Fortune’s Many Houses: A Victorian Visionary, a Noble Scottish Family, and a Lost inheritance by Simon Welfare (Simon & Schuster, £25.00) Here in Ireland for many people in the early 20th century (and some even now) the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen were figures of folklore among many nationalists, as both Lord Lieutenant Johnny Gordon and…
The Story of Nano Nangle: A Life Lived on the Razor’s Edge by Anne Lyons PBVM (Messenger Publications, $4.95 /£4.50) Anne Lyons has been appointed by the Presentation Order as the postulator to promote the cause of the beatification of the order’s foundress Nano Nagle, who died in 1784. The cause was opened on the bicentenary…
This is the 70th anniversary of the making of Paramount’s archetypal western Shane, though it wasn’t released until 1953. Anytime I mention it to anyone of my vintage (there are still a few of us around) I get the response, “It was the favourite film of my childhood.” Brandon de Wilde played the young boy…
St Patrick’s Day dominated last week and it has been the second Covid version – never thought that would happen! It was also the one-year anniversary of weekday Masses on the RTÉ News Now channel, as Fr Michael Toomey pointed out last Friday when saying Mass from Ardfinnan. This has been a brilliant service that…
Pope Francis has returned safe and sound, despite the fears of many, from his historic four day trip to Iraq. His visit seems to have deeply affected many both in the country itself and in the wider world. The damage done in the decades since the original American interventions is still very real. But the…
Lord of the World, a novel by Robert Hugh Benson (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, $15.95/£10.99) In January 2015 during an in-flight interview from Manila to Rome, Pope Francis referred to the ‘ideological colonisation’ of international family-planning agencies and national governments that impose population control as a condition of development aid. The reporter asked what he…
The upswing: How we came together a century ago and how we can do it again by Robert D. Putman with Shalyn Romney Garrett (The Swift Press, £25.00) Frank Litton This is a book for anyone who is interested in the history of the United States of America. Covering the last 125 years, from the ‘Gilded…
On the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 outbreak in Ireland, it wasn’t surprising that the issue of the lockdown and religious practice featured prominently in the media last week, especially considering the Catholic Bishops’ statement on religious worship which put this back more prominently on the agenda. David Quinn discussed the matter on Today with…
Among artistic ventures falling victim to Covid-19 last year were Feis Ceoil and Music for Galway’s Cellissimo festival – a celebration of the cello in one form or another. Happy to relate both events have been reconstituted with Feis Ceoil, supported by the RDS and celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2021, already under way and…
This year marks the 1,500th anniversary of the birth of St Columcille according to tradition To commemorate this significant date in the history of Ireland and Scotland, a group of supporting institutions and authorities have come together to encourage a wide range of events of all kinds across Ulster and Alban, from Derry to Inverness, and to…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan