Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch (Allen Lane, £22.50) Hillary Mantel’s inspired trilogy of novels beginning with Wolf Hall has prompted a lively interest in Thomas Cromwell, best known as Henry VIII’s consummate ‘fixer’. Her brilliant recreation of life in the 16th century remains in the demesne of fiction. Diarmaid McCulloch’s Life is an altogether…
In a Harbour Green: Celebrating Benedict Kiely by George O’Brien (Irish Academic Press, €19.95) In the hurry and bustle of modern Irish literature, Ben Kiely belongs seemingly to another world. This may well be because he was one of that generation of writers whose normal route to writing was though journalism and broadcasting. The broad rich…
While my late friend and revered music critic of the Irish Independent, Mary MacGoris, maintained danger lurked around every corner, I believe things are looking up. As Fred Astaire sang in the Gershwin brothers film A Damsel in Distress, “bitter was my cup/but no more will I be the mourner/for I’ve certainly turned the corner/oh,…
Alert, Aware, Attentive. Advent Reflections by John Cullen (Messenger Publications, €4.95/£4.50) From a background of service in Ireland and Kenya, John Cullen brings us some ideas about Advent. As the editor of Intercom he is a practised hand at communication. His little book will be an aid to many as Advent comes down on us to…
What have déjà vu and doublethink got in common? I got a strong sense of both in the media last week. Mostly it was in relation to the assisted suicide debate that kicked off during the week as Gino Kenny TD intends to introduce a Dying with Dignity Bill. On three Drivetime programmes (RTÉ Radio…
Conversations with René Girard. Prophet of Envy edited by Cynthia L. Haven (Bloomsbury Academic, £65.00 hb/£21.99 pb and Kindle) Frank Litton René Girard (1923-2015), the French literary historian and philosopher long resident in the United States, has been described as one of the 20th Century’s most original and important thinkers. It is hard to disagree, for his…
The Ideal Diplomat: Women and Irish foreign affairs, 1946-90 by Ann Marie O’Brien (Four Courts Press, €45.00/£40.00) Joe Carroll Josephine McNeill was the first woman to head an Irish diplomatic mission abroad when appointed Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the newly-opened legation in the Hague in 1949. Three years later in a letter to Seán Nunan,…
There have been lots of interesting changes in the media landscape in recent times, and I’ll get through them in turn. It seemed natural that Joe Duffy would take over from the late Gay Byrne (Duffy was once his protégée) for the new series of The Meaning of Life (RTÉ One, Sunday). I was expecting…
I’ve been getting DVDs from John Andrushkoff for over ten years now. I imagine I’ve bought over a thousand from him during that time. He claims to have dealt with that many dealers in his career as a collector. He has an excellent range of films from all genres, including religious ones, and charges just…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor The slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’ has rightly swept the world, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that it protests about the condition of racial harmony – or lack of it – in the United States today. Like so many movements of the moment, it reflects an…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone