Mainly About Books by the Books Editor While the country continues to struggle with the effects of the pandemic, the outcome of which is still unclear in its development, some are turning their thoughts to thinking about what needs to be done, especially in the Dublin region where the disease has been most dangerous. Planning…
Gerard Byrne is a Dublin-based artist with a studio in Ranelagh. A leading figure in the Irish art world, for some time he has been painting streetscapes in the Rathmines and Pembroke areas, which have already attracted a lot of attention. I met him at work recently, painting the oldest house in Wellington Place in…
Besides his deafness, Beethoven had poor eyesight, suffered persistent liver and abdominal problems and endured serious bouts of depression. The early 1820s were particularly difficult for him but, when his health began to improve, he plunged into a remarkably concentrated period of creative endeavour resulting in his Missa Solemnis, Ninth Symphony and late string quartets.…
Last week I wrote about a programme (Unquiet Graves) that highlighted sectarian murders in the North, perpetrated by loyalist gangs in the 1970s. I wasn’t expecting something similar so soon. Scannal (RTÉ One, Tuesday of last week) told the story of the conflict at Holy Cross School in the Ardoyne, Belfast. Even the most hardened…
Twilight of Democracy: the failure of politics and the parting of friends by Anne Applebaum (Allen Lane, £16.99) Felix M. Larkin After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western-style liberal democracy was in the ascendant as never before. During the previous two centuries, it had triumphed over…
Kerry: History & Society edited by Maurice J. Bric, introduction by Joe Lee, epilogue by Tommy O’Connor (Geography Publications, €60.00) This tremendous volume is the latest in the well established series of County Histories which the publishers have been producing for at least two decades. They are a sort of Irish version of the British ‘Victoria…
Holistic Healing: A Christian Approach by Pat Collins CM (Columba Books, €16.99) This book is only partly about healing. As with all medical matters health in mind, body and spirit begins not in curing but preventing. Living a whole life in a healthy way is the essence of the matter. And, Fr Collins [pictured below] suggests,…
You Have the Words of Eternal Life by Martin Hogan (Messenger Publications, €14.95/£13.95) In these daily reflections for the liturgical year to come, Martin Hogan, who worked as a co-parish priest on the North side of Dublin, provides reflections on the Gospels of the day that arise directly out of the life and needs of the…
New cinema releases are thin on the ground these days. A few brave souls are still calling “action” instead of “cut” as they seek to revive a form of entertainment that, like so many others these days, seems dangerously close to being on life support. Chemical Hearts chronicles the teenage romance of two high school…
Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon by Eric H. Cline (Princeton University Press, £30.00/$35.00) ‘Armageddon’ is a word that puts the fear of God in many people today. It is all very well having fears about the end of the world, the now fashionable ‘End Times’, when one is 12 –…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone