Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, Revised New Edition by Nicola Gordon Bowe, David Caron and others (Irish Academic Press, €35.00/£29.99) Patrick Claffey It is 30 years since the original publication of this handsome work, the definitive guide to Irish stained glass from 1900 to the present day. The revision, the work of several hands, is to…
Faith and Fury: The Evangelical Campaign in Dingle and West Kerry 1825-45 by Bryan MacMahon (Wordwell, €20.00/£18.99) In these ecumenical times it is difficult to make sense of the distrust and hostility which existed between Catholics and Protestants in west Kerry between 1825 and 1845. Locally these years became known as the period of the second…
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire by Julie Kavanagh (Grove Press, £18.99) The Queen v. Patrick O’Donnell: The Man who Shot the Informer James Carey by Seán Ó Cuirreáin (Four Courts Press, €17.95) Felix M. Larkin When Lord Frederick Cavendish was killed by the Invincibles in the Phoenix Park…
I don’t like the phrase “whatever you’re comfortable with”. Yes, it may be someone trying to make you feel relaxed, but at other times it can be the setting of a low bar, as if the aim of life is to be ‘comfortable’. Many of the people we admire went way outside their comfort zones…
Well, as Ira Gershwin, brother of George, said, “Things are looking up”, to which I will add “Praise, the Lord” as the National Concert Hall welcomes back its audiences. Commemorating its 40th anniversary, the NCH, which opened as the country’s principal concert venue on September 9, 1981 (I was there), presented a less demanding, but…
Peter J. Drumm, First Professor of Biochemistry at University College Cork by Ned Barrett (Clogher Historical Society, €15.00; Clogher Historical Society, St Macartan’s College, Mullaghmurphy, Monaghan; ; info@clogherhistory.ie) Peter J. Drumm was born in Drumod, Co. Monaghan, on October 24, 1898. He attended Derrygooney National School and was a boarder at St Macartan’s College in Monaghan Town from…
By the Books editor A little while ago, from a book picked up in my book-hunting rambles, I plucked a leaflet on Choosing pupils for The School around the Corner. This was once among the most popular programmes that Radió Éireann (as the single national station was then called) ever broadcast. Some reflections on it may…
Mission to a Suffering People: Irish Jesuits 1596-1696 by Thomas J. Morrissey SJ (Messenger Publications, €19.95/£18.95) The Jesuit historian T. J. Morrissey is well known for his books on the Irish trade union movement and on modern Church history, especially in Dublin. But he has also written widely about the more distant past. His new book…
Someone said to me recently, ‘What was Bill Nighy before he got old?’ I thought it was a good question. I saw him for the first time in Love Actually in 2003. He was no spring chicken then. I thought to myself: Where had he been before that? Had he arrived from outer space? Was…
It’s not often you hear the Beatitudes highlighted on mainstream radio, especially on a current affairs programme. And so I was glad to hear ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ referenced on Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio One, Friday), in the context of the sad passing of Pat Hume, wife of John. Her contribution to the peace process…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone