Category: Books

The national power of the parish pump

Independents in Irish Party Democracy by Liam Weeks (Manchester University Press, £80) Michael O’Leary once dismissed them as “local lunatics”, but UCC political scientist Liam Weeks takes a more favourable view of our independent TDs, in a thorough and well-informed book. He begins in Kerry on count night in February 2016 when independents and brothers Michael…

All for God’s greater glory

In the hallway of Clongowes Wood Castle there stands a white marble statue of St Ignatius Loyola. To the mind of at least one small boy it had a pale ghostly appearance, little suggesting a living person, and certainly not the vivid vitality of Ignatius himself. In his book Brendan Comerford aims to reveal the…

Happy memories of Rathfarnam Abbey

Conor Donnelly In this memoir two sisters give an hilarious and poignant account of boarding school life in Ireland in the 1960s – echoes of  the ever popular Mallory Towers perhaps, but this is a true tale of Irish education; and for once a happy enough education too. The authors are both scientists. Valerie has…

Recent books in brief

Exploring Amoris Laetia: Opening the Pope’s Love Letter to Families edited by Breda  O’Brien (Veritas, €12.99) With preparations well under way in Dublin for The World Meeting of Families in August, this collection of essays edited by Irish Catholic columnist Breda O’Brien is very timely. Some nine established Catholic communicators share their insights into the…

Across the cultures in Palestine

Geoff Day Here is a true book full of surprises. It starts as an examination of the suicide bombing of the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv in June 2001 and ends with highlighting some real moral dilemmas related to issues around heart transplants and apartheid. Somerville neatly begins by juxtaposing his recall of the facts…