By J. Anthony Gaughan It is often stated that there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. On reflection and taking account of the human condition one realises that this is a truism. But there are successful marriages. In this timely book John Cogavin provides advice, cautions and suggestions to enable couples of all ages to enjoy such marriages.…

Zelda La Grange was Nelson Mandela’s factotum and confidante for almost 20 years during and after his presidency, and recalls their unlikely friendship in this affectionate memoir. An ‘uninquisitive’ Afrikaner, from a Calvinist conservative background, she had grown up to distrust black people, and had learned not to touch them. She regarded black political leaders…

Everyone deplores the state of our modern prisons. But grim though they are, they are a great deal better than, say, those in Peru or Indonesia. In any case they are, ironically, enough the product of 19th Century Christian-inspired reform. The move to abolish the death penalty in part or totally has for many made…

J. Anthony Gaughan This “interview” features Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989) and Eileen Gray (1878-1976). In 1972 it was reported that Chatwin, then still a journalist writing for The Sunday Times Magazine, had interviewed Eileen Gray, the celebrated furniture designer and architect, in her Paris salon.  This was quite a coup for Chatwin in those pre-fame, pre-nomadic days. Shy by nature,…

We live these days in a scientific age which rejects miracles and deprives history of a metaphysical dimension. This view can be traced back in part to the writings of David Hume (pictured) the Scottish philosopher of the 18th Century, an age when Edinburgh regarded itself as "the Athens of the North"; it was the…

The 135th anniversary of the visions at Knock, which falls on August 21, has brought into focus the whole question of visions, apparitions and the Church’s attitude towards such private revelations, and to Marian traditions as a whole.   Knock is now numbered among the most famous visionary sites in the world, along with Lourdes…

When Dr John Watts was asked if he would write a history of the Diocese of Argyle and the Isles since its restoration as a Catholic diocese in 1878, he quickly realised that to make full sense, to extract the fullness of the history of the Faith in the highlands and islands, he would have…

Irish Episcopal Conference, (Veritas, €24/£19.99)

Frederick Douglass in Ireland: The Black O’Connell

Looking at the Middle East as “the cradle of Christianity”