What I like about TG4 is that it’s low key, not polluted by minor celebs and pointless controversies. There are some great re-runs of old TV shows (not sure how this fits in the mission), some high class Irish language programmes (the mission) with some excellent traditional music shows. Comhrá (TG4, Thursday) is a chat…
Crimson and Gold: Life as a Limerick by Mark Patrick Hederman (Columba Books, €19.99hb/£17.99hb) John F. Deane Dear reader: I presume you are an Irish Catholic; I am an Irish Catholic; I am reviewing a book on Irish Catholicism by an Irish Catholic for The Irish Catholic. And are we not all anxious, in the present,…
The Book of St Brigid by Colm Keane and Una O’Hagan (Capel Island Press, €14.99/£15.00) The names of the author will be well-known to readers, for many of their books have been popular bestsellers. They have a knack, derived perhaps from their days in television, of making what they write accessible, vivid and immediate to a wide…
Divine Diamond: Facets of the Fourth Gospel by Kevin O’Gorman SMA (Messenger Publications, €14.95/£12.95) The writings attributed to St John the Apostle have long stood out in contrast to the synoptic gospels. Indeed there were those who thought that the apocalypse of St John of Patmos attributed to the same author should not be added to…
Something violent this way comes… Deadly Cuts is a black comedy with Angelina Ball and Victoria Smurfit playing two hair stylists who swap their scissors for knives as they take on local Dublin hoods. You can also expect tomato ketchup in The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos. Michael Gandolfini (real life…
It was a bizarre day to be tuned in – imaginary petrol shortages in the UK, the English Labour Party locked in a debate about what constituted a woman, feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg having one of her quotes re-imagined, with the removal of the term ‘woman’. I wondered what sort of alternative universe I…
Church, Interrupted – Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis by John Cornwell (Chronicle Prism, £21.99/€25.00) You know you are in the hands of a master author and story-teller when you open a book by John Cornwell. Readers may be familiar with his best-seller A Thief in the Night: the Death of John Paul I (1989),…
The World of Books By the books editor This year France is marking, in various ways and styles, the bicentenary of the death of Napoléon Bonaparte. In the cause of heritage preservation the emperor has joined the Bourbons as part of the great panoply of French culture. The current head of the family, international investment banker Jean-Christophe,…
The Messenger Advent Booklet 2021: reflections on the Weekday Reading by Donal Neary SJ (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) The author opens his little seasonal booklet with the observation that “Advent is the annual season of waiting”. This year, however, the notion of waiting has taken on an even heavier weight of expectation: will the pandemic die away,…
For some reason, coincidence or God-incidence, the theme of vocation has featured a few times in the media this week. 75 Years in Japan (RTÉ One, Thursday) was one of the most marvellously inspiring and moving programmes I’ve seen this year. This documentary told the story of Jennie O’Sullivan who became Sr Paschal when she…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone