Tall Grass: Stories of Suffering & Peace in Northern Uganda by Carlos Rodríguez Soto (Fountain Publishers, Kampala, Uganda, £23.00pb; available via Amazon) The author, a Spanish priest, is a member of the Comboni Missionary Society. He served for 25 years in the society’s mission in Northern Uganda. Apart from three years in Kampala, editing a diocesan magazine,…

The Rising. Ireland: Easter 1916 by Fearghal McGarry (Oxford University Press, £20hb) Joe Carroll This is a special ‘centenary edition’ of Dr McGarry’s book which was first published in 2010 and earned the accolade then as “the finest account yet of the 1916 Rising”. Since then, new books on the Rising are almost overflowing from Eason’s bookshop…

This week the civilised world has been marking the fourth centenary of the death of William Shakespeare, poet, playwright and businessman. Universally admired he may be, but his works have suffered many vicissitudes over the years. The man himself began as a poet in a classical sense. The dramas came perhaps as a way of…

Dissonant Voices: Faith and the Irish Diaspora edited by Conn McGahhann (Institute for Theological Partnerships Publishing, £10.00) This book presents a selection of the papers read at a conference held in the London Irish Centre two years ago. Diaspora is given a very wide interpretation for the topics range from the 17th Century exiles in Europe,…

One Bold Deed of Open Treason: the Berlin Diary of Roger Casement 1914-1916 edited by Angus Mitchell (Merrion Press, €19.95pb / €70.00hb) W. J. McCormack A lamentable feature of this year’s 1916 commemorative programme has been its failure to establish comprehensive and reliable editions of the insurrectionary leaders’ writings in which “the mind of the Rising” might be…

Our Lady of the Nations: Apparitions of Mary in 20th Century Catholic Europe by Chris Maunder (Oxford University Press, £25.00) Marian shrines are of great antiquity. At Knaresborough near Harrogate in England a small shrine, dedicated to Our Lady of the Crags, still survives. Built by John the Mason in 1408, and now the property of…

The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic by Ruth Dudley Edwards (Oneworld, £18.99) Peter Hegarty Dudley Edwards’ richly-detailed book is the fruit of a lifelong interest in the 1916 Rising and the seven men who formed the military council which led it. She admires the seven, in varying degrees, without…

A Slanting of the Sun by Donal Ryan (Black Swan Ireland, €10.99pb) Anna Farmar There’s a wistful longing in many of the stories in Donal Ryan’s third book A Slanting of the Sun – for kindness, for a sharing of love, for forgiveness – as the narrators remember the turning points when their lives went awry and…

Gospel Reflections, For Sundays of the Year C: Luke by Donal Neary SJ  (Irish Messenger Publications, €7.99pb) In the post-Easter call for reflection, which ought to affect all parts of our lives, Fr Donal Neary’s little book will be very relevant, as we still have a good part of Year C to run. Fr Neary…

The murky trade in modern religious relics The urge to have a relic associated with some loved one, some hero, some person of great spirituality, is as an old as humanity. It is a quite understandable emotion. For Christians it may take on added dimensions, but they are not alone in their emotions. But as…