In the history of biblical archaeology, as it developed during the Victorian era, no episode is more remarkable that the discovery made by George Smith of the British Museum in 1872. On a clay tablet from the royal library of Nineveh he deciphered a much older Mesopotamian version of the flood story familiar from the…
Category: Books
The common heritage of all Christians
Peter CostelloEncountering God and Discovering our True Identity: Reflections on the First Readings of Cycles A, by John Littleton (Columba Books, €12.99/£10.99)
Unfolding history observed
Joe Carroll As the editor warns the reader, this book is not “a shadow history of Ireland since 1922 covering all major events and phenomena through the lens of contemporary journalism” but it is probably unbeatable for showing how Ireland has changed in that time. In ‘The Taking of Cork’ in August 1922 written by…
The hurlers on the ditch
The GAA and Radio Éireann 1926-2010: The story of the commentators who broadcast Gaelic Games, by Patrick P. Guthrie (Gemini International).
Small classic in Latin
Recently an odd little book, originally published in the US, came my way. Entitled Ave Ogden! Nash in Latin, it is the work of James C. Gleason and Brian N. Meyer and is a translation of the humorous poems of Ogden Nash into classical Latin. It was issued to the world round April 1, 1974…
Educating in Faith
A Tale of Nine Centuries: The Story and Spirituality of the Le Chéile Schools Trust, by Úna Collins and Sean Goan (The Columba Press, €14.99)
A heartening tale
A new title from the popular writer Mitch Albom. The tale is one of residents in a Michigan township beginning to receive phone call from Heaven – echoes of Victorian spiritualism perhaps in another guise? – but Mitch Albom is a soul heartening tale in the style of his earlier title The Five People You…
A man and his trials
Terence O’Neill, by Marc Mulholland (Historical Association of Ireland Life and Times Series UCD Press)
Secrets of the interior castle
Teresa of Avila: Doctor of the Soul, by Peter Tyler (Bloomsbury / Continuum, £18.99 / €22.99)
A man who embraced the world
Pope John Paul II by Hugh Costello (History Press, €8.50/£6.99)