Sometimes you need an antidote to the darkness of war, and comedy will do for a while. One of the most charming shows on TV in recent weeks is Small Prophets (BBC Two, Monday) – it maintained its whimsical tone consistently up to last Monday’s satisfyingly dramatic final episode. It’s funny, quirky, warm, moving and…
Made in America: The dark history that led to Donald Trump, by Edward Stourton. (Torva /Transworld Penguin, £20.00 / €28.00) My country, ’tis of thee / Sweet land of liberty / Of thee I sing” – the anthem of which these are the opening words has been a staple of American popular culture since…
The Complete Francis of Assisi: His Life, The Complete Writings, and The Little Flowers, by Paul Sabatier and others (Paraclete Press, €38.50) Currently the remains of St Francis of Assisi are on display in the Italian hilltop town where he died on October 3, 1226, some 800 years ago. They are on view until March…
Kings, Druids and Traitors: Once Upon a Time in Ireland, by William Collins, (Doon Press, from Amazon.ie, €15.27 pb / €24.88 hb, ebook is €4.35) This is a darkly glowing saga, akin to the medieval dramas now so well-known from film and television in The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The author…
All eyes will be on Killarney native Jessica Buckley this weekend to see if she can nab a Best Actress Oscar for her heartbreaking turn as William Shakespeare’s wife mourning their lost son in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet. If she does, it will be the first time an Irish woman has received the accolade. Brendan Fricker…
Sadly, the new war in the Middle East continued, worsened and widened last week. In fact, it was something of a hellscape when I woke up last Monday morning. On It Says in the Papers (RTE Radio 1) there was talk of rocketing fuel prices, “apocalyptic scenes”, “fireballs” and “rivers of fire”, as middle-east oil…
James Ryan and the development of independent Ireland, by Michael Loughman (Four Courts Press, €24.99 / £22.50) By any standards, this is a remarkable biography of a truly remarkable man. James Ryan was born into a large, comfortably off farming family in Wexford on December 6, 1892. A much more low-key figure than either…
Blessed are the Peacemakers”, said the greatest peacemaker of them all. This week my headline might be ‘Man who seeks peace prize starts war’. And so it was that I woke up last Saturday morning to the horrible news that the USA and Israel had launched an attack on Iran, including its capital Tehran. And…
If Ray Winstone is the poor man’s Robert De Niro, Danny Dyer is the poor man’s Winstone. But what a performance he gives in The Last Deal (18). It isn’t so much a film as a one-act play with the camera turned on. Brendan Muldowney’s fluid direction makes us forget that. Dyer is Jimmy Banks,…
Easter in Disguise: The 2026 Lent Book, by Liz Dodd (Bloomsbury, £10.99 / €12.99) This is an unusual book, partly because of the experiences of the author, partly by what she tries to pass on to her readers from those experiences. Author Liz Dodd was born in Oxford. She took a degree in theology…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone