Denial, as they say, isn’t just a river in Egypt. A comet is heading for Earth that’s due to blow us all to smithereens in six months. Two low level astronauts are aware of it. But nobody in the corridors of power wants to know. They think it’s Trumpian “fake news.” The “boy who cried…
Davnet and Dympna: A Single Cult by Seosamh Ó Dufaigh (Clogher Historical Society, €30.00; website: www.clogherhistory.ie) The tradition about St Dympna of Oriel (the ancient territory now covered by the Dioceses of Armagh and Clogher) was that she was the beautiful daughter of the local king in the 7th Century. His wife died early and…
Fears, Phobias and Fantasies: Understanding mental health and mental illness by Prof. Patricia Casey (Currach Books, €22.99) This is an excellent and humane book written by a leading psychiatrist, now professor emeritus of psychiatry at University College Dublin (UCD) and active as a consultant psychiatrist. It is aimed at patients and their families, those who…
The Oratory of Light: Poems in the Spirit of St Columba by James Harpur (Wild Goose Publications, £7.99; for further information contact.iona.books.com) A while ago poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice writing in these pages passed on a remark of John F. Deane “that the new Christianity [of today] is to be a daring adventure requiring a new…
Reading Seosamh Ó Dufaigh’s magnificent book, and his discussions of the difficulty of researching the first centuries of Christianity in Ireland I wondered if a solution to the problems they present might not be partially found already. We have of course Pádraig Ó Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints (Four Courts Press, 2011, still available at €65.00/£55.00), a fine…
The National Concert Hall’s International Concert Series 2022 began on February 13 with an impressive recital by South Africa-born soprano Golda Schultz and Texan pianist Jonathan Ware. Their programme celebrated women composers – Clara Schumann with her lesser known German contemporary, Emilie Mayer; the century-later English composer Rebecca Clarke, who spent the latter part of…
It’s a bit early to be brewin’ up a storm about St Patrick’s Day (St Eunice, maybe), but there seems to be some level of friction about it every year. A conflict over St Patrick’s Day stamps blew up on Liveline (RTE Radio 1 Thursday), grist to the mill for that Confessio-type show. The first…
Christ and His Cousin: Renaissance Rediscoveries, curated by Dr Aoife Brady (Continues to 8 May 2022; Hugh Lane Room; free admission – no booking required) Currently the National Gallery is running a small but very interesting show in one of their smaller exhibition spaces focused on images of the child Jesus and his cousin St John…
Books Reviews 1975-2021: Reviews of works by distinguished biographers, historians, philosophers and writers by J. Anthony Gaughan (Kingdom Books, €24.00/£20.00) Fr Tony Gaughan, himself the author of many books ranging over philosophy, local and national history, and Irish social life since the middle ages, is one of this paper’s most popular reviewers. This compilation of…
Nice to see that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have got back together again but does the news deserve the buzz it’s been getting from the tabloids? They were a joke last time they were together, around the time they made Gigli. Now the prospect of them going up the aisle has got the paparazzi…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan