The Douai Martyrs, by Gerard Skinner (Gracewing Publishing, £14.99/ €17.99) Gerard Skinner, who once studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and later at the Venerable English College in Rome. He is the author of many books, including the valuable Newman the Priest. Here, however, he turns to a theme which should perhaps…
Shaping the Assembly: How our buildings form us in worship, ed. by Thomas O’Loughlin (Messenger Publications, €25.00/£23.23) Thomas O’Loughlin is a distinguished scholar who has taught at several institutions in England, retiring as a professor emeritus at the University of Nottingham. This book brings into focus several of his long standing concerns. It is a…
Comments on the margin By the book’s editor Changes are coming to Saudi Arabia, some of which may have interesting outcomes for all those interested in the past, present and possibly future of Christianity in the region. As is well known, the central desert of Arabia, where the capital Riyadh is located, is only part…
Spectral Mansions: The Making of a Dublin Tenement, 1800-1914, by Timothy Murtagh (Four Courts Press for Dublin City Council with aid from the Heritage Council, €30.00/ £26.00) To those familiar only with the ever-rebuilding Dublin of today, there is in this book a strangely prophetic cartoon from a Dublin comic paper of July 1914, captioned…
Kerry Memories, by Bertha Beatty, edited by Pádraig de Brún (North Kerry Literary Trust, Listowel, €15.00; copies from the Kerry Writers Museum, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry, V31 RD93; Tel: 068 22212; kerrywritersmuseum@gmail.com.) Local memories are always a delight to read. They are of human interest, of course, but also always a revelation of…
The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State, by Anna M. Grzymała-Busse (Princeton University Press, €98.00/ £84.00; also in paperback) They read the roots of the European state in a positive way, and as an endorsement, so to speak, of Augustinian City of God. But that is not quite what the author had in…
The significance of the date, for those not perhaps as steeped in national lore as others, is that it marks the birth of Arthur Griffith in 1871. He died, as many more will remember, on August 12, 1922, of sudden heart failure; to be closely followed 10 days later by the death in action of…
The Pope at War – The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini and Hitler by David I. Kertzer (Oxford University Press, €29.00/£25.99) Dermot Keogh The decision in 2019 of Pope Francis to open the Vatican archives for World War II and beyond, becoming operational on March 2, 2020, is a significant milestone on the long…
A Kerry Odyssey: The Boer War and Great War Experiences of John J. Moore, by Martin Moore (Gabha Beag Publications, Tralee, €24.00/ £20.99) This is a fascinating account of the remarkable military career of John J. Moore, written by his grandnephew. It is a remarkable record of an Ireland we have almost lost sight…
This Listowel interior (pictured), a water colour rather than an oil, painted in 1842, is a picture with a story. It is attributed to a Miss Bridget Maria Fitzgerald (1817-1905), a lady with some local reputation as a painter. It was come upon by the distinguished art historian Dr Anne Cruickshank, who photographed it in…
Peter Costello