Few people like to hate, those who hate probably feel justified, and few would defend it in public discourse. And yet, though I’d have no truck with hate, I’m uneasy about the idea of ‘hate crime’. Some crimes are motivated by hate, but the crime is still the crime and can be prosecuted as such.…
Sacred Space for Lent 2022 (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The Sacred Space website, a mission of the Irish Jesuits, continues to be one of the most popular prayer sites, accessed worldwide, continuing some would say the ancient ambition of the earliest Christians in this country to spread the word directly to people. Sacred Space for Lent…
Just before Christmas the international press carried worrying stories about the renovation and future use of Notre Dame de Paris, one of the most important and pre-eminent churches, not just in Europe, but in the world. Middle Ages It has had, since the Middle Ages, a special place also too in the life and imagination,…
The Spirit of Catholicism, by Vivian Boland OP (Bloomsbury, £16.99/€18.50) by Frank Litton As somebody who spent a good part of his career teaching organisation analysis, helping students understand organisations and the problems of organising, I have wondered why we pay so little attention to the Church as an organisation, subject to the failings that…
Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland 2: A Variety of Voices, edited Mark O’Brien and Felix M. Larkin (Four Courts Press, €50.00) This new book complements an earlier volume on periodicals and journalism, also edited by Mark O’Brien and Felix Larkin, which was published back in 2014. The two volumes, taken together, offer a comprehensive overview…
I’ve often thought that if I was forced to have just one television channel to watch TG4 would be among the top contenders. This was confirmed for me by Ar an Aer (TG4, Tuesday). Subtitled ‘Pobal Dé’, it was a short and unfussy programme compiled from the archives 1960s-1990s and focusing on the work of…
In 1994, then Minister for the Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Michael D. Higgins, set up a review group – Provision and Institutional Arrangements Now for Orchestras and Ensembles (PIANO) – to examine among other things “the roles as they evolved of the performing groups in RTÉ with particular reference to which the broadcasting and…
Returning Light: 30 Years of Life on Skellig Michael by Robert L. Harris (Harper Collins Ireland, €13.99 / £14.99) This is a tale about a remarkable location, a remarkable monastery and a remarkable person. The remarkable location consists of two huge pinnacles of rock reaching skywards from the sea-bed of the North Atlantic 11 and…
Ulysses: a reader’s odyssey by Daniel Mulhall (New Island Books, €15.95) This book is a delightful, chatty introduction to the wonderful world of James Joyce’s Ulysses. It is written by Daniel Mulhall, an Irish diplomat for more than 40 years and now Ireland’s ambassador to the United States of America. In the prologue to his…
February 2 was the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses. You might be interested in seeing the film version if you haven’t done so already. It was directed by Joseph Strick in 1967. Ten years later, Strick directed A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce’s earlier novel. Opinions differ on…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone