Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB has already given a wide ranging appreciation in this newspaper of some of the special qualities that characterised the late poet Seamus Heaney, whose passing has been greatly mourned. But there are other things too that might be said about Heaney from the point of view of the literary historian.  …

In this book Fr Hogan, now living in Cork after a life spent on the missions in Africa, continues his interesting investigations of the social, political and religious interactions in the early years of colonial Nigeria. The Ebira of his study maynot be so familiar a name as the Ibo or Yoruba are to many…

The prime mover in Kate Cooper’s learned, engaged history is Saint Paul, the peripatetic tent-maker who was the most influential of all Christian missionaries. He and his early converts proclaimed the new faith in the seaports of the Eastern Mediterranean. These first converts, who themselves would become agents of conversion, tended to be well-born, propertied…

A sign of the changing times: this is a CD by a Connemara based priest, influenced perhaps by Eastern ideas, which allows listeners to become at home in themselves, and in doing so open up their spirit to wider influences. His insights are intended for both individuals and for prayer groups. There has been a long…

The allusion in the title is, of course, to the robe of Christ, but in these poems by the parish priest of a parish near Dublin, they might also allude to the seamless nature of life and spirit. Poets he notes write from what they know, and what a parish priest has is a very…

Majella is a familiar enough personal name in Northern Ireland, as Fr McConvery reminds us, and in past decades there was a wide spread devotion to him, especially in matters that concerned what the author calls ìthe great life- giving mysteriesî of conception, labour and birth. Though St Gerard (born in 1726 and died in 1755),…

This biography of Edward Daly is part of a series on the 16 executed leaders of the Easter Rising. The author is a grandniece of Edward Daly, hence she has been able to enhance her account with some fascinating and insightful family lore.   Daly was born in Limerick on February 28, 1891 into a…

Fr Benignus O’Rourke OSA is an Augustinian friar and the bestselling author of Finding Your Hidden Treasure. In this new book, which was published on St Augustine’s feast day, Fr O’Rourke gives us a superb translation of the Confessions, which is perhaps the most important spiritual autobiography ever written.   St Augustine is undoubtedly the…

Croagh Patrick: Irelandís Holy Mountain edited by Harry Hughes  (Croagh Patrick Archaeological Committee, €14.95 / £12.70; Croagh Patrick Visitor Centre, Teach na Miasa, Murrisk, Co. Mayo; email: info@croagh-patrick.com) We are all familiar with the photographs of pilgrimages making their slow way up the slops of Croagh Patrick at the time of the annual pilgrimage. The…