Courtney McGrailRonsard’s rose garden is a pure delight Stratford-upon-Avon, especially in summer, is one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions: the crowds come not to see the Royal Shakespeare Company at the theatre, but the birth place of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. The theatre with its celebrated productions is a truly vital place –…
Category: Books
Some summer reading
Books Editor With the fine weather here at last thoughts turn to holidays, and thoughts of holidays summon up the idea of some leisurely reading. Here are some suggestions for books which might provide some interesting and out of the way reading for those bored with best-sellers. The Land of Shades by Charles Lyte (Xlibris;…
Dublin hostelry with a history
Mulligans: Grand Old Pub of Poolbeg Street Declan Dunne (Mercier Press, €14.99)
W. B. Yeats and his search of a miracle
Peter CostelloThis year the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats is being celebrated with a wide range of events and media occasions. Yeats is one of those poets that school anthologies have made familiar, and yet remain strangely powerful in their resonances. Here are some thoughts on a man who is arguably Ireland’s…
Recent books in brief
A Life to Live: Awakening to God’s Abiding Presence by Jim O’Connell MHM, foreword by Liam Lawton (Columba Press, €14.99) Some years ago, our reviewer, Angela MacNamara, wrote of an earlier book of Fr O’Connell’s that “it is as though someone is taking one’s hand and enabling one to face the real world of God…
A secret diary from Maynooth offers some invaluable insights
The Diary of Fr Daniel O’Loan: A View from Maynooth 1886-1893 ed. by Hugh O’Neill (Fountain Publishing Ltd, ISBN-13: 978-0952556534, no price stated)
Spirituality: Ancient insights for today’s readers
Pilgrims& Prophets: Biblical and Celtic Spirituality by Edmond Cullinan (Veritas, €14.99 / £11.99)
Napoleon Bonaparte’s life in sanctuary of Elba
The World of Books
Life among the Irish in England
Mary KennyThe last time I visited the London Irish Centre in Camden, the walls were adorned with some wonderful photographs of laughing Irish nurses who had come to England during the 1950s and of groups of mirthful Irish emigrants making their way to one of the dance halls in Cricklewood and Kilburn. The pictures…
The Fractured Creation Debate
Creationism is not a topic widely talked about in Ireland. It rarely intrudes into the public debate. But creationism presents both a false view of religion and of science. Seeming to reassure people it dangerously misleads them. It will be recalled that when the visitor centre at the Giant’s Causeway was opened a few years…