Up to last Friday lunchtime I had never heard of Sir David Amess MP, and having heard all the wonderful tributes that followed his tragic death I wish I had. Shortly after lunch, news of the stabbing started trickling through on Twitter. I was listening to Sheelagh Fogarty (LBC) where it was the main topic…
Tom Sullivan’s evocative Irish language drama Arracht (12A) – the literal translation of the word is ‘monster’ – like Lance Daly’s Black ‘47 of a few years ago, has English subtitles. They may throw some people but it’s primarily a visual experience so they don’t over-intrude. Set in 1845 on the eve of the Famine,…
Ireland’s October music calendar is usually dominated by events in Wexford and, happy to relate, following last year’s Covid restrictions, the curtain will rise again on the town’s international opera festival next week. Reinstate Running from Tuesday October 19 to Sunday October 31, festival director Rosetta Cucchi has managed to salvage her 2020 plans and…
This is the second book by NUI academics Prof. Breslin and Dr Buckley in which they use advanced computer technology to “restore”, or rather add natural colour tones to photographs enlivening the original monochrome. I have my doubts about this technique, as have many historians and photographers. But looking through these pages I found images of…
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…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello