Every Bush Aflame: Science, God, and the Natural World by John Feehan (Veritas, €16.99/£14.61) Dr Christopher Moriarty The first creation story in the Bible – the ‘six day’ account – is remarkable in being, in its essentials, a scientific document. Its writer observed nature and made deductions from his observations. Above all, he postulated the need…
The Celtic Myths that Shape the Way We Think by Mark Williams (Thames & Hudson, £20.00/$23.99) This book ought to have a wide readership for it explores an area of modern literature that has, since the mid-Victorian era, exerted great influence over writers, artists and filmmakers in these islands. Mark Williams was born in London and…
Father William Doyle, A Year’s Thoughts edited by Alfred O’Rahilly (Te Deum Press, $US16.95 /€19.95) This is a useful collection of prayerful reflections from the pen of Fr William Doyle, a spiritual leader who touched many souls during his career as a retreat-giver and for a long time after. A Jesuit priest and military chaplain, he…
Living with History: Occasional Writings by Felix M Larkin (Kingdom Books, €24.00/£20.50) Felix Larkin will be well-known to readers of the books page of The Irish Catholic for his many perceptive reviews of books about Irish and American history. He is a former senior official in the Department of Finance and was later in the National…
If these stones could speak: The history of Christianity in Britain and Ireland through twenty buildings by Peter Stanford (Hodder & Stoughton, £20.00/€24.00) I have long found the books of Peter Stanford – a former editor of the Catholic Herald – no matter what their topic (he writes mostly about religion, history and ethics) to be always entertaining…
PEN International: An Illustrated History edited by Charles Toner and others (Thames & Hudson, £45.00/€54.00) PEN International celebrated its centenary in London on October 5, 2021. As part of the celebrations the President, Jennifer Clement, and others published this absorbing history of PEN and its activities over those ten decades, edited by Charles Toner. Founded in…
Gabriel Fitzmaurice “Who can beat the kingdom sweet at horse or hound or man?” How Brendan Kennelly loved to quote those lines from Bryan MacMahon’s 1946 Kerry All-Ireland victory song. Football and song. Both would come together in the person of Ireland’s most popular poet, Brendan Kennelly. Indeed he played on the Kerry minor football…
Between two Hells: the Irish Civil War by Diarmaid Ferriter (Profile Books, €20/€24.69) Felix M. Larkin How does a nation mark the centenary of a civil war? This is a problem which we in Ireland have to confront in 2022. Prof. Diarmaid Ferriter’s advice in this book is that we “need to factor in restraint” and…
St Chinian University Comes of Age, by Paddy Masterson (Pegasus Press/Elliot Mackenzie Publishers, £10.99) Patrick Masterson served as president of University College Dublin from 1986 to 1993 and was president of the European University Institute in Florence from 1994 to 2002. His novels are the fruit of his first-hand and practical experience of how insignificant, first-world…
In My Mind’s Eye: Walking Among Ghosts by Brigid Kavanagh; stories and poems compiled and edited by Sean and Declan Kavanagh (€12.00) available online at www.buythebook.ie, or by contacting pettitmaggie955@gmail.com Sean Ryan This 300-plus-page book is an anthology of, and a tribute to, the writing of 95-year-old Brigid Kavanagh, who puts to good use her keen observations of…
Peter Costello