Consecration to St Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father, by Donald H. Calloway MIC (Marian Press, £13.60) This is a book promoting devotion to St Joseph, making it very suitable reading in this week after the celebration of the Feast of St Joseph the Worker. The steadfast member of the Holy Family, Joseph…
This year marks the centenary of ‘Fund for the National Collections of Ireland’, which may well be for many readers a little known organisation. But nevertheless it is an important body working for the preservation of the arts in Ireland and the records of the past. Recently Dr John Turpin outlined the history of the…
Democracy in today’s world: can it survive? Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power by Erica Benner (Allan Lane, £25.00 / €29.50) This short book by political philosopher Erica Benner is a timely meditation on the nature of democracy, both ancient and modern. It is timely because democratic values are under threat everywhere today,…
Margaret Anne Suggs is a professional illustrator. Some readers will already be familiar with her work as the illustrator of the ‘Pigín of Howth’ stories by Kathleen Watkins, and also Holy Shocking Saints with Sine Quinn. However, this new book seems to be a very personal project. She tells us that she has long held…
At a recent press conference Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, speaking about the Vatican’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (as discussed last week in these pages), went out of his way to remind the reporters of the international arts press that it is 60 years since Pier…
It is often said that, in the West at least, this is an age which does not value religion. But one class of people certainly do: the leading auctioneers of the world, in Europe and North America, who are quite prepared to sell off civilisation’s most important relics for whatever they can get. At…
The codex now for sale was once a part of the Bodmer Hoard, some of the items of which are now in the Chester Beatty library in Dublin. A visit to the Chester Beatty Library in the precincts of Dublin Castle will reveal not only one of Ireland’s finest museums, but also a…
This is the year of the regular biannual art exhibition in Venice bears the title ‘Foreigners Everywhere’. Opened on April 20 it runs until November 24. This year sees a return to the original post-war format of national pavilions. The result has been an increase of interest from many new countries outside Europe, especially in…
The Hidden Ireland by Daniel Corkery (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, Oregon, $35.00 / €33.50 / £26.00; other editions widely available on line) This a reissue of a book by an established writer and patriot which was written a century ago, back in 1924, and issued in Dublin by an Irish publisher. It is a cultural landmark…
Speculative Minds in Georgian Ireland: Novelty, Experiment and Widening Horizons Toby Barnard and Alison FitzGerald (Four Courts Press, €50.00 / £45.95) Looking back on the Ireland of the 18th Century it appears at first glance to be settled picture, but on closer examination is turns out to be something of a jigsaw puzzle, with a multitude…
Peter Costello