The San Damiano Cross: An Icon of the Crucifixion by Madeleine Stewart (Conard Press, €12.00 / £10.50; ISBN 978-1-9161432-0-3; orders to conardicons.com) Madeline Stewart, who is an accredited expert on icons and their interpretation lives in Northern Ireland, but mentally she is a well-travelled global person through her explorations of icons of the Orthodox tradition.…
Limerick: Snapshots of the Treaty City and County 1840–1960 by Tom Donovan and Vincent Carmody, forward by JP McManus, preface by Matthew Potter (Poundlane Publications, €35.00/£30.00) Limerick is a much-storied city which traces its origin back to its establishment by the Vikings in 821. The authors take just a snapshot of that history, zooming in on…
The key to the link between past and present, as is so often the case, lies in a book. President Vladimir Putin’s earlier life was spent in the ranks of the Russia secret service. The distorted moral vision of that organisation has shaped his views of people, life and the world. For that state service…
Becoming a Pastoral Parish Council: How to Make Your PPC Really Useful for the Twenty-First Century by Patricia Carroll, foreword by Archbishop Dermot Farrell (Messenger Publications, €9.95/£8.95) This is a short book, but intentionally so, for it is very much to its purpose which is to promote and encourage the emerging parish pastoral councils, which…
How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People by Pete Greig (Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99/€18.00) Author Peter Greig is pastor in Emmaus Road Church in Guilford, England. This is his eighth book, but his books are only a part of his life. He says that he often finds himself bewildered, but his bewilderment…
Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples by Joan Taylor and Helen Bond (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99) Published last week on St Patrick’s Day itself, this may seem an unusual book to read for Lent. But on deeper consideration I think not. Many readers will welcome it. Inspired by the authors’ Channel 4 documentary, which was filmed…
The Tain, from the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge Translated by Thomas Kinsella and decorated by Louis Le Brocquy Dolmen Edition IX (Dolmen Press, 1969) When this landmark in Irish culture appeared back in September 1969, I was living in London. I still recall the delighted pleasure with which I bought the original Dolmen Press…
Frank Litton Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis by Massimo Borghesi (Liturgical Press Academic, US$29.95/£23.99) Two women shout across the street in angry argument from their tenement rooms. The doctor, poet and wit, Oliver St John Gogarty turns to his companion: “those women will never agree.” “How do you know?.”…
Devotion: A Memoir by Mickey Harte as told to Brendan Coffey (Harper-Collins Ireland , €24.99/£21.99) Owing to his role as manager of the Tyrone senior football team, the face of Mickey Harte is one of the most recognisable in the country. This book leaves one in no doubt about the truly remarkable character of the…
Channelling the Inner Fire:Ignatian Spirituality in 15 points by Brendan McManus SJ (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The Ignatian Guide to Forgiveness: Ten steps to healing by Marina Berzins McCoy (Messenger Publications, €12.99) These are two further publications relating to the celebration around the world this year of the 500th anniversary of his wound at the battle…
Peter Costello