Saint Francis of Assisi and the wolf of Gubbio St Francis of Assisi, canonised in 1228, a mere century after his death, must be one of the most universally venerated saints in the world, a man widely respected beyond the Christian community. This is partly due to his special relationship with birds and animals. In…
Who will ever forget the summer of 2021 when both the weather and Covid-19 conspired to keep us out of cinemas? When we went back to them, all they seemed to offer us was horror. Old is a supernatural thriller from M. Night Shyamalan about a family who find themselves ageing at an alarming rate…
If there are, broadly speaking, two sides of an argument, I like to hear from both sides together. Too often inadequately informed or biased presenters just have one side at a time and are unable or unwilling to put the hard questions. So, I enjoyed the discussion on the Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, Wednesday) between…
Irish saints are, of course, not the only ones to have curious associations with birds and animals. Two remarkable instances are the lives of the Northumbrian St Cuthbert, and the even more remarkable legend of the Father of the Church, St Jerome. These are worth contrasting with our Irish saints. St Cuthbert and the otters…
Confession: I’ve developed a taste for dark thrillers – with plenty on Netflix, while Channel 4 has their Walter Presents series, where they show the first episode of a series on live television and then the full series online via All 4. Dark Stockholm Requiem (All Four) is one that is pretty dark, starting as it…
Normally I’d be very pleased to find a programme where the Rosary figured prominently but on the main channels this doesn’t happen very often. However, it was a mixed blessing on The 8th (RTÉ One, Wednesday) that much-hyped documentary on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. It’s often said that the victor writes the history,…
The Last Bus is an offbeat story about a widowed pensioner (Timothy Spall) who travels from John O’Groats to Land’s End with his wife’s ashes in a suitcase. He uses only local buses. The people he meets on his journey – the longest one can make in Britain – help him deal with his loss.…
St Kevin and the birds The little monasteries of early Christian Ireland derived their monastic ideals from the desert fathers of Egypt. But instead of some cave or remote hill top such as was to be found in the Libyan desert or in Sinai, they remained faithful to the notions of the ancient Celts, whose…
St Brendan and the sea beasts Brendan of Clonfert must be the most famous Irish saint after Patrick himself. Today, whereas most of the Irish saints listed in the in the reference books are hardly known, Brendan stands out, and this is entirely due to his fame as a sailor. He is always ‘Brendan the…
A while ago I wrote about Co. Wicklow composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967) following the issue of a CD of some of her orchestral music. Happy to relate another CD, this time containing 33 of her songs, has come my way. On the Delphian label – DCD 34264 – I also find it a very attractive…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan