Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Malcolm Guite (Hodder and Stoughton, £25.00) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan are two poems known in some way to anyone anywhere who reads English. Yet there was more to Samuel Taylor Coleridge than these and a handful of other poems. He was also …
World of Books These days we have little expectation of astonishing works of literature or scholarship from a bishop. They are all too busy with mere administration to have the mental energy to expend on scholarship or literature. It was not always thus. Look for instance at the writings of 19th-Century Irish bishops, such as…
Mindful Meditations for Every Day by Sr Stan (Columba Press, €12.99) In Ireland, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy has long been much admired. One of the surprises among the releases of State papers at the turn of the year, as least to this reviewer, was a file dealing with the proposal put to the government that it…
Echoes of the past from the achives Peter Costello reports from the National Archives of Ireland on the release under the 30-year rule of confidential state files from 1986 This week the National Archives released for public inspection State files from 1986 and earlier. This year some files date back to the 1920s, with large…
Echos of the past from the Archives In 1971 a proposal was made by the manager of Muckross House in Killarney that an effort should be made to ensure the return to its place of creation of the manuscript of the Annals of Inisfallen. The book had been created around 1092, with entries from 433…
Christmas in the Cross Hairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday by Chris Bowler (Oxford University Press, £20.00) In this first week of the New Year it may seem a little late to be reviewing a book about the history of the holiday that we have just got safely…
The World of Books How often do people involved with the book trade meet people parties, who say “I would love to write a book about my life, or even a novel, but I haven’t the time”. Of course that is the difference between wanting to do something and doing it. Those that really want…
Secrets of the powers of that be Visitors to the national Museum are often astonished by the relics of early Christian Ireland that are on show there, from the Derrynaflan hoard and the Broighter boat, to the Ardagh Chalice and the Cross of Cong. But what many do not realise are the hazards of survival…
Secrets of the powers that be In 1981 there was some discussion between TCD, the Bank of Ireland and Mr Haughey about the possibility of the National Museum taking over the old Parliament Building on College Green as an extension to the National Museum (a matter now resolved by the opening of Collins Barracks). The…
Echoes of the past from the archives That the events across Europe between 1912 and 1924 damaged the minds of a generation of European is widely accepted by historians. The “”shell shock” and “neurasthenia” suffered by those who fought on all sides is well documented. The troubles politics and social life of the 1920 and…