A Place Where Ireland is Invisible, by James Harpur, woodcuts by Paul Ó Colmáin (The Eblana Press, €35.00 postage included, Ireland / €45.00 post included, worldwide) The allusion in the title is to the banishment of Columcille to Scotland: he had to go to a place from which the coast of his beloved Ireland could…
Pre-Famine fever epidemics: A case study of the Cork Street Fever Hospital, Dublin, by Ciarán McCabe (Maynooth Studies in Local History / Four Courts Press, €12.95 / £10.99) Molly Malone is a much-disputed Dublin character. Though she may well have been a songwriter’s invention, her death from a “fever” was one which certainly carried…
Leo XIV: An Augustinian Life in Context, by Brian Heffernan (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £10.95) This book is the second short biography of the new Pope to arrive in the last three months. Others are doubtless on the way. And we can be sure that those 500-page volumes so typical of American journalism today…
Broken But Holy: Becoming Human, by John O’Brien OFM (St Pauls Publishing, €10.00; contact stpauls.ie) The writings of John O’Brien, formerly of the Franciscan monastery in Athlone, and now at Multyfarnam, were recognised by the late Pope Francis in a personal letter of appreciation for his earlier book Winter Past: The Spirit of Hope. In…
Bloody Summer: A New History of the 1798 Rebellion, by James Quinn (UCD Press, €30.00 / £25.00) Though the events of 1798, variously a “rebellion” for some, but for others a proto-revolution, have never been forgotten, their meaning at the time and their present-day significance today are still debated, often with heated exchanges. The events…
Doctor of the Church: An Introduction to Saint John Henry Newman, by Michael Rear, preface by His Majesty King Charles III (Gracewing, £12.99 / €15.00) On the feast of All Saints, November 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV conferred the title of Doctor of the Church on St John Henry Newman, thus ranking him with…
Today the Three Kings are an essential part of the story of Christmas time as we tell to ourselves and our children. They have a part as the first givers of Yuletide gifts. They appear in parish and school plays and presentations across Christendom, and even at times in countries not usually thought of as…
Revelations on the state of Ireland from the State Files Peter Costello and Helen Litton Peter Costello is the Books Editor of The Irish Catholic and the author of many books about Irish culture. Helen Litton is a historian who has written two biographies and a popular series of books on Irish history. The role…
Christmas being a time when many people get book tokens or an especially generous tip from Auntie Maureen, allows children and young people to feel that special joy of buying books for oneself. These titles are arranged more or less in age order, youngest to oldest. I’m Very Busy, A (Nearly Forgotten) Birthday Book,…
The Christmas Season is by long-established tradition, the season when most books are bought in every civilised centre. The books bought need not themselves be civilised, but they must have some suitable connection with the time of year and the seasonal feelings that it arouses. Books, it is so often said, “make a nice present”.…