Pope Francis: The Story of Our Pope by Ailís Travers, illustrated by Lir Mac Cárthaigh

Place names are so central to issues of identity and rejection that they cause trouble all around the world

Danger is Everywhere by Docter Noel Zone

Ireland’s Czar: Gladstonian Government and the Lord Lieutenancies of the Red Earl Spencer, 1868-86 by James H. Murphy

Francis Browne has been best known to the public as the extraordinary photographer who took the last pictures aboard the doomed Titanic – he had the luck, or perhaps was given the grace – to alight at Queenstown (Cobh) before she began her final trajectory across the Atlantic. But Fr Browne SJ, also had another…

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.…

Spiritualism must have reached its historic acme in the years between the wars, when such people as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were fervent missionaries for the belief. Historians have surmised that this was one outcome of the millions of lives lost in the Great War, and the inconsolable grief of those left behind. One senses…

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,…