The decadent society: How we became the victims of our success by Ross Douthat (Avid Readers Press / Simon & Schuster, $US27.00 / £20.95) Frank Litton ‘We live in a time of unprecedented change.” Do we, really? My Grandfather was born in 1875 and died in 1950. I reckon he experienced far more radical…
Radioactive (15A) Camille Paglia once said: “There’s no female Mozart because there’s no female Jack the Ripper.” The comment was inaccurate but typical of her penchant for sensationalism. (I liked Julie Birchill’s comment: “The ‘g’ is silent in Paglia. It’s the only thing about her that is.”) Something else that’s often said to be…
The Noble Martyr: A Spiritual Biography of St Philip Howard by Dudley Plunkett, with a foreword by the Duke of Norfolk (Gracewing, £9.99) This book is published at a very timely moment. With Hilary Mantel’s final novel in her Tudor trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, climbing up the best seller lists, it is good…
Well, it was a strange St Patrick’s Day for sure – a more sombre and sober one than we’re used to. Maybe, despite Mass cancellations, it was a more spiritual celebration than usual. At least that option was certainly on offer. The media, social and otherwise, played their part by broadcasting streamed religious services across…
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…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan