Anne Yeats: The Everyday Fantastic National Gallery of Ireland; Exhibition runs until 9 October 2022, Room 11 Admission free (book a free general admission ticket in advance) Anne Yeats was the niece of Jack Butler Yeats, and those who have seen the tremendous show of his painting in the NGI should be sure not to miss…
This is the second book by NUI academics Prof. Breslin and Dr Buckley in which they use advanced computer technology to “restore”, or rather add natural colour tones to photographs enlivening the original monochrome. I have my doubts about this technique, as have many historians and photographers. But looking through these pages I found images of…
Crimson and Gold: Life as a Limerick by Mark Patrick Hederman (Columba Books, €19.99hb/£17.99hb) John F. Deane Dear reader: I presume you are an Irish Catholic; I am an Irish Catholic; I am reviewing a book on Irish Catholicism by an Irish Catholic for The Irish Catholic. And are we not all anxious, in the present,…
The Book of St Brigid by Colm Keane and Una O’Hagan (Capel Island Press, €14.99/£15.00) The names of the author will be well-known to readers, for many of their books have been popular bestsellers. They have a knack, derived perhaps from their days in television, of making what they write accessible, vivid and immediate to a wide…
Divine Diamond: Facets of the Fourth Gospel by Kevin O’Gorman SMA (Messenger Publications, €14.95/£12.95) The writings attributed to St John the Apostle have long stood out in contrast to the synoptic gospels. Indeed there were those who thought that the apocalypse of St John of Patmos attributed to the same author should not be added to…
Church, Interrupted – Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis by John Cornwell (Chronicle Prism, £21.99/€25.00) You know you are in the hands of a master author and story-teller when you open a book by John Cornwell. Readers may be familiar with his best-seller A Thief in the Night: the Death of John Paul I (1989),…
The World of Books By the books editor This year France is marking, in various ways and styles, the bicentenary of the death of Napoléon Bonaparte. In the cause of heritage preservation the emperor has joined the Bourbons as part of the great panoply of French culture. The current head of the family, international investment banker Jean-Christophe,…
The Messenger Advent Booklet 2021: reflections on the Weekday Reading by Donal Neary SJ (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The author opens his little seasonal booklet with the observation that “Advent is the annual season of waiting”. This year, however, the notion of waiting has taken on an even heavier weight of expectation: will the pandemic die away,…
The Innocence of Pontius Pilate. How the Roman trial of Jesus shaped history by David Lloyd Dusenbury (Hurst and Company, £25.00/€30.00) Frank Litton Stories we are told can win or lose wars. The Taliban’s story — David vs Goliath in a ‘holy’ war — proved more telling than the United States’ and its allies’ story of a nation…
The exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the painter Jack B. Yeats is one which everyone at all interested in Irish art – or indeed Irish culture in general – will want to see. The catalogue to accompany the show is also one to have.…
Peter Costello