Saint Brigid: Life, Legend, and Cult Noel Kissane (Four Courts Press, €24.99) Padraig Ó Riain In the Life he wrote for Brigid, Cogitosus, the earliest known Irish biographer of a saint, declared that because of her, Kildare’s authority extended “from sea to sea”, from one side of Ireland to the other. Judging by the dedications…
Category: Books
Recent books in brief
The Source of All Love: Catholicity and the Trinity by Heidi Russell (Orbis Books / Alban Books, £22.99) This book is by a distinguished member of the faculty of the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University in Chicago. She addresses the problem of presenting the doctrine of the Trinity in a manner that reflects our…
Are local legends always all they seem to be?
Irish people, as we all know, have a great grá for local legends, indeed any kind of local lore. In the poetry of W. B. Yeats, Queen Maeve, though supposedly buried on the frowning peak of Knocknarea, might be still a living person. Yeats deep interiorisation of old traditions of a locality is not unique.…
A great patriot remembered
I Die in a Good Cause: Thomas Ashe: A Biography Sean Ó Luing (Mercier Press, €14.99) J. Anthony Gaughan In his introduction to this new edition of Seán Ó Lúing’ a biography of the patriot Thomas Ashe, Prof. Joe Lee speculates on the kind of influence Thomas Ashe would have exerted on the independence movement…
Another hidden Ireland
An Underground Theatre: Major Playwrights in the Irish Language 1930-1980 Philip O’Leary (University College Dublin Press, €50.00) Anthony Roche This important book is not a history of Irish language drama; that already exists in Pádraig Ó Siadhail’s 1993 Stair Dhrámaoícht na Gaeilge 1900-1970. Rather, Philip O’Leary critically highlights five significant playwriting careers in Irish: Mairéad Ní Ghráda;…
Behind the gates of the Magdalen Homes
The monasteries magdalen asylums and reformatory schools of Our Lady of Charity in Ireland 1853 – 1973 by Jacinta Prunty (Columba Press, €34,99) I found Jacinta Prunty’s account of the institutions of the congregation of Our Lady of Charity both magisterial and immensely satisfying. But here I must declare a personal interest. With other duties…
Recent books in brief
Radical & Free: Musings on the Religious Life by Brian O’Leary (Messenger Publications, €10.99) With vocations seemingly in permanent decline, there is a need, some Catholics might feel, for a book of this kind by an experienced lecturer, to explain to a sceptical age where the sources of a religious vocation lie. The answer to the…
Eating well is the best revenge
Warner’s love of food in all its variety and versatility greatly enlivens his provocative, most entertaining book. He argues that healthy eating involves moderate consumption of a wide range of foods. The odd treat – a bag of crisps, a biscuit – does us no harm. The bag of chips that rounds off a jolly…
Donald Trump, discipline and history
In the middle decades of the last century the National Geographic – then a magazine well worth reading – carried in the back pages a section of small ads for, among other things, elite schools. A feature of these were the ads for Military Academies. These were nothing to do with the US Army. They…
A mature and loving faith for living in the world today
What Does It All Mean? A Guide to Being More Faithful, Hopeful and Loving By Richard Leonard SJ (Paulist Press/ Alban Books £17.99) If Catholicism is what Catholics believe, then sometimes these days it is not what the Church purports to teach. Take for instance the question of angels. These days many Catholics believe that…