Mainly about books by the books editor   Under the City Hall of Dublin at the top of Dame Street – right in the heart of Dublin – one of the rooms of the basement crypt has been converted into a charming little café, the rest of the vaults to a museum devoted to unrolling…

The Cultural Reception of the Bible: Explorations in Theology, Literature and the Arts by Salvador Ryan & Liam M. Tracey OSM (Open Air / Four Courts Press, €50.00) With essays by over 30 contributors from Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin to the poet John F. Deane, this compendium covers a very wide range of topics and eras. “The…

Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the end of the American century by George Packer (Jonathan Cape, £25/€30) Felix
 M.
 Larkin   Richard C. Holbrooke, the subject of this biography, was a bombastic, egotistical, but immensely talented US diplomat who served at senior levels in the administrations of three Democratic presidents – Carter, Clinton and Obama. He…

The Battle of the Four Courts by Michael Fewer (Head of Zeus, £20/€28) Easter Week in the GPO has been the subject of many books, providing a day by day, almost an hour by hour, account of what happened, if not why. The siege of the Four Courts in 1922 has not been so lucky. Yet…

Hunt Museum, The Custom House, Rutland St, Limerick Exhibition continues to September 30, 2019 The catalogue (€25) is available from the museum. The summer exhibition at Limerick’s Hunt Museum is just the thing for a family outing, a show which will introduce children and perhaps others to the delights of art. On display are paintings…

Picking up the Shards by Donal Murray (Veritas, €12.99 / £11.52) The author begins with a story about Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago. Before he died, in a conversation with some of his priests he said: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr…

A Bloody Dawn: The Irish At D-Day by Dan Harvey (Merrion Press, €14.95) Joe
 Carrol   The author, a retired army officer, has done extensive research to establish the role played by Irish participants (from the North as well as the South) in the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. He has also included…

The Mansion House and The Irish Revolution, 1912-1923 by Mícheál Mac Donncha (Dublin City Council / Four Courts Press, €25.00) Thomas J.
 Morrissey   The author of this work was Lord Mayor of Dublin, 2017-2018. He has a deep feeling for Irish history, especially with regard to the years 1912-1923. During those years the Mansion House…

Mainly About Books by the books editor   I have been wondering over recent days what Achille Ratti, later in life Pope Pius XI, would have thought of the recent images of toe-to-heel climbers, some 300 of them, ascending Mount Everest to take a selfie at the summit. In the course of this insane “bucket-list…

Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution by Caoimín De Barra (Currach Press, €14.99) This is an interesting polemic which argues that Irish should and could be restored as the generally spoken language of most people in the Republic of Ireland. In the introduction the author acknowledges that most people have already made up their minds on this…