Memoir: Remembering  Krzysztof Joseph Romanowski by J. Anthony Gaughan (Kingdom Books, €15.00; available from Veritas branches) Today Polish is now the second most spoken language in Ireland (as Joe Carroll observes elsewhere on this page). Fr Gaughan’s new little book goes some way to explaining why this is. It consists of a brief, but moving memoir,…

Generous Love in Multi-Faith Ireland: Towards Mature Citizenship and a Positive Pedagogy for the Church of Ireland in Local Christian–Muslim Mission and Engagement by Suzanne Cousins (Church of Ireland Publishing, €6.00 / £5.00; available from the Theological Institute, Braemor Park, Dublin 14. ) The Rev. Suzanne Cousins was ordained to the Church of Ireland ministry in…

Journeying in Faith: A Walk with Christ by Cecil Hyland (Church of Ireland Publishing, €12.50) This book is something of a profession of Christian faith, in all its aspects, which Canon Cecil Hyland distils the experience he garnered from a variety of ministries in the Church of Ireland.  Like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim he has “earned the…

Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer by Pope Francis (Rider, £9.99) This little book, which is issued to mark the fifth anniversary of the Pope’s election, is like so many of the publications which bear his name, drawn  from an interview, or rather conversation, with a friendly interlocutor. This was Fr Marco Pozza, a priest…

Spuds and the Spider by Séamus Ó Conaill (Gill Books, €8.99) The President’s Glasses by Peter Donnelly (Gill Books, €9.99) Margaret
 Gleason   Spuds Potsofgold lives an idyllic life with his wife Rose Goodytwoshoes in the cosy surroundings of Toadstool Cottage, except for one nuisance – an eight-legged, hairy and googly-eyed spider called Leggers McWeb, who is in…

Impeachment: a citizen’s guide by Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard University Press, €7) Felix
 M.
 Larkin   With speculation rife about the possibility of impeaching President Trump, this little book is indeed timely. In it, Prof. Sunstein outlines what he calls “the majesty and the mystery of impeachment in the US Constitution” – and he dispels much misunderstanding of…

World of Books by the Books Editor   I was struck the other day, while reading Anthony Dent’s book Lost Beasts of Britain, by a remark in his preface. He is explaining that he deals largely with the extent of Britain known to the “good emperor” Antoninus Pius, builder of the Antonine Wall in 142 AD,…

Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher P. Scheitle (Oxford University Press, £19.99) Christopher 
Moriarty   Scientists are subversive. Good scientists are supposed to question everything within their sphere. Institutional religion on the other hand demands obedience to the authoritative word and forbids questioning. The title of this book, by…

The Adoption Machine by Paul Jude Redmond – foreword by Clare Daly TD – (Merrion Press, €16.99). Finola
 Kennedy   The sub-title of The Adoption Machine is ‘The Dark History of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes and the inside story of how Tuam 800 became a global scandal’. The book also contains the author’s personal history.…

Lincoln and the Irish: The Untold Story of How the Irish Helped Abraham Lincoln Save the Union by Niall O’Dowd (Skyhorse Publishing, €20.67/$24.99) Peter 
Hegarty   Niall O’Dowd  has an original take on the American Civil War: without the 150,000 Irish soldiers who served in the his armies, Lincoln’s Union would have lost. The Irish-American publisher emphasises…