Newman at Littlemore by Bernard Bassett (Gracewing, £7.99) Next month John Henry Newman will be canonised, at long last many may feel. This occasion will see a flood of books to mark both the events, and to enlarge upon people’s ideas about the man and his career, adding to the large number of books and…
Discovering Thomas Moore: Ireland in 19th Century Europe Royal Irish Academy, Academy House, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.An exhibition running to Monday, December 23, 2019; opening hours: Monday-Friday, 10am-4.30pm, no booking required. Booklet to accompany the exhibition by Sarah McCleave (Queen’s University / Erin Project / Royal Irish Academy), free. Thomas Moore, once deemed…
Mainly About Books by the books editor At the beginning of the month the Brexit controversy took a surprising literary turn, which is worth a few considerations. Prime Minster Alexander Boris Pfeffell Johnson began it. (It is a sign of the sad times we live in that the mere use of a politician’s full…
Mainly About Books by the books editor St Patrick is seen by many as the Apostle of Ireland – “the man who brought Christianity to or ancestors”. But one has to wonder: the process seems to have been so smooth, so easy, so without conflict, one has to ask was this the beginning of…
Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light, an exhibition Beit Wing (Rooms 6-10), National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square Dublin 2 Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light by Gabriele Finaldi and others, published to accompany the exhibition (National Gallery Company London /distributed by Yale University Press, £30.00/€35.00) This exhibition is the first ever mounted in Ireland, so…
Battles that Changed History: Epic conflicts explored and explained by Phillip Parker, R.G. Grant & Andrew Humphreys, foreword by Sir Tony Robinson (Dorling Kindersley, £20.00) There is something deep in the male psyche that loves wars and tales of wars. Women with their very different view of the world are generally unmoved by tales of war,…
Mainly About Books by the books editor At this time of year a long queue snakes around the square in front of Trinity College’s Old Library, those in it waiting patiently to gain access to see the Book of Kells. Other ancient manuscripts are preserved in Ireland, some of which can be visited online.…
Bauhaus 100 – The Print Portfolios Continues to December 1, 2019 – NGI Print Gallery, admission free This year marks the centenary of the founding in Weimar Germany of Das Staatliche Bauhaus, better known as the Bauhaus, an institution which served to promote modernist architecture, making Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe international…
Mainly About Books by the books editor The publication in late 2016 of Pat Wallace’s Viking Dublin (Irish Academic Press, €60.00), was a summation of decades of work by two generations of archaeologists from the National Museum and others, to define the city’s beginnings. However, the book has nothing really to say about pre-Viking…
The Joy of God: Collected Writings by Sr Mary David with a foreword by Fr Erik Vardan (Bloomsbury, £12.99) This collection of essays, or rather talks, reveals a very interesting character. The author Sr Mary David had a late vocation. American born she was educated there, attending Loyola University and the University of Virginia, before crossing…