Michael McDowell SC The Ireland of Edward Cahill SJ 1864-1941: A Secular or a Christian State? by Dr Thomas J Morrissey SJ (Messenger Publications, €19.99) Dr Thomas Morrissey, himself a Jesuit priest, has chosen for his latest work of historical biography one of the foremost Jesuit proponents of the Catholic Action Movement in Ireland between…
The Nugents of Westmeath & Queen Elizabeth’s Irish Primer by Denis Casey (Four Courts Press, €9.95) The Nugent family trace their beginning to Gilbert de Nugent of Normandy, the 1st Baron of Delvin, who arrived in Ireland in the 12th Century. By the middle of the 16th Century they were well and truly Anglo-Irish. At…
Mindful Meditations for Every Day by Sr Stan (Columba Press, €12.99) In Ireland, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy has long been much admired. One of the surprises among the releases of State papers at the turn of the year, as least to this reviewer, was a file dealing with the proposal put to the government that it…
World of Books These days we have little expectation of astonishing works of literature or scholarship from a bishop. They are all too busy with mere administration to have the mental energy to expend on scholarship or literature. It was not always thus. Look for instance at the writings of 19th-Century Irish bishops, such as…
Dirty Secrets: What To Do About Tax Havens by Richard Murphy (Verso, £12.99) Tax avoidance is one of the greatest difficulties besetting the world economy. Accountant and tax campaigner Richard Murphy estimates that 10% – maybe more – of the world’s wealth is hidden away in tax havens. Taxed, the secreted trillions would provide more…
Joe Carroll The Supreme Court. The judges, the decisions, the rifts and the rivalries that have shaped Ireland by Ruadhán Mac Cormaic (Penguin Ireland, €27.99) “We are the Supreme Court and under God we can do anything,” a judge of the court, Cecil Lavery, rebuked a young barrister who had the nerve to tell the…
J. Anthony Gaughan He was Galway: Máirtín Mór McDonogh, 1860 -1934, by Jackie Uí Chionna (Open Air/Four Courts Press, €19.95). This is a valuable biography of a truly remarkable person. The book’s title does not exaggerate. Máirtín Mór McDonogh (1860–1934) was a central figure in the civic life of Galway city and county for most…
Father Mychal Judge, An Authentic American Hero by Michael Ford (Paulist Press, £15.99) Anthony Redmond Fr Judge, an Irish American Franciscan, died in the attack on the World Trade Centre as he gave the Last Rites to a dying fireman. During the last weeks of his life, Fr Mychal Judge had been reading the biography…
Christmas in the Cross Hairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday by Chris Bowler (Oxford University Press, £20.00) In this first week of the New Year it may seem a little late to be reviewing a book about the history of the holiday that we have just got safely…
J. Anthony Gaughan Walter Carpenter: A Revolutionary Life by Ellen Galvin RSC (East Wall History Group, €5, or a donation to Cycle for Suicide charity; contact East Wall History Group at eastwallhistory@gmail.com) This little biography of Walter Carpenter is an authentic expression of Pietas. Written by a granddaughter, a retired nun based in Dublin, it…
Peter Costello