Made in America: The dark history that led to Donald Trump, by Edward Stourton. (Torva /Transworld Penguin, £20.00 / €28.00) My country, ’tis of thee / Sweet land of liberty / Of thee I sing” – the anthem of which these are the opening words has been a staple of American popular culture since…
The Complete Francis of Assisi: His Life, The Complete Writings, and The Little Flowers, by Paul Sabatier and others (Paraclete Press, €38.50) Currently the remains of St Francis of Assisi are on display in the Italian hilltop town where he died on October 3, 1226, some 800 years ago. They are on view until March…
Kings, Druids and Traitors: Once Upon a Time in Ireland, by William Collins, (Doon Press, from Amazon.ie, €15.27 pb / €24.88 hb, ebook is €4.35) This is a darkly glowing saga, akin to the medieval dramas now so well-known from film and television in The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The author…
James Ryan and the development of independent Ireland, by Michael Loughman (Four Courts Press, €24.99 / £22.50) By any standards, this is a remarkable biography of a truly remarkable man. James Ryan was born into a large, comfortably off farming family in Wexford on December 6, 1892. A much more low-key figure than either…
Easter in Disguise: The 2026 Lent Book, by Liz Dodd (Bloomsbury, £10.99 / €12.99) This is an unusual book, partly because of the experiences of the author, partly by what she tries to pass on to her readers from those experiences. Author Liz Dodd was born in Oxford. She took a degree in theology…
El Generalísimo Franco: Power, Violence and the Quest for Greatness, by Giles Tremlett (Bloomsbury, £30 / €35.00) Giles Tremlett, who lives in Spain, has a deep understanding of that country’s past. He is the author of a remarkable account of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Here, however, moving on in time,…
Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia, by Penelope Chetwode (Eland Publishing, £14.99 / €17.50) This is the time of the year when we find so many people we wish to contact or speak to have “gone to Spain”. Indeed, the whole Irish people seems to have lost their hearts to Spain. But their Spain is as…
Uncertain Passage, by Paddy Bushe (Dedalus Press, €12.50pb / €20 hb) Paddy Bushe’s latest book, Uncertain Passage, is a triumph. His poems, like the blackbird in his eponymous haiku, are “So ordinary / Yet still incomparably / The sweetest of all.” Like the goldfinch of another haiku, his wise words illuminate us. A poet…
Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, why so many became Catholic in the 20th Century, by Melanie McDonagh (Yale University Press, £25.00 / €28.99) Melanie McDonagh is an Arklow woman, educated at Cambridge after school in Ireland, who has had a stellar career in London journalism. Among other accomplishments as a columnist, she has carved…
Confluences of Law and History. Irish Legal History Society Discourses and Other Papers, 2011-21, ed. by Niamh Howlin & Felix M. Larkin (Four Courts Press, €55.00 / £50.00) Usually, edited collections of historical essays are thematic and derive from papers presented at a conference. However, the papers presented in this edited collection received their original…
Peter Costello