How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People by Pete Greig (Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99/€18.00) Author Peter Greig is pastor in Emmaus Road Church in Guilford, England. This is his eighth book, but his books are only a part of his life. He says that he often finds himself bewildered, but his bewilderment…
Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples by Joan Taylor and Helen Bond (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99) Published last week on St Patrick’s Day itself, this may seem an unusual book to read for Lent. But on deeper consideration I think not. Many readers will welcome it. Inspired by the authors’ Channel 4 documentary, which was filmed…
On a media training session for politicians the advice would include being on top of your brief, knowing your facts. You’d probably be schooled in the skills of dodging – learning to answer the question you’d like to have been asked instead of the one you were asked. You’d be told to stress how ‘clear’…
Compartment No. 6: We don’t hear much about glasnost or perestroika since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine but they’re applicable to this. It explores the friendship between a Finnish woman (Seidi Haarla) and a Russian man (Yuriy Borisov) on board a train bound for the Arctic Circle in the late 1990s. Directed by Juho…
The Tain, from the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge Translated by Thomas Kinsella and decorated by Louis Le Brocquy Dolmen Edition IX (Dolmen Press, 1969) When this landmark in Irish culture appeared back in September 1969, I was living in London. I still recall the delighted pleasure with which I bought the original Dolmen Press…
Frank Litton Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis by Massimo Borghesi (Liturgical Press Academic, US$29.95/£23.99) Two women shout across the street in angry argument from their tenement rooms. The doctor, poet and wit, Oliver St John Gogarty turns to his companion: “those women will never agree.” “How do you know?.”…
Devotion: A Memoir by Mickey Harte as told to Brendan Coffey (Harper-Collins Ireland , €24.99/£21.99) Owing to his role as manager of the Tyrone senior football team, the face of Mickey Harte is one of the most recognisable in the country. This book leaves one in no doubt about the truly remarkable character of the…
Channelling the Inner Fire:Ignatian Spirituality in 15 points by Brendan McManus SJ (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The Ignatian Guide to Forgiveness: Ten steps to healing by Marina Berzins McCoy (Messenger Publications, €12.99) These are two further publications relating to the celebration around the world this year of the 500th anniversary of his wound at the battle…
French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s recital at the National Concert Hall (NCH) on Tuesday (March 29) may well fit the axiom “a little of what you fancy does you good” as he devotes his programme to fancies or fantasias from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Fantasias While the programme is built around four of Mozart’s…
I’m not a great fan of most Irish comedians. I find many of them loud, crude and unfunny, but I do realise these are subjective matters…to a point. I wouldn’t be rushing to one of his gigs, but I was impressed by the host on the Tommy Tiernan Show (RTÉ One, Saturday) when he interviewed…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone