My American Journey, by Douglas Hyde edited by L. Mac Mathúna, B. Ó Conchubhair, N. Comer, C. Ó Seireadáin & M. Nic An Bhaird (UCD Press, €50.00) Felix M. Larkin Douglas Hyde (1860-1949), long an almost forgotten figure in Irish history, is at last beginning to receive the scholarly attention that he undoubtedly…
You’ll struggle to find anything about it in the Irish media, but last Friday’s March for Life in Washington was impressive by any standards. March for Life (EWTN’s live coverage) was broadcast most of the afternoon and evening. Probably the most prominent part of the event was the address by President Trump – the first…
As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, 2020 commemorates the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in Bonn in December 1770. Son of Johann, a court musician, and his wife Maria Magdalena, Ludwig was their second child. An older brother, also named Ludwig, lived only a few days in April of the previous year.…
Moment in Time: A Legacy of Photographs. Works from the Bank of America Collection. Curated by Anne Hodge and Sarah McAuliffe National Gallery of Ireland, Rooms 6-10 | Beit Wing, until March 22, 2020 Moment in Time: A collection of Photographs (Museum of Photographic Arts, €45.00) Continuing the National Gallery’s new involvement in the arts…
Ciphers of Transcendence: Essays in Philosophy of Religion in Honour of Patrick Masterson Fran O’Rourke (Irish Academic Press, €35) This is a well-deserved Festschrift. Patrick Masterson was a loyal and valued staff member of University College Dublin for 30 years. Beginning in 1963 he was an assistant lecturer in the philosophy department and in…
From the Underground Church to Freedom by Tomáš Halík (Notre Dame Press, $US35.00 / £39.50) Frank Litton The 1950s were grim in Czechoslovakia. The promise of liberation had not delivered. The state acquiesced in a foreign-based orthodoxy which it imposed with brutality. Censorship stifled thought. It was into this Communist dominated world that…
The Diary of Elizabeth Dillon: A Gateway to the Otherness of the Past edited with an introduction by Brendan O’Cathaoir (Currach Books, €34.99) Frank Callanan This delightful book is considerable editorial feat. The diaries of Elizabeth Dillon are copious running to 38 journals, and have been rendered down by the editor without any…
Just Mercy (12A) In 1987, an innocent African American man called Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) was sentenced to death for the murder of an 18-year-old girl in Alabama. He was convicted on nothing more than the false evidence of criminal Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson) who was offered a commutation of his sentence for furnishing…
I’m not a great fan of attaching celebrities to programmes, but I can understand that they will boost ratings, and high ratings help ensure that a show can thrive. Former President Mary McAleese has been attached to many RTÉ programmes, the latest being All Walks of Life (RTÉ1) which started last Friday. It’s a simple…
Homo Lapsus: Sin Evolution and the God who is Love by Niamh Middleton(Deep River Books, $US14.99; available through Amazon UK, £11.53) Fr Joseph McCann CM Darwin’s evolution poses the most powerful challenge to belief in God and Creation and Salvation. Evolution explains human existence as a scientifically determined process, so there is no…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone