A Lost Tribe a novel by William King (Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2017). This novel derives from William King’s experiences as a clerical student and priest in the archdiocese of Dublin during the last fifty years. Through his character Fr Tom Galvin, a 70-something parish priest, he narrates the story of the Catholic Church in Ireland as…
Irish Women and the Vote: Becoming Citizens editors: Louise Ryan and Margaret Ward (Irish Academic Press, €19.99) Emily Keyes February 2018 marks the centenary of women over the age of 30 gaining the right to vote in Ireland and Britain, yet over 100 years and two feminist movements later, Irish women continue to struggle for equal…
Silence under a stone a novel by Norma McMaster (Doubleday Ireland, €14.99) Ian d’Alton Written “out of my own life experience” (the author grew up in Cavan, and is a Church of Ireland minister) this novel is a sometimes difficult read. Not in the literary sense – its touch is sure, its construction works well and…
Wonder Beyond Belief: On Christianity by Navid Kermani (Polity, £25.00) There is an old saying that “I never knew what my house looked like, as I had never been outside it”. This applies as well to religion: Christians cannot know what Christianity looks like because they never “go outside of it”. This book, by a distinguished…
You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living Henri Nouwen (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99) Anthony Redmond I have read quite a few of Henri Nouwen’s books and he never fails to move and inspire me. I never seem to tire of him. He was a profoundly spiritual, prayerful man, but he always struck me as lonely,…
Leabhar Urnaí an Timire níl aon eagarthóir ainmnithe (Foilseacháin Ábhar Spioradálta, €5) Tadhg Ó Dúshláine This slim volume of less than 50 pages will come as a godsend to the increasing number of teachers in Gaelscoileanna, under the trusteeship of the Church, charged with the transmission of the faith in a broken culture, where the rich heritage…
Gooch: The Autobiography by Colm Cooper (Transworld, €20.00) At the outset Cooper explains the origin of his nickname. It arose because when he was eight years old he had a passing resemblance to red-haired ‘Goochie’ dolls popular at that time. The real heroes in this book are Colm’s parents, Mike and Maureen. They began their…
The World of Books by the books editor The literary commemoration of the Great War takes many curious forms these days. But none can be more curious than the recent suggestion by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, that a new renaissance of war poetry should be encouraged among modern soldiers. He had in…
Over the 160 years since the world first heard of Bernadette Soubirous’s visionary experiences of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a grotto outside the town of Lourdes much has been has been written about the events of the summer of 1858 by both sceptics and believers. These events have also, however, given rise to two…
Novels are but one way of exploring the dimension of a subject. Many still prefer non-fiction accounts of such a phenomenon as Lourdes. For this anniversary no distinctive new books have been published in either English or French. But this seems scarcely to matter for some excellent books are still available, new, second hand or…
Peter Costello