Category: Books

The uniqueness of St Patrick

This Sunday the whole world, it seems, will for a few hours become Irish, or at least recover enough of their nominal ‘Irishness’ to join in the fun. President Biden, in the name of the American people, will accept yet again a giant bowl of flourishing shamrock, and avow his Irish roots. Streets around the…

Coming to terms with the way we live today

Frank Litton We learn two things from history. Assumptions quite different from those that frame our world shaped the actions of our predecessors. The second follows from this. World views do change. They are human constructions that endure for long periods. We might think of them as buildings, but if we do, they are buildings…

A Dublin celebration of the Irish Diaspora

St Patrick’s day sees the arrival of great numbers of visitors from abroad, many of them part of, or deeply interested in the Irish diaspora.   This seems an appropriate moment then to visit the EPIC presentation down on Customs House in the Dublin Financial Centre. EPIC stands for Irish Emigration Museum, by the way. This is…

Reading in Lent: a different approach

Even for those who, as they say these days, ‘are not religious’, reading the New Testament is an experience which few set themselves to have. I also believe people should, in this day and age, have some acquaintance with the Torah and the Quran, and try to understand what they mean to Jews and Muslims,…

The ever-changing American Irish

Mark Holan This year’s fraught US presidential campaigns have got many Americans wondering what has become of the once powerful ‘Irish vote’? This problem comes into even sharper focus with this recently published history of the Irish American strain by Prof. Timothy J. Meagher. Meagher was once associate professor of history at Catholic University of…

A book to enlighten your Lenten reading

Recently Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP was in Dublin to give the annual Patrick Finn Lecture at St Mary’s, Haddington Road. It was an opportunity which many took to hear one of the more influential Catholic theologians of today. It was judged by those who attended to have been a great success.  Those who might wish…