My Sporting Life By Jimmy Deenihan (Red Hen Publishing, €20 / £16.50) There is a unique link between politics and sport in Ireland. This is nowhere more apparent than in this autobiography by Jimmy Deenihan. Appropriately entitled ‘My Sporting Life’, it charts his successful transition from the playing fields to Leinster House and eventually ministerial office.…
Category: Books
The reassuring sounds of silence
A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness and Contemplation By Martin Laird (Oxford University Press, €15.85 / £11.99) Angela Macnamara The key to unlocking doorways of prayer is in our own silence. We live in times when ”our attention is riveted to surface noise” and silence is difficult to achieve. Even though some people live alone…
Recent books in brief
Nature’s Way: A Sense of Beauty By Patrick O’Sullivan (Veritas, €7.99 / £6.80 pb) ”If spring came but once a century instead of once a year….what wonder and expectation there would be in all our hearts.” Longfellow’s words are the author’s inspiration as he awakens us to the beauties of nature which we usually take for…
The politics of a patriot priest in 1848
Father John Kenyon: The Rebel Priest By Tim Boland (Published by the author, ISBN: 9781901370362; €20.00 / £17.50) This is a splendid biography of the mercurial Father John Kenyon, a patriotic priest who should be better known today than he is. Kenyon was born on May Day 1812 in Limerick city. He was educated locally, entered…
Living each day with Thomas Merton
Precious Thoughts: Daily Readings from Thomas Merton By Fiona Gardner (Darton, Longman &Todd, €13.19 / £10.99 pb) Anthony Redmond Thomas Merton died in 1968 at the age of 53. He is perhaps more popular and relevant today than ever. He was not alone one of the great spiritual guides and mentors of the 20th…
Books: Books of the year – Peter Costello
Looking back over the year, our regular reviewers have selected what, for them, was their personal book, or in some generous cases, books of the year Anthony Redmond A book that impressed me quite a lot this year was Unmasking God by Father Daniel O’Leary (Columba Press, €12.99 / £11.08), whose books are always a…
Books: Rome: pagan days to papal centuries
Rome: pagan days to papal centuries The Popes: A History By John Julius Norwich (Chatto & Windus, €33 / £25.00) Rome: A CulturalHistory By Robert Hughes (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, €33.00 / £25.00) Michael Collins The leading art critic, Robert Hughes, familiar to many for his history of his native Australia, has distilled his life-long passion…
Sending letters of love from Zambia
Sending letters of love from Zambia Wexford’s Fr Fritz O’Kelly tells of life on the African Missions in a collection of letters now published in book form Dear friends, A word of encouragement from Helmut Kathower prompts me to attempt to write a newsletter to my friends this Christmas. He was a young German…
Infinite variety – Christmas books for all tastes
Christmas books for all tastes As always at this time of year we publish a selection of books suitable for all ages at Christmas Compiled by the Books’ Editor Keeping Christmas Well By Artemsia D’Ecca (Phaeton Publishing, €29.00 / £25.00) This is an amusing and seasonal book from a newish Irish publishing house…
Palestinian Christmas over 100 years ago
Just a century ago, the firm of Karl Baedeker in Leipzig issued a new edition of their guide to Palestine and Syria. I have been looking through this stout, but easily handled little volume of over 400 pages, bound in bright red cloth, hoping to catch glimpses of the Holy Land as it was…