The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World by Bart D. Ehrman (One World, £20.00) Recently we have had several histories of early and medieval Christianity written from a very traditional Catholic point of view. These have in their way been very reassuring, but perhaps only by passing over darker passages in the…

Spoilt Rotten: Memoirs of Jack McKenna by Jack McKenna (North Kerry Literary Trust, €15.00; contact St. Johns Arts & Heritage Centre, The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry; tel: 068-22566) This autobiography, by a novice author as old as the century,  is a valuable local history written from an urban perspective. For many years the author was in charge…

Soldiering Against Subversion: The Irish Defence Forces and internal security during the Troubles, 1969-1998 by Dan Harvey (Merrion Press, €19.99) Joe 
Carroll   The role of the Defence Forces (the army, naval service, and air corps) in ensuring that the Troubles in Northern Ireland did not spill over into the Republic and undermine the stability of the…

How to Defend the Faith Without Raising your Voice: Civil responses to Catholic hot-button issues by Michael Kelly and 
Austen Ivereigh (Columba Press, €14.99) A couple of generations ago, one could have safely assumed that most Irish people shared a set of common values. Even if one didn’t necessarily fully subscribe to the Catholic worldview, the culture was…

Curious Creatures:  Frans Post & Brazil exhibition curated by Niamh MacNally, National Gallery of Ireland, continues to December 9, 2018 Curious Creatures: Frans Post & Brazil catalogue edited by Niamh MacNally (NGI, €9.95) Frans Post: Animals in Brazil  by Alexander de Bruin (Riks Museum, Amsterdam, €19.95)   When Europeans first intruded into South America their view…

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (Simon and Schuster,  €19.99) Peter
 Hegarty   Fear, the revealing account of Trump’s time in the White House to date, Woodward’s 19th book since All the President’s Men, describes an “emotionally overwrought, mercurial, and unpredictable leader” and his chaotic administration, in which Woodward has excellent contacts. His book rests firmly…

The Parnell Split in Westmeath: the bishop and the newspaper editor by Michael Nolan (Four Courts Press, €9.95) Felix 
M. 
Larkin   John Patrick Hayden established the Westmeath Examiner in Mullingar in 1882, and was its editor and proprietor for a record 72 years – until his death in 1954, aged 91. His father, and later his brother, owned the Roscommon Messenger,…

Kindling the Flame: 150 years of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation by Niamh Puirséil (Gill, €24.99) Daire
 Keogh   Media reports of  the planned retirement of Sheila Nunan as general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation have naturally focussed both on her personal achievement, as first female leader of her union, and the enduring influence…

Defending Hope: Dispatches from the Front Lines in Palestine and Israel by Eoin Murray and James Mehigan (Veritas, €16.99) Geoff
 Day   ‘Hope is not the solution, nor the end goal: it is just the beginning’ writes Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire in her introduction to this important book of essays from those at the front…

Chalk Dust by Noel Monahan (Salmon Poetry, €14.00) Seamus
 Cashman   In my first reading of this collection of some 56 poems (150 pages long!) by the Longford poet, dramatist, and former teacher, I found several poems taking me into imagination, back my own era of ‘chalk dust’. The first poem, ‘Still-Life Study’, a poem based on…