Today the Three Kings are an essential part of the story of Christmas time as we tell to ourselves and our children. They have a part as the first givers of Yuletide gifts. They appear in parish and school plays and presentations across Christendom, and even at times in countries not usually thought of as…
For my first column of the year, I normally write about my Christmas and New Year viewing and there’s plenty to write about. Last week there was Daniel O’Connell: The Emancipator (RTÉ One), an excellent documentary from Ruan Magan, exploring the life and legacy of O’Connell on the 250th anniversary of his birth. Narrated well…
Failure, they say, is an orphan, whereas success has a thousand fathers. Who should we credit for people’s fame – themselves or the people behind them? Would Barry McGuigan have got where he was without Barney Eastwood? I thought of McGuigan as I watched Giant (15A), a pleasant film about the career of another pint-sized…
Revelations on the state of Ireland from the State Files Peter Costello and Helen Litton Peter Costello is the Books Editor of The Irish Catholic and the author of many books about Irish culture. Helen Litton is a historian who has written two biographies and a popular series of books on Irish history. The role…
When I sit down to write my review of the media year, I always start with what comes to mind without having to trawl through this year’s columns – in this way, I find what has made most impact. I feel we have a much more unstable world, and the media is relentless in pointing…
Christmas being a time when many people get book tokens or an especially generous tip from Auntie Maureen, allows children and young people to feel that special joy of buying books for oneself. These titles are arranged more or less in age order, youngest to oldest. I’m Very Busy, A (Nearly Forgotten) Birthday Book,…
The Netflix mini-series Adolescent was the most talked about one of the year. It raised all sorts of questions about peer pressure, cyber-bullying, toxic masculinity and what children get up to when they’re not being monitored by their parents. The King of Kings told the story of Christ’s life in animated form using a neglected…
The Christmas Season is by long-established tradition, the season when most books are bought in every civilised centre. The books bought need not themselves be civilised, but they must have some suitable connection with the time of year and the seasonal feelings that it arouses. Books, it is so often said, “make a nice present”.…
Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz RTÉ 2 Saturday, December 20, 8 pm In the most personal and unflinching film of his career, historian Simon Schama confronts the Holocaust as not just a Nazi obsession but as a European-wide crime of complicity. The Catholic University of America’s Christmas Concert EWTN Sundy, December 21, 6 am…
Young people’s engagement with social media is definitely problematic, and became a hot topic last week as Australia moved to ban young people under 16 from social media, YouTube included. The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, Wednesday) explored the issue, but with a loaded start – reference was made to extreme content online, instancing “negative commentary…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone