Days of the Blackthorn: Faction Fighters of Kerry by Seán Moraghan (Mercier Press, €16.99) In the early part of the 19th Century especially, faction fighting was a feature of rural life throughout Munster. The Catholic clergy were unable to prevent it, despite their strenuous efforts, local magistrates turned a Nelson eye on it and some…

The Enchantment of Mammon: How Capitalism became the Religion of Modernity by Eugene McCarraher (The Belknap Press / Harvard University Press, $US39.95/£31.95) Frank
Litton This is a vitally important book, likely to attract considerable attention among critics and readers. I reckon it could have an impact similar to Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue back in 1997. Certainly…

St Thérèse of Lisieux in Scotland 2019   (The Bishops Conference of Scotland / Scottish Catholic Observer, €6.99 + €6.99 p&p. Order from books@sconews.co.uk, phone 0044-141-241-6106.  Arrangements are being made to distribute the book in Ireland.)   The tour of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux in Ireland is still for devotees of the…

Ireland in the European Eye edited by Gisela Holfter and Bettina Migge (Royal Irish Academy, €25.00) Joe 
Carroll This large book (515 pages) is billed as “a comprehensive survey of Ireland’s place in Europe, providing a detailed narrative of a cultural relationship that began with Irish missionaries bringing Christianity and learning to the continent”. The…

The Legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Independent Ireland, 1922-1949 by Martin O’Donoghue (Liverpool University Press, £80.00).   Felix M. Larkin   Conor Cruise O’Brien, the grandson of a long-time Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) MP, was once discussing the 1916 Rising and its aftermath with his father-in-law, Seán McEntee, a 1916 veteran and foundation…

The World of Books Back in the 1950s, when such a case was less common, an Irish poet was teaching a course on modern Ireland literature in a US university. He chose James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) as the text for the semester. By the time he was…

St Columbanus: Selected writings compiled by Alexander O’Hara, introduction by Fr Sean McDonagh (Veritas, €9.99 / £7.25)   Columbanus and the Peoples of Post-Roman Europe edited by Alexander O’Hara (Oxford University Press, £68.00)   Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century by Alexander O’Hara (Oxford University Press,…

Utopia: The History of an Idea by Gregory Claeys (Thames & Hudson, £9.99) Looking at the cover of this brief but well-informed and penetrating history of the utopian ideal, I was engaged by the cover. This shows the flying city of Laputa from a Victorian edition of Gulliver’s Travels, a book much concerned with ideas…

My American Journey, by Douglas Hyde edited by L. Mac Mathúna, B. Ó Conchubhair, N. Comer, C. Ó Seireadáin & M. Nic An Bhaird (UCD Press, €50.00)   Felix 
M.
 Larkin   Douglas Hyde (1860-1949), long an almost forgotten figure in Irish history, is at last beginning to receive the scholarly attention that he undoubtedly…

Moment in Time: A Legacy of Photographs. Works from the Bank of America Collection. Curated by Anne Hodge and Sarah McAuliffe  National Gallery of Ireland, Rooms 6-10 | Beit Wing, until March 22, 2020 Moment in Time: A collection of Photographs (Museum of Photographic Arts, €45.00) Continuing the National Gallery’s new involvement in the arts…