Exploring Christus Vivit: Making Room for the Young Church edited by Gerard Gallagher (Veritas, €9.99/£9.12) The promise of the future is in this little book, a collection of thoughts and commentaries edited by Gerard Gallagher, on last year’s apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis Christus Vivit. The hope of creative renewal and continuation is seen by Pope…

My story by Jesus of Nazareth as narrated by Brendan Butler (From the author, €10.00, including postage, contact www.mystorybyjesusofnazareth.org) Brendan Butler is a well-known anti-war activist and advocate of much needed reform and of openness in the Church. He always has vital things to say, though they are not always well received. But that is the way…

Psychiatrist in the Chair: The Official Biography of Anthony Clare by Brendan Kelly and Muiris Houston  (Merrion Press, €22.95 / £19.99) Charles Lysaght Anthony Clare (1942-2007) attained, by the age of 40, an eminence in the medical profession in Britain not surpassed by any graduate of an Irish medical school since King George VI’s radiologist Peter…

The darkness echoing: exploring Ireland’s places of famine, death and rebellion by Gillian O’Brien (Doubleday, £14.99/€17.99) Felix M. Larkin G.K. Chesterton said of “the great Gaels of Ireland” that “all their wars are merry and all their songs are sad”. Thus did he highlight what Gillian O’Brien identifies as our “fascination with the morbid, the melancholic,…

Mainly about books By the books editor The great and internationally-regarded art galleries of Ireland (though now for a period of months necessarily closed) are institutions we are all rightly proud of. I sometime think, though, that they do not always do full justice to some talents who worked in what some might think of…

Quiet Times With God: a Devotional by Joyce Meyer (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99) This is the sort of book that has a very long history in Christianity. Common in the Middle Ages and earlier, they changed their form at the Reformation. Some, like the book of hours of the Duc du Berry, were wonders of the…

Saving the State: Fine Gael from Collins to Varadkar by Stephen Collins and Ciara Meehan (Gill Books, €24.99/£22.50) Representatives of CumannnanGaedheal, the National Guard and the National Centre Party established Fine Gael on September 2, 1933. Eoin O’Duffy, leader of the National Guard – also known as the Blueshirts because of the apparel of its members –…

Old Ireland in Colour by John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley (Merrion Press, €24.95/£22.90) The idea of this book will delight many people, and it should prove to be a huge Christmas time bestseller. The creators have taken a wide range of historical photographs, some very familiar already in monochrome, others little seen. These have been colourised,…

The World of Books By the books editor The announcement that Peregrine Cavendish, the 12th Duke of Devonshire, based in England, has presented the celebrated Book of Lismore to University College Cork, comes as a delightful surprise. In effect, some might say, it give Munster an ancient book to play off against Leinster’s Book of…

Inspiring Faith Communities: A Programme of Evangelisation by Michael Hurley (Messenger Publications, €12.95/£11.95) Inspiring Faith Communities: A Programme of Evangelisation: a Booklet for Renewal in the Holy Spirit by Michael Hurley (Messenger Publications, €4.95 / £4.50) These two books together make up a way forward for renewal. It is built up around three points that seem essential…