Great Hatred: The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP by Ronan McGreevy (Faber, £16.99/€19.99) Sir Henry Wilson, Ulster Unionist MP at Westminster and former Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), was shot dead by two English-born Irish Republicans – Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan – outside his home in London on June…
It’s amazing to think we’re still seeing biopics of Elvis Presley, like Baz Luhrmann’s 3-hour audio-visual extravaganza, Elvis (PG), nearly half a century after the rock ‘n’ roll icon “left the building”. What would the man himself have thought? When he went into the army, he thought his career was over. He thought so again…
Conflicts between Church and State can cause a lot of grief to both, but can also help to clarify principles. These themes were explored in the rather unusual film Servants (Film Four, Tuesday). Set in a Czechoslovakian seminary during communist times, in 1980, it told the story of young seminarians resisting the imposition of state…
The World of Books Rathcormick: A Childhood Recalled, by Homan Potterton, with an Introduction by William Trevor (Merrion Press, €12.95/£12.99) This is a very welcome republication of a book first issued over two decades ago by another publisher. It was then hailed by William Trevor as “a wholly delightful memoir of lace-curtain Protestants in 1950s rural…
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…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello