The Crosbies of Cork, Kerry, Laois and Leinster by Michael Christopher Keane (Beechgrove, Ovens; ISBN: 9781527297418; €20.00/£18.00) The author, Michael Christopher Keane, is a practised hand at research and writing, having already written extensively about the Crosbie family. In From Laois to Kerry (2016) he recorded the life and times of Patrick Crosbie (c. 1550-1610) and…
The World of Books Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Artist, Social Campaigner, and City Councillor edited by Margarita Cappock (Four Courts Press for Dublin City Council, €27.95/£25.00; paperback €22.95/£20.00) Years ago when I was researching the interaction of the Irish cultural revival with other Irish national movements, the name of Miss S.C. Harrison was one I came…
Starchaser by Jacintha Mullins (Veritas, €12.99/£10.99) This is a book very much of the moment, but with a long life before it. Jacinta teaches in a primary school, the Midwest School for the Deaf in Limerick. This book arose out of the experience of the school losing two pupils. Her moving and effective pages were…
I thought Vladimir Putin might have been happy for now to annex the two breakaway republics in Ukraine and hope to get away with it as with Crimea. Tuning in to early news bulletins last Thursday I found I was wrong. It seems he wants the whole of Ukraine, and is prepared to see widespread…
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…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone