Murillo: The Prodigal Son Restored text by Aoife Brady and Muirne Lydon, with an introduction by Sean Rainbird (National Gallery of Ireland, €19.95) Murillo: the Prodigal Son Restored Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane Room (Room 31), runs to 30 August 2020. Free entry The National Gallery since its foundation has been…
The O’Donnells of Tyrconnell: A Hidden Legacy by Francis M. O’Donnell (Academica Press / Maunsel Irish Research Series, $US95.99/€89.99) There has been a burgeoning increase in the interest in genealogy in recent years. This has been driven by the access to information on families on the internet and such popular programmes on TV, such…
With an amazing array of compositions, New Music Dublin invaded the National Concert Hall (NCH) over the four days from February 27 to March 1. Festival director John Harris and his team are to be congratulated on their efforts to introduce so much in such a concentrated period. I’m not sure how many, if any,…
The other week we reviewed in these pages an interesting, indeed important, book about new development of church architecture in Germany and Ireland after World War II. Of course, after the massive destruction during World War II when a large swathe of Northern Europe, from Brittany to Byelorussia, from the port of Brest to the…
Some of last week’s programmes provided insight into the interplay between past and present. Toras Cosnochta (RTÉ2, Wednesday) was an impressive first episode in a two-part series about pilgrims in Lough Derg. We got beautiful aerial shots of the island, the water on the lake took on a deep personality of its own and in…
Cork Harbour by Cal McCarthy (Merrion Press, €29.95) Cal McCarthy’s important book on Cork Harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world, is beautifully shaped into three sections: Military Development, Commercial Development and Migration. The period covered is from 1700 to 1918. Hence there are no references to the role of Spike Island as…
I’ve been sampling a few TV dramas of late, and while some deal with religious themes it’s usually peripheral, as if the programme makers are either unwilling or incapable of more depth when it comes to religious faith. The Split (BBC1, Tuesdays) captures relationship conflict and family dysfunction in a credible way. The first few…
Thomas J. Morrissey Navigating the Zeitgeist: A Story of the Cold War, the New Left, Irish Republicanism, and International Communism by Helena Sheehan (Monthly Review Press, $US20.00/£18.99) Dr Helena Sheehan is a well-known left-wing intellectual. Her book, Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: Critical History, published in 1985, became a classic work on its subject. She…
Newman’s Oxford: The places and buildings associated with Saint John Henry Newman during his years in Oxford 1816-1846 by Fr Jerome Bertram FSA (Gracewing, £6.99) The canononisation of John Henry Newman will open the way to many more popular accounts of parts of his life. In this very appealing brochure Fr Jerome Bertram, a priest…
Modern Religious Architecture in Germany, Ireland and Beyond: Influence, Process and Afterlife since 1945 Lisa Godson & Kathleen James-Chakraborty (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, £44.95/$US80.00) This collection of 11 articles derives from a conference held in Newman House in Dublin back in 2014. Alas, for the general reader concerned with religious architecture it is written in the…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan