A School on a Mission: 140 years of the CBC on Wakefield Street by Lingard Goulding (Christian Brothers’ College, Adelaide SA, Aus$80.00/€40.00; copies through Veritas and Books Upstairs) Charles Edward Lysaght The author of this book, Lingard Goulding, was headmaster of Headfort School in Kells, a preparatory school founded around 1950 to prepare boys for…
Ireland’s Revolutionary Diplomat: A Biography of Leopold Kerney by Barry Whelan (University of Notre Dame Press, US$50.00 / €54.95) Joe Carroll Leopold Kerney has not been treated well by some Irish historians over his controversial meetings with a top level Nazi official and a German intelligence agent in Madrid during a critical phase of World…
A Million Little Pieces (16) There have been so many great films made about alcohol addiction you wonder what new angle they could possibly come up with. For me the most moving moment in Days of Wine and Roses, one of the best of the genre, was when Jack Lemmon – who’s responsible for…
With all the fractious controversies raging over Brexit, I like to listen to all sides of the debate, and there are certainly more than two! For the most part Irish commentary tends to range from mildly anti-Brexit to regarding those who voted to leave as stupid. But there are exceptions and we got relatively balanced…
“May have been the losing side,” says Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the cult sci-fi show Firefly about his part in a recent civil war. “Still not convinced it was the wrong one.” Over a year on from 2018’s referendum on repealing Ireland’s constitutional protections for unborn human beings, it’s clear that for many of those…
The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis by Alan Jacobs (Oxford University Press, £20.00) Frank Litton “Every age has its own outlook. It is generally good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.” We, therefore, need books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our…
Cad Fúinne, Mar Sin?/ What of us, then? by Colm Ó Tórna (Foilsithe ag Teangscéal/ Áisínteacht Dáilúcháin Leabhar, €10.00/€13.50 post paid; from An Siopa Leabhar, 6 Sráid Fhearchair, Dublin 2; email: siopa@cnag.ie) At the outset the author provides a depressing, albeit accurate, description of the prevailing culture. He states that its true nature was revealed in…
Mainly About Books by the books editor St Patrick is seen by many as the Apostle of Ireland – “the man who brought Christianity to or ancestors”. But one has to wonder: the process seems to have been so smooth, so easy, so without conflict, one has to ask was this the beginning of…
So Everyone Can Hear: Communicating Church in a Digital Culture by Mark Crosby (SPCK, £9.99) These days the Sunday homilies, with the occasional pastoral letter from an archbishop or bishop, are not quite enough. With the clamour for attention online the need for all the churches to make their message heard in the din of current…
I like films where conscience is taken seriously and all the more if the film making is of high quality. Hacksaw Ridge (Channel 5 Sunday, RTÉ2 Monday) left me conflicted. It has so much good stuff going for it, but I have serious reservations. Directed by Mel Gibson it tells the true story of US Army…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Greg Daly
Peter Costello