Starchaser by Jacintha Mullins (Veritas, €12.99/£10.99) This is a book very much of the moment, but with a long life before it. Jacinta teaches in a primary school, the Midwest School for the Deaf in Limerick. This book arose out of the experience of the school losing two pupils. Her moving and effective pages were…

Davnet and Dympna: A Single Cult by Seosamh Ó Dufaigh (Clogher Historical Society, €30.00; website: www.clogherhistory.ie) The tradition about St Dympna of Oriel (the ancient territory now covered by the Dioceses of Armagh and Clogher) was that she was the beautiful daughter of the local king in the 7th Century. His wife died early and…

Fears, Phobias and Fantasies: Understanding mental health and mental illness by Prof. Patricia Casey (Currach Books, €22.99) This is an excellent and humane book written by a leading psychiatrist, now professor emeritus of psychiatry at University College Dublin (UCD) and active as a consultant psychiatrist. It is aimed at patients and their families, those who…

The Oratory of Light: Poems in the Spirit of St Columba by James Harpur (Wild Goose Publications, £7.99; for further information contact.iona.books.com) A while ago poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice writing in these pages passed on a remark of John F. Deane “that the new Christianity [of today] is to be a daring adventure requiring a new…

Reading Seosamh Ó Dufaigh’s magnificent book, and his discussions of the difficulty of researching the first centuries of Christianity in Ireland I wondered if a solution to the problems they present might not be partially found already. We have of course Pádraig Ó Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints (Four Courts Press, 2011, still available at €65.00/£55.00), a fine…

Christ and His Cousin: Renaissance Rediscoveries, curated by Dr Aoife Brady (Continues to 8 May 2022; Hugh Lane Room; free admission – no booking required) Currently the National Gallery is running a small but very interesting show in one of their smaller exhibition spaces focused on images of the child Jesus and his cousin St John…

Books Reviews 1975-2021: Reviews of works by distinguished biographers, historians, philosophers and writers by J. Anthony Gaughan (Kingdom Books, €24.00/£20.00) Fr Tony Gaughan, himself the author of many books ranging over philosophy, local and national history, and Irish social life since the middle ages, is one of this paper’s most popular reviewers. This compilation of…

Sacred Space for Lent 2022 (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The Sacred Space website, a mission of the Irish Jesuits, continues to be one of the most popular prayer sites, accessed worldwide, continuing some would say the ancient ambition of the earliest Christians in this country to spread the word directly to people. Sacred Space for Lent…

Just before Christmas the international press carried worrying stories about the renovation and future use of Notre Dame de Paris, one of the most important and pre-eminent churches, not just in Europe, but in the world. Middle Ages It has had, since the Middle Ages, a special place also too in the life and imagination,…