Education Matters: Readings in Pastoral Care for School Chaplains, Guidance Counsellors and Teachers edited by James O’Higgins Norman (Veritas, €19.99/£16.15)

The World of Saint Patrick by Philip Freeman (Oxford University Press, £14.99)

Saol: Thoughts from Ireland on Life and Living by Catherine Conlon (The Collins Press, €12.99)

Judging W.T. Cosgrave: The Foundation of the Irish State by Michael Laffan (Royal Irish Academy, €30)

The principle of freedom of expression – which has been violently attacked and vigorously defended over recent days – depends very much on the ability, not of those in the media, but of ordinary people, to express themselves well and clearly. Freedom of expression is not just for writers and cartoonists, for politicians and pontiffs…

Joe Carroll   John Walshe had been the most experienced education correspondent in the Irish media when Ruairi Quinn asked him to join his team as a special adviser when he took over as Minister for Education in 2011. Walshe could not resist becoming poacher turned gamekeeper and now he gives an entertaining insider’s view…

Sean Ryan This little red book of 132 pages is a gem. While telling the story of Tom Peterson, founder of the Catholics Come Home organisation, it also emphasises the duty of every baptised Catholic to use their talents to spread the Good News. Peterson was a marketing and advertising guru, whose practice of his faith…

The Evidence for God: The Case for the Existence of the Spiritual Dimension by Keith Ward (Darton, Longman & Todd, £9.99).

Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Vol. IX 1948-1951 ed. by Catriona Crowe, Ronan Fanning and Michael Kennedy (Royal Irish Academy, €50.00)

Rethinking Fundamental Theology by Gerald O’Collins, SJ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, £18.99 paperback; also available in hardback, £37.99).