For the Catholic Church there’s a pressing need for role models that will appeal to young people. These role models don’t have to be young but it helps. I Am With You – A documentary about Carlo Acutis (EWTN, Saturday) gave us one such example. Carlo was beatified last year, mid pandemic, and so, perhaps…
Women’s Ordination in the Catholic Church by John O’Brien (Cascade Books, $46.00hb $26.00/£20.00pb distributed by Books Depository and others, and available on Kindle) On January 11 Pope Francis, acting he said “after theological reflection”, issued a decree, Spiritus Domini (The Spirit of the Lord), which in the words of a press release “amended Canon Law to allow women…
Maureen O’Hara: The Biography by Aubrey Malone (University of Kentucky Press, £15.00pb) Sidney Lumet: The Actor’s Director by Aubrey Malone (MacFarlane & Company, £50.95hb/£36.00pb; also on kindle) Aubrey Malone, the film critic of The Irish Catholic, is an intensive historian of the movie-making business (as it is for most people), with a sharp critical eye also on the…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor Only part of my week is spent working on these pages for The Irish Catholic. Other days are spent on research for other projects. Recently in the course of these, I lighted upon an article in now The Standard from 1936, the headline of which spoke of “the last of the…
There are so many hot button issues out there, so many battles in the culture wars, so many threats to democracy, it can all get a little head wrecking. It’s welcome then to get a debate that’s calm and reasoned, like the discussion on free speech with our own David Quinn and Nathan Young, deputy…
The Glass Castle (Amazon) is an impressive tale of a hardscrabble American family struggling to stay afloat under an alcoholic father (Woody Harrelson). He’s continually enabled in his dysfunctionality by his ever-jolly wife (Naomi Watts). His children seem to have an incredible ability to soak up punishment. His favourite one is played by Brie Larson.…
Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching by Edward Hadas (Catholic University of America Press, $34.05/£36.50 paperback) Frank Litton This is not a propitious moment for Catholic social teaching (CST) in Ireland. Not only is there no serious conversation on the condition of our society and the future of our politics; if there were the…
A Zealous Priest: The Murder of Fr Michael Griffin 1920 by Pat O’Looney (Islemeen, Loughrea, Co Galway; €15.00 from Charlie Byrne’s Books in Galway and other outlets) This biography of Fr Michael Griffin includes a microscopic account of the circumstances surrounding his tragic death. It is written by Pat O’Looney a local historian, well known for…
The World of Books by the Books Editor Recently a friend of mine asked me what the visitation of the Black Death to Ireland at the end of the 1340s was like. He was wondering how it compared to the present Covid-19 infection. Actually, a very vivid record exists: it was first printed coincidently in…
While I knew she had been ill, news of Cork-born soprano Cara O’Sullivan’s death on January 26 – aged 59 – came as a shock. Cara possessed a wonderfully vibrant voice to match her vivacious personality and had a natural artistry in a wide-ranging repertoire from the baroque through the classical and romantic to the…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone