Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and its Maker, by Zachery Leader (Harvard University Press, £29.95 / €34.50) Richard Ellmann was the author of what is regarded as the definitive biography of James Joyce, published in 1959. In Ellmann’s Joyce, Zachary Leader explores not only how Ellmann went about composing that biography but…
Doctor of the Church: An Introduction to Saint John Henry Newman, by Michael Rear, preface by His Majesty King Charles III (Gracewing, £12.99 / €15.00) On the feast of All Saints, November 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV conferred the title of Doctor of the Church on St John Henry Newman, thus ranking him with…
The Root of All Evil: The Irish Boundary Commission, by Cormac Moore (Irish Academic Press, €22.99 / £20.00) In the negotiations between Irish and British leaders in 1921 that brought the War of Independence to an end and culminated in the Treaty that created the Irish Free State, there were two central issues: the extent…
Listowel Food Fair: Tríoche Bliain ag Fás (Thirty Years a-Growing) 1995-2025, edited by James Deenihan and Annette McElligot (Listowel Food Fair, €20 + €4.00 p&p; email James Deenihan: info@listowelfoodfair.ie; copies locally from Woulfe’s Bookshop, 7 Church Street, Listowel) The Listowel Food Fair was established in 1995 by a committee headed by Jimmy Deenihan. However, much…
Today the Three Kings are an essential part of the story of Christmas time as we tell to ourselves and our children. They have a part as the first givers of Yuletide gifts. They appear in parish and school plays and presentations across Christendom, and even at times in countries not usually thought of as…
Revelations on the state of Ireland from the State Files Peter Costello and Helen Litton Peter Costello is the Books Editor of The Irish Catholic and the author of many books about Irish culture. Helen Litton is a historian who has written two biographies and a popular series of books on Irish history. The role…
Christmas being a time when many people get book tokens or an especially generous tip from Auntie Maureen, allows children and young people to feel that special joy of buying books for oneself. These titles are arranged more or less in age order, youngest to oldest. I’m Very Busy, A (Nearly Forgotten) Birthday Book,…
The Christmas Season is by long-established tradition, the season when most books are bought in every civilised centre. The books bought need not themselves be civilised, but they must have some suitable connection with the time of year and the seasonal feelings that it arouses. Books, it is so often said, “make a nice present”.…
J. Anthony Gaughan As a keen follower of Gaelic games, I found Eamonn Sweeney’s The Last Ditch: How One GAA Championship Gave a Sports Writer Back his Life the most interesting book of the year. In the first two chapters Eamonn reveals the challenges – phobias – which he has to overcome in plying his…
The Passing Year: Remembrances, Recollections, Ruminations, by John Quinn (Red Stripe Press, €12.99 / £11.99) Come the end of the year everyone’s memories have a tendency to cast themselves back, not only on the last twelve months, but inevitably on the years before, often taking us back into our childhood, for Christians, Christmas time…
Peter Costello