There have been quite a few changes on radio for the autumn season, with presenters moving around in a kind of media musical chairs, but some things stay the same. And so I was glad to see the recent return of The Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio One) to its Friday night slot, with Michael…
While the new NPHET restrictions are of course necessary to get to the bottom of this whodunit we call Covid-19, they do raise the old questions of why the familiar fall guys (churches, cinemas, etc.) have again been targeted. Is the elephant in the room not the secondary schools? They opened in late August and…
The Identitarians: The Movement against Globalism and Islam in Europe by José Pedro Zúquete (University of Notre Dame Press, £32.00/$39.00) Frank Litton We live in an age of adjectives. While going back over past controversies, it is hard not to note how often adjectives are deployed to deflect, or halt argument. The commentariat are less concerned…
The Bible. A Story that makes sense of Life by Andrew Ollerton (Hodder & Stoughton, £14. 99; available in bookshops this month) The Bible, from Genesis to the Epistles, provides the common ground for belief for Christians of all tradition, East and West. And yet again, from East to West, they have drawn such varied notions…
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…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello