A phone call from my good friend and pianist, Alison Young, on Easter Monday evening told me of the death of the doyenne of our musicians, Veronica Dunne, some hours previously. The news was unexpected as despite her 93 years Ronnie, as she was affectionately known, was still teaching until relatively recently. Her passing brought…
With Covid-19 dominating the news and current affairs programming it is usually only very bad news that knocks it off the top spot. And so it was last Friday, especially in the British media, when news was announced of the death of Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh. It was wall-to-wall coverage in a way…
Night’s Bright Darkness by Sally Read (Ignatius Press, £14.99/€18) It’s hard to resist a good conversion story. They have a ready-made narrative to exploit, one typically filled with twists and turns, and the ending is a happy one. When luminous talent is combined with an already pleasing narrative form, it’s bound to entrance. That is exactly…
A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi with Santha Rama Rau (Rupa & C, New Delhi, 2008; copies of other editions are available second-hand online from €10.00 approximately) These extraordinary memoirs of an eminent Indian princess, who achieved great electoral success in later life, present a fascinating account of India…
Pilgrimage: Journeys with Meaning by Peter Stanford (Thames & Hudson, £25.00/€30.00 approx.) Peter Stanford, a former editor of The Catholic Herald, is also the author of a long series of books that explore aspects of Christianity from a Catholic point of view which manage to appeal to a wide audience through his skill in making the often…
Raymond Chandler once said there were only seven plots. Everything else was just variations on a theme. The idea came back to me as I watched the French thriller In the Shadow of Iris (Netflix). It starts interestingly enough with a kidnapping but there are so many convolutions in the storyline afterwards I lost interest…
I could probably fill the whole paper with reviews of all the religious programmes on over the Easter season – the media tend to put in an extra effort at Easter. RTÉ’s coverage of the ceremonies was impressive. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper (RTÉ One) on Holy Thursday was a memorable event. Fr Martin…
Finding the Peacemakers: A journey of faith from the mines of Chile to the deserts of the Middle East by Dan Morrice (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99) Anthony Redmond There is so much in this truly extraordinary book, and it covers so much ground and so many subjects, that I find it difficult to know where to…
The Word is Very Near You by Fr Wilfrid Stinissen OCD (Ignatius Press £12.50/€12.00) W e all want a personal relationship with God. But that seems very difficult when, more often than not, he doesn’t speak to us in prayer. He may prompt or console, but verbal communication or physical contact – two essential components to…
The Best of Benedict; An Irish Perspective edited by Dualta Roughneen (One by One Press/Alive Newspaper, available from Knock Shrine Bookshop and Mayo Books, €12.99 plus postage) This is not, as the title might at first suggest, an anthology of the writings of the Pope emeritus. These now span many decades of theological investigation and social comment,…
Brendan O’Regan
Ruadhán Jones
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone