Saint Brigid: Life, Legend, and Cult Noel Kissane (Four Courts Press, €24.99) Padraig Ó Riain In the Life he wrote for Brigid, Cogitosus, the earliest known Irish biographer of a saint, declared that because of her, Kildare’s authority extended “from sea to sea”, from one side of Ireland to the other. Judging by the dedications…
The Source of All Love: Catholicity and the Trinity by Heidi Russell (Orbis Books / Alban Books, £22.99) This book is by a distinguished member of the faculty of the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University in Chicago. She addresses the problem of presenting the doctrine of the Trinity in a manner that reflects our…
The break-out from the Maze prison in 1983 was ultimately unsuccessful – most of the 38 prisoners who escaped were either captured or killed – but it could be argued that it galvanised the powers-that-be towards the Good Friday Agreement which occurred more than a decade later. This brilliant film is set in the aftermath…
Last week I reviewed some of the new programmes on Newstalk, but even then trouble was brewing on one of the regular shows, George Hook’s High Noon. The controversy reached ridiculous levels last week, culminating in the suspension of the presenter. There were lots of toys being thrown out of prams, followed by the mob with…
Irish people, as we all know, have a great grá for local legends, indeed any kind of local lore. In the poetry of W. B. Yeats, Queen Maeve, though supposedly buried on the frowning peak of Knocknarea, might be still a living person. Yeats deep interiorisation of old traditions of a locality is not unique.…
I Die in a Good Cause: Thomas Ashe: A Biography Sean Ó Luing (Mercier Press, €14.99) J. Anthony Gaughan In his introduction to this new edition of Seán Ó Lúing’ a biography of the patriot Thomas Ashe, Prof. Joe Lee speculates on the kind of influence Thomas Ashe would have exerted on the independence movement…
An Underground Theatre: Major Playwrights in the Irish Language 1930-1980 Philip O’Leary (University College Dublin Press, €50.00) Anthony Roche This important book is not a history of Irish language drama; that already exists in Pádraig Ó Siadhail’s 1993 Stair Dhrámaoícht na Gaeilge 1900-1970. Rather, Philip O’Leary critically highlights five significant playwriting careers in Irish: Mairéad Ní Ghráda;…
Ever since January, when this independent film about a struggling rap singer premiered at Sundance – ‘indie’ works tend to shine there – it’s been the talk of the industry. It was taken up by the distributor Fox Searchlight and the rest is history. Not being a great lover of rap music – I’ve never…
So, Newstalk has shuffled around some of its presenters, though to what effect or purpose I’m not really sure. Drive has been replaced by The Hard Shoulder, and while I’ll miss Sarah McInerney from the evening show I’m not too enamoured of Ivan Yates taking over the slot. He is too laddish for my liking and is lowering…
Everything Everything (12A) Maddy has spent most of her 18-year life cooped up in her custom-built California home. Her world is the internet. She can’t go outside the door because she suffers from a rare condition SCID (Severe Combined Immuno Deficiency). Translated into English, that means her immune system doesn’t work. Any virus could kill…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello