experiences of the disease by such people as…
Come Drink at the Fount: Introducing the Carmelite Authors by Edmond Cullinan TOC (Veritas, €12.99/£11.99) Edmond Cullinan, a native of Dungarvan, and a priest of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, is currently vice-rector of the Pontifical Irish College, Rome. He is a member of the Third Order of Carmel and is also involved in…
The World of Books The picture which illustrates this article represents an old story-teller and his young listener as engraved as a tail-piece by artist Thomas Bewick, and comes from Ritson’s Robin Hood (1795), a celebrated collection of the medieval materials about that notorious British bandit. It is a charming scene, which I like to…
A Breath of Fresh Éire by Olga Balaeva (Beehive, €14.99/£12.99) Author and photographer Olga Balaeva is a new kind of Irish writer, representative of the emerging culture of a future island. Born in Moscow she is alive in several languages including Gaelic. She has already Ireland as gaeilge “a user friendly guide to the language”…
Peace Apart: Lasting Impressions of C.S. Lewis by Bishop Fintan Monahan (Veritas, €9.99/£8.99) This little book is the third in a series in which Fintan Monahan, the bishop of Killaloe, is evoking writers who have been important to him, and whom he wishes to encourage others to take up and read. The previous two books…