The San Damiano Cross: An Icon of the Crucifixion by Madeleine Stewart (Conard Press, €12.00 / £10.50; ISBN 978-1-9161432-0-3; orders to conardicons.com) Madeline Stewart, who is an accredited expert on icons and their interpretation lives in Northern Ireland, but mentally she is a well-travelled global person through her explorations of icons of the Orthodox tradition.…
The key to the link between past and present, as is so often the case, lies in a book. President Vladimir Putin’s earlier life was spent in the ranks of the Russia secret service. The distorted moral vision of that organisation has shaped his views of people, life and the world. For that state service…
Becoming a Pastoral Parish Council: How to Make Your PPC Really Useful for the Twenty-First Century by Patricia Carroll, foreword by Archbishop Dermot Farrell (Messenger Publications, €9.95/£8.95) This is a short book, but intentionally so, for it is very much to its purpose which is to promote and encourage the emerging parish pastoral councils, which…
How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People by Pete Greig (Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99/€18.00) Author Peter Greig is pastor in Emmaus Road Church in Guilford, England. This is his eighth book, but his books are only a part of his life. He says that he often finds himself bewildered, but his bewilderment…
Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples by Joan Taylor and Helen Bond (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99) Published last week on St Patrick’s Day itself, this may seem an unusual book to read for Lent. But on deeper consideration I think not. Many readers will welcome it. Inspired by the authors’ Channel 4 documentary, which was filmed…
The Tain, from the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge Translated by Thomas Kinsella and decorated by Louis Le Brocquy Dolmen Edition IX (Dolmen Press, 1969) When this landmark in Irish culture appeared back in September 1969, I was living in London. I still recall the delighted pleasure with which I bought the original Dolmen Press…
Channelling the Inner Fire:Ignatian Spirituality in 15 points by Brendan McManus SJ (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The Ignatian Guide to Forgiveness: Ten steps to healing by Marina Berzins McCoy (Messenger Publications, €12.99) These are two further publications relating to the celebration around the world this year of the 500th anniversary of his wound at the battle…
Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings Curated by Ann Hodge Runs to 12 June 2022; Print Gallery, National Gallery of Ireland | free admission (This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Royal Collection Trust, the York Museums Trust, the National Gallery of Ireland and Nottingham Castle.) Thomas Gainsborough was hugely productive of drawings, so…
The ongoing war in Ukraine seems to many in the West to defy reason. But that is very much the view from Strasbourg or Washington. From Moscow the prospect looks quite different. In the weeks leading up to the deployment of his forces, President Vladimir Putin spoke of Ukraine being part of “the historic Russia”,…
The World of Books Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Artist, Social Campaigner, and City Councillor edited by Margarita Cappock (Four Courts Press for Dublin City Council, €27.95/£25.00; paperback €22.95/£20.00) Years ago when I was researching the interaction of the Irish cultural revival with other Irish national movements, the name of Miss S.C. Harrison was one I came…