What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson (Virago, £18.99) Patrick Claffey Born in 1943, Marilynne Robinson is a celebrated American novelist and essayist, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, a National Humanities Medal and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2016 – the year she was also named…
Commemoration by Heather Laird (Cork University Press, €9.95) Felix M. Larkin In Evelyn Conlon’s novel Not the Same Sky, one of the characters questions the purpose of memorials – and, by extension, the purpose of historical commemorations generally. She asks: “Are they to let us know? To make us accept? Or are they to make us weep?” In…
As a Catholic, you’d want to be sure your Faith was primarily in God and not in individual Catholic clergy. Too often, in striving for perfection, we assumed that those in the clerical state had already succeeded. Did we not really believe it when, at Mass, we heard them confessing their sins along with ourselves?…
The Cruelty Men by Emer Martin (Lilliput Press, €16.00) This book is about an extended family in the decades following the establishment of the Irish Free State. The family originated in the barony of Iveragh, Co. Kerry, one of the poorest areas in the country. Under a scheme developed by the Land Commission, Irish-speaking families from…
The Image You Missed (PG) The idea was good: dovetail the idea of a fractured fraternal relationship with a fractured country. Unfortunately, this Donal Foreman feature, which tenuously examines his relationship with his father, the late American documentarian Arthur MacCaig, against the backdrop of the Troubles, is far too skimpy and staccato to justify the tantalising potential of…
Mind on Fire: A memoir of madness and recovery by Arnold Thomas Fanning (Dublin: Penguin, £14.99) Frank Litton Mental illness is a cruel affliction. There is hardly anybody who has not been touched by it; as a sufferer, or as family, friend or colleague of a sufferer. Mental illness differs from physical illness; the problems it poses…
The Irish Regional Press, 1892-2018: Revival, Revolution and Republic by Ian Kenneally & James T. O’Donnell (Four Courts Press, €50) Felix M. Larkin This volume, which originated in a conference held in Dublin City University in 2014, is a valuable addition to the growing body of work on Irish media. It comprises 14 essays with a substantial…
Powering The Nation. Images of the Shannon Scheme and Electricity in Ireland by Sorcha O’Brien (Irish Academic Press, €29.99) Joe Carroll Today the Shannon hydroelectric scheme at Ardnacrusha produces about one-eighth of our electricity requirements and is mainly used at peak demand. But when it was switched on in 1929 it was designed to electrify the…
While looking forward to the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) and the papal visit later this month, I’ve long had a fear that we could easily mess it up, or have it messed up for us. Mainstream media coverage often reduces the event to issues of child abuse and the Church’s attitude to homosexuality, with…
Pat O’Kelly Completing his five-year term at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Eugene Downes steps down as artistic director later this month. His mantle passes to Olga Barry, currently Festival Producer, whom Downes describes as “a gifted and respected arts leader”. Since his appointment in 2013, Dublin-born Downes has revitalised the festival’s ‘classical’ music element…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone