Simone Weil for the Twenty-First Century by Eric O. Springsted (University of Notre Dame Press, US$35.00 pb/£25.00 pb) The Subversive Simone Weil: A life in five ideas by Robert Zaretsky (University of Chicago Press, US$20.00 hb/£16.00 hb) Frank Litton What theologians, philosophers, public intellectuals who hold centre-stage today will still be highly regarded and their work studied 80…
Naoibhein Ri Naomh Calum Cille/Nóibhéine Do Naomh Colm Cille/A Novena to Saint Columba by Fr Ross S. J. Crichton (Mungo Books/CTS, £3.95; ISBN 978-1-78469-658-0; bulk orders to Mungo Books, 6 Rob Roy Gardens, Kirkintilloch, Glasgow G661DQ) This little book marks a revival of the Mungo Books imprint, whose principal focus will be on publications of Scottish…
Life in Ireland: A Short History of a Long Time by Conor W. O’Brien (Merrion Press, €16.95/£15.99) Joe Carroll This potted history of plant and animal life in Ireland stretches over a long period – about 550 million years. So there is a lot of evolution to pack into 264 pages. The author, a lifelong enthusiast…
The Best Catholics in the World: The Irish, the Church and the End of a Special Relationship by Derek Scally (Sandycove/Penguin Ireland, €20) Derek Scally is a journalist with The Irish Times, based in Germany for the last 20 years. His perspective on the subject of Catholicism in Ireland is shown in the dedication of the book…
Maynooth College reflects on Covid-19: New Realities in Uncertain Times Ed. Jeremy Corley, Neil Xavier O’Donoghue and Salvador Ryan, foreword by Archbishop Eamon Martin (Messenger Publications, €9.95/£8.95) I write this on a morning when queues are forming outside Penney’s department store as people seek madly to mark what many are bound to see as the end…
The other week I was writing in these pages about the cultural meaning of the advent of printing in North America, which began not with the English puritans but with the Spanish clergy. This focused my mind on the fact that the national myths of the USA, but not of Canada or Mexico, manage to…
Walking with Ignatius by Arturo Sosa SJ, in conversation with Dario Menor, prologue by Sr Jolanta Kafka RMI (Messenger Publications, €19.95/£19.95) In conversation with a respected journalist, the Superior General of the Jesuits provides some reflections that will provide, so to speak, a theme for the ‘Ignatius 500 Year’ we are facing into. The key idea is that…
Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?: The World Facing the Pandemic. The Statio Orbis of March 27, 2020 by Pope Francis (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, €17.25; available through Knock Shrine Online Store) “For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives,…
Rhyming History: The Irish War of Independence and the Ballads of Atrocity in the Valley of Knockanure by Gabriel Fitzmaurice (North Kerry Literary Trust , €15.00; can be ordered from the Kerry Writers’ Museum, info@kerrywritersmuseum.com, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry V31 RD93) G.K. Chesterton once famously rhymed: “The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that…
The National Anthems of the EU Countries by Liam Murphy (Kingdom books, €18.00) Though World War II was an Armageddon of evil, it had at least one good result: what became the European Union (EU) emerged from its embers. This historic union was formed by European statesmen who were determined that their countries would never again…
Peter Costello