View Ireland: Collecting Photography Curated by Anne Hodge, Curator of Prints and Drawings; and Sarah McAuliffe, Curatorial Fellow, NGI Hugh Lane Room, NGI, Merrion Square West, Dublin 2, runs to 2 February 2020 The first image that meets the eye of the visitor to this select show of Irish photographs is one of Evelyn Hofer’s…
The Kirwan Murder Case, 1852: a glimpse of the Irish Protestant middle class in the mid-nineteenth century By Suzanne Leeson (Maynooth Studies in Local History/Four Courts Press, Dublin, €9.95) Ian d’Alton The Maynooth Studies in Local History is a prodigious series of scholarly works (this is number 141) focusing on the local as illuminating wider themes.…
There are plans afoot to move the National Symphony Orchestra away from RTÉ and bring it under the aegis of the National Concert Hall. While the proposed transfer may be causing anxieties to the musicians involved, these concerns are certainly not affecting the standard of their playing. With the 2019/20 season in full swing, the…
Mainly about Books In the winter of 1897 two English explorers found in the municipal rubbish heaps of an ancient city called Oxyrhynchus (120 miles south of Cairo) a fragment of a papyrus, dating from the 2nd or 3rd Century. The text written on it was one hitherto unknown. The single leaf contained parts of…
Some TV programmes are nasty, some are forgettable fluff, some are enjoyable entertainment and some are hugely important. I’d put Children of the Troubles (RTÉ1, Monday) in that latter category. Presented by Joe Duffy, assisted by journalist Freya Clements, it outlined the stories of the children who died as a result of ‘the Troubles’. It…
Murder on the Missions. A True Story by Jean Harrington (Mercier Press, €14.99) Garrett Sheehan It was the murder of Fr Rufus Halley at Malabang in the province of Lanao del Sur on August 28, 2001 that led to this unputdownable account of the lives and work of Columban Missionaries in the Philippines during…
Mary in Different Traditions: Seeing the Mother of Jesus with New Eyes by Thomas G. Casey SJ (Messenger Publications, €9.95/£8.95) This is a small book that explores some big issues. Author Casey begins by noting the shift of emphasis over the last generations in the way Catholics perceive Our Lady. Marian devotions, which it has…
The Day Shall Come (15A) Chris Morris has been here before. Ten years ago he made Four Lions, a film that satirised terrorism. Is this a good idea? In my view, no. Some subjects shouldn’t be laughed about and terrorism is one of them. The Day Shall Come plays out as a kind of Elia…
Film footage of Catholic Ireland in the mid-20th Century can suggest a time that was grim and dour. But that’s not the full story – there was colour and joy too. I was impressed and entertained by the archive footage of old Dublin in Father Delaney: Silent Witness (RTÉ1, Thursday). Joe Duffy presented a fascinating…
Glimpses of the Gospels: Theological, Spiritual & Practical reflections by Jack Mahoney SJ (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £11.95) Every week – for a few, every day – Catholics hear a gospel reading at Mass. As these readings are arranged over the year along with extracts from the Old Testament and the Epistles, present a schema…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone