Going Global for God: A Portrait of Ballyheigue’s Missionary Movement by Micheál Ó hAllmhuráin (Ballyheigue History and Heritage Group; phone: (066) 7133110 (during office hours only), email: ballyheigue@dioceseofkerry.ie) This is a splendid tribute to the men and women from the small parish in Ballyheigue in Co Kerry who spent their lives on the missions at…
The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation to the Present Day by Roy Hattersley (Chatto and Windus, £25.00) Roy Hattersley prefaces his congenial history with a fascinating autobiographical fragment in which he recalls the ease with which his father could translate Latin inscriptions during their frequent visits to…
Felix M. Larkin Ireland’s Allies: America and the 1916 Rising edited by Miriam Nyhan Gray (UCD Press, €40.00) In August 1886, speaking at a gathering of Irish-Americans in Chicago, Michael Davitt said: “It is very easy to establish an Irish republic by patriotic speeches delivered three thousand miles away, but we could not do it…
Felix M. Larkin There are many connections between Ireland and Tasmania, and not only because of the latter’s status as a penal colony in the first half of the 19th Century. These connections are reflected in a beautiful stained glass window in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Hobart. Erected in 1995, the window is dedicated…
Why Not? How to Bring the Liturgy About by Turlough Baxter (Veritas, €8.99) This little book consists of thoughts on the liturgy that originally appeared in Intercom, the pastoral and liturgical resource magazine, over the last dozen years or so. Though aimed by Turlough Baxter at his fellow clergy, it will be read with by many…
Winnie & George: An Unlikely Union by Allison Murphy (Mercier Press, €16.99) This is the story of two almost forgotten figures from the troubled Twenties in Northern Ireland. Winifred (‘Winnie’) Carney was born in Bangor, Co Down, on December 4, 1887. Following her education in a Christian Brothers school in Belfast she graduated from a…
World of Books Do Chrstians, and especially Catholic Christians, really understand and appreciate the true nature of Judaism today? I ask this question, which has some importance to the world today, because I have been looking into a book I casually acquired but which has turned out to be quite fascinating. It is called A…
The Land of Far Beyond, The First Christmas and other Stories, Noah’s Ark and other Stories from the Old Testament by Enid Blyton (Hodder Children’s Books, £10.99 each) One has to feel some sympathy with the ghost of Enid Blyton if she were to return to see what has been done to her children’s books,…
I Believe: The Promise of the Creed by Pope Francis (Orbis Books / Alban Books, £14.99) This is the American translation of a book which originally appeared in German in 2015. It has been edited by Stephan von Kempis, who has picked out from a wide range of the Pope’s writings and talks, passages that…
Thomás Flynn, Thomas J. Devine (1862 -1941), and The Election of the Snows: The North Roscommon By-Election of 1917 Published by the author; copes from Trinity Books, Carrick-on-Shannon and The Reading Room, Carrick-on-Shannon, €12. For further information: ring 086 067 5283 On February 6, the result of the North Roscommon Bye-Election of 1917 was announced…
Peter Costello