The World of Books Every summer some 700,000 people come together in the Breton town of Lorient for the Festival Interceltique, which sees a gathering not just of musicians and singers, but also poets, writers, and community leaders from the Celtic fringe of Western Europe, from Galicia to Galloway. But in all this feast of…

The Legacy of  Irish Missionaries Lives On by Matt Moran (OnStream, €15.00) With the apparent decline of priestly vocations, the nature of Irish missionary movement has changed. I say apparent because in reality it may be that the call that was responded to in the past still exists, it is merely that the responses to…

Patrick Claffey The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, edited by Douglas Abrams (Hutchinson, £12.99) A few years ago, taking a taxi into Nassau St to teach a module at Trinity College, the Dublin driver asked me what I taught.  That afternoon, I told him,  I was to give a lecture…

Time with the Master: Reflections on the Life of Jesus by Seamus Devitt CSsR  (Messenger Publications, €7.95) Though Christmas seems to dominate the annual round, Easter Sunday has always been for Chrstians the central feast day of the year. As we celebrate next Sunday this little book by Fr Devitt will remind many people that…

Youghal Celebrates 1916 ed. Kieran Groeger (Youghal Celebrates History, €10; address Mary’s College, Emmett Place, Youghal Co. Cork; email: ytta@eircom.net) This booklet marking Youghal’s contribution to the 1916 celebrations includes a number of interesting articles, one of them relating to Sir Roger Casement. Patrick Cockburn writes about a link between his grandfather, Jack Arbuthnot, a…

The World of Books On January 20, 1947, The Times of London carried a short report: “NEW YORK. At 10.15 a.m. yesterday Mayor O’Dwyer,  of New York, received a telegram from Mr John McCann, Lord Mayor of Dublin, which read as follows: ‘Poet Eoghan Roe Ward dying. Bananas may save life. Is it possible send…

Felix 
M. 
Larkin The Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster, 1900-18 by Conor Mulvagh (Manchester University Press, £75.00) The centenary commemoration of the 1916 Rising last year was marred by the curious incident of the banners on the facade of the Bank of Ireland building in College Green. These banners were a minimalist attempt to commemorate…

My Memoirs by Peter Malone (Kingdom Books, €25.00; all receipts will go to charity; for details contact Loretto Dalton, lorettodalton@gmail.com) This is a delightful memoir by a proud son of Dundalk. Born in 1944, Peter Malone was educated at the Dominican Friary Primary School and St Mary’s Marist College.  Both sides of his family were…

Edith Stein:
Selected Writings ed. Marian Maskular CPS, foreword by Sarah Borden Shareky (Paulist Press, £35.99) Edith Stein (St Theresa Benedicta) is very much a witness to faith for the modern world. It perhaps significant that her philosophical thesis in 1920 was entitled ‘The Problem of Empathy’, for empathy, the sympathetic love and concern for others…

Stations of the Cross Then and Now by Denis McBride  (Redemptorist Publications, £15.00) As Easter approaches Denis McBride’s new book is perhaps the sort of contemplative book which many Christians will want to read, in which the Via Dolorosa is explored and exemplified in modern terms, though it would be true to say that the…