Last Sunday morning I thought I might have stepped into an alternative reality when the 8am version of It Says in the Papers (RTÉ Radio 1) started as follows: “Winter time is here and the country has a new President.” But hold a while there (as George Hook might say), the news bulletin said we…
The Pope who would be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe by David I. Kertzer (Oxford University Press, £25.00) Prof. Kertzer’s earlier books have made a mark. The Pope and Mussolini, for instance, described the settlement that lead to the Lateran Treaty and the accommodation made by the Church with…
I find it hard to get enthused about the presidential election or the blasphemy referendum. In the case of the election I suppose it’s because the incumbent is so far ahead that he seems a shoo-in and predictability is always a drama killer. It certainly would be more engaging if only the new candidates were…
De Valera. Rule: 1932-1975 by David McCullagh (Gill Books, €24.99) Peter Hegarty Irish memories tend to associate De Valera with the dismal drift of the 1950s rather than the dynamism and reforms of the 1930s. The man who triumphantly assumed power in March 1932 had a clear idea of the direction in which he wanted to take…
In a timely commemoration at the NCH earlier this month the RTÉ NSO, under the assiduous direction of Belfast-born Kenneth Montgomery, celebrated the centenary of composer AJ Potter. In a riveting performance of his sinfonia de Profundis in a new edition by his amanuensis Sarah Burn, the work refocused attention on someone whom the late…
Currently the facade of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies is decorated with a huge image of Erwin Schrödinger. This year is the 75th anniversary of the physicist’s lecture, given under the auspices of the institute, the famous ‘What is life?’ This exposition played an influential role in the development of molecular physics and the…
Raising Dublin, Raising Ireland: A Friar’s Campaigns – Father John Spratt, O.Carm. Fergus A. D’Arcy (Carmelite Publications, €24.99) Felix M. Larkin Lytton Strachey, in Eminent Victorians, writes of Cardinal Manning of Westminster that “he belonged to that class of eminent ecclesiastics – and it is by no means a small class – who have been distinguished less for…
This week I thought I’d concentrate on my three favourite weekend religious shows. Last Friday night it was a relaxing Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio 1), when presenter Michael Comyn covered ‘Aifreann’, a new Irish language Mass setting with music composed by Kevin O’Connell and premiered in the Pro Cathedral last Sunday. This was a…
First Man (PG) I’ll never forget the night in 1969 when I sat transfixed in front of a television set watching Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon. I ran outside the house to look up at the Moon itself, marvelling at the fact that it was the same as the one on the television. Now there was…
The Masses of Seán and Peadar Ó Riada: Explorations in Vernacular Chant by John O’Keefe (Cork University Press, €49.00) Music and Society in Cork, 1700-1900 by Susan O’Regan (Cork University Press, €39.00) Ina Boyle 1889-1967: A Composer’s Life by Ita Beausang, with an essay on the music by Séamus de Barra (Cork University Press, €29.90)…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone