Image & Vision: Reflecting with the Books of Kells by Rosemary Power (Veritas, €24.99/£22.00) Rosemary Power has written two earlier books on the world of Celtic Christianity, one of which deals with Colmcille and Iona. She also lectures widely on themes in this area of scholarship to non-academic audiences, thus passing on the latest aspects…
For me Rosemary Power’s book provoked thoughts on a very different topic. There are insights of interest on every page of the author’s exposition. Yet there are comments one might question. She describes the churches in the Middle East and North Africa as on the ‘fringe’ of Christendom. But this was surely not the case:…
The Irish Difference: A Tumultuous History of Ireland’s Breakup With Britain by Fergal Tobin (Atlantic Books, £18.99/€22.99) This book grew out of the author’s exasperation at how ignorance of Ireland was an important factor in the pro-Brexit vote, especially in England as distinct from the other parts of the United Kingdom. The “fabled British elite…should…
Recently I visited the exhibition relating to St Colmcille (aka St Columba) in the National Museum. It was modest enough but well-presented and informative. So, I was already in the zone for Colmcille – An Naomh Dána (TG4, Thursday). It was certainly interesting, but hard to figure out what was historical and what elements were…
Opera and the organ are currently dominant features on the musical landscape. The former comes mainly through Irish National Opera (INO) with its production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda having a successful run in Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre and other centres before Wexford and Limerick draw it to a close. With Sinead Campbell-Wallace in the title role,…
Living with Motor Neurone Disease: A complete guide edited by Dr Marie Murray, in collaboration with the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (Atrium/Cork University Press, €14.95/£12.95) Though first recognised back in the 19th Century, Motor Neurone Disease became more familiar a century later through the widely publicised experiences of the disease by such people as…
A Star is Born (Netflix) got me through Covid. When I heard they were making the film for the third time I thought: Too much. I’d seen the version with Judy Garland and James Mason and also the one with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand. How many times could you re-heat the soufflé? Then I…
Not being British or a monarchist I didn’t feel too drawn to the platinum jubilee celebrations in the UK at the weekend, but I dipped in to the coverage from time to time out of curiosity. The Platinum Party at the Palace (BBC One, Saturday) was certainly a spectacular concert – the light shows in…
The town of Oberammergau (the district “above the river Ammer”) is situated in the Bavarian Alps of Southern Germany. It is best known world-wide for its decennial Passion Play. The 42nd Oberammergau presentation of the play opened on May 14, 2022 and performances will continue up to October 2, 2022. According to the local legend the staging…
Kilmichael: The Life and Afterlife of an Ambush by Eve Morrison (Irish Academic Press, €19.95/£16.95) Here in Ireland, we had a very economical revolution, with possibly no more than about 5,000 fatalities in the period from 1919 to 1923. By contrast Finland’s contemporaneous civil war, an outcrop of the Russian Revolution, a struggle between right…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone