Books are among the most acceptable gifts we can give to others, especially children. Here is a small selection of what is now available, for young people of all ages, with a reminder too that Christmas is still a religious celebration, whatever the bizarre commercial activities that now surround it. Remember books are not just…
by the Books Editor When they were in doubt about a book to give a child or young person, our parents, grandparents and great grandparents gave a classic and in doing so followed an important tradition. But it is one with for some people disconcerting results. The philosopher L.P. Jacks, the once eminent editor of…
Christmas Crackers Keep Christ in Christmas, a Catholics Come Home special presentation EWTN Saturday December 18, 7pm also Thursday (night) December 23, 3.30am A tour behind the scenes of the making of Santa’s Priority, a Christmas evangomercial and discover what a small group of Catholics are doing to combat the secular war on Christmas and…
As selected by some of our regular critics Thomas J. Morrisey In a secularised western world we are told that the existence of God has been disproved by science, religious faith is futile superstition, truth is relative, morality is the result of evolution, and there is no absolute right or wrong, that Jesus Christ did…
Albert Reynolds: Risk Taker for Peace by Conor Lenihan (Merrion Press, €22.95/£19.99) Dr. Ciaran Casey With the deadline for my own book on the horizon, I was determined not to commit to any more work. But a request to review Conor Lenihan’s latest book was impossible to resist. His first biography, Haughey: Prince of Power was released…
The Red Prince: The Fall of a Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Europe by Timothy Snyder (The Bodley Head, £20) World War I (1914-1918) swept away the Hapsburg dynasty which for hundreds of years had ruled much of Europe from Vienna as the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon put an end to the Holy Roman…
The World of Books by the books editor The other day I was reading a book by the American palaeontologist George Gaylord Simpson about his expedition through part of Patagonia in 1930 in search of fossils. His finds helped recreate an idea of past life; but it was not his comments on geology that caught…
My Words will not Pass Away by Fr Martin Hogan (Messenger Publications, €19.95/£18.95) Fr Martin Hogan formerly lectured in New Testament studies at Mater Dei in Dublin, and had written some five previous books on reflections for the liturgical years. These commentaries allow readers to enjoy a period of reflection in their own time, recollections…
Karl I, destined to be the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary (where he ruled as Karoly IV), succeeded on the death of his great-uncle Franz Joseph who had blundered into war with Serbia and so opened the way to the ruin of Europe. When the Emperor Karl gave up the government of…
I’m always on the lookout for inspiration, hope, something radical, out of the ordinary, especially when it comes to Church matters. Current affairs’ debates about matters touching on religion are not always a good source. It was good to see the return of The Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio One, Friday), with Michael Comyn, albeit…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan