Letters from Aleppo by Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh (Columba Press, €14.99) Anthony 
Redmond   I have a Syrian friend whom I met in Dublin 15 years ago when he was a student of English. He returned to Syria before the terrible war began in 2011 and he is now married there with two small children.  We keep in touch…

‘So are they all, all honourable men’   The controversy that has been aroused by Bob Geldof (or should that be Sir Bob?) handing back his deed as Honorary Freeman of the City of Dublin at the City Hall has focused public attention on just what this title is. Turning as I always do to…

Breaking News: An Autobiography by Jeremy Thompson (Biteback Publishing,  £20.00) Peter
 Hegarty   Thompson’s writing is as assured and informed as his reports for Sky News were. He has a keen eye for the haunting details of a story, describing the scorched shapes of Iraqi soldiers, ‘sightlessly staring’ from the cabs of their burned-out trucks. During a…

I am infinitely loved: A month of meditations by Brian Grogan S.J. (Messenger Publications, €4.95) The title of this little pamphlet is taken from a remark by Pope Francis: “When all is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” Brian Grogan reapplies this to draw out in a month’s course of meditations the idea that each…

Laudato Si’: An Irish response, essays on the Pope’s Letter on the Environment edited by Sean McDonagh (Veritas, €14.99) Eamon Ryan   The papal encyclical Laudato Si’ has been described as ‘a most dangerous book’.  It attempts a giant leap forward in the church’s social teaching by calling for a profound ecological conversion, which brings…

Murtaí Óg: Murtaí Óg Ó Súilleabháin (c. 1710-54): a life contextualised by Gerard J. Lyne, (Geography Publications, €25.00) Here once again this author writes with authority about his local area.  His The Lansdowne Estate in Kerry under the agency of William Steuart Trench, 1849-72 was a classic account of an Irish landlord’s agent in the…

Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: Suffragette and Sinn Féiner, Her Memoirs and Political Writings by Margaret Ward (University College Dublin Press, €35) Sonja Tiernan   The memoirs and political writings of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington is an extensive and valuable collection that makes for a thoroughly engaging read. Publication of this book provides a tremendous primary resource to…

First Confession: 
A Sort of Memoir by Chris Patten (Allen Lane, £14.99) I have just finished reading  with very great interest this most absorbing memoir of a modern politician of a special kind. Chris  Patten  was a Minister in Margaret Thatcher’s and John Major’s  governments,  and was  the Director of Elections for his party in the…

The Great Famine in Tralee and North Kerry by Bryan MacMahon (Mercier Press , €35) The Great Famine, or ‘Black ‘45’ as it is known in the oral tradition, was a seminal event in the modern history of Ireland.  It initiated the great emigration to the ‘New World’. Regrettably it also grafted on to the folk…

60 at Roscrea: Celebrating the Roscrea Conference at Mt St Joseph Abbey, 1987-2017 edited by George Cunningham (The Roscrea People; 300 copies numbered and signed; nos 1-150 h/b, €40, and 150 Card covers, nos 151-300, €20;  p/p  €5 within Ireland.) Terry Barry   Ireland is truly lucky for a small island to have so many excellent local…