Canon Sheehan of Doneraile 1852-1913: Outlines for a Literary Biography by James O’Brien (Smenos, €23.00 plus p+p / £19.50 plus p+p ; ISBN-13: 978-0957552166; smenosbooks@yahoo.co.uk )

Freedom to achieve freedom: The Irish Free State 1922-1932 by Donal P. Corcoran (Gill & Macmillan, €39.99/£35.00)

In the week since our last issue the world has been marking the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. This has evoked many articles, and a Hollywood film, Parkland, about the immediate aftermath of the crime. We all of us remember where we were when we heard the…

The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence, by Charles Townsend (Allen Lane, €29.50/£25)

This new reference work, like the Dictionary of Irish Biography, fills a long perceived need, for it covers not only all aspects of music, composition and performance in Ireland, it deals with traditional classical and modern composers. Nor in a country where Handel’s Messiah had its first performance, is sacred music neglected, but it is…

Irish involvement with Africa is all too often seen though the work of missionaries, especially in Nigeria and Kenya. But this reissue of a book by the late Wicklow novelist Gerald Hanley, better known for The Year of the Lion and Gilligan’s Last Elephant, deals with a very different area and very different kind of…

Parnell Reconsidered, edited by Pauric Travers and Donal McCartney (UCD Press, €28.00 / £24.00)

Food for the Soul, by Brian D’Arcy CP (Columba Press, €14.99 / £12.50)

Holy Bones and Holy Dust: How Relics Shape the History of Medieval Europe Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs

The Irish District Court: A social Portrait