The Writings of Padraic Colum: “That Queer Thing, Genius”, edited by Pádraic Whyte and Keith O’Sullivan (Routledge Studies in Irish Literature, £135.00 / €156.00) There was a time, long, long ago, when Padraic Colum was one of the most quoted by heart poets in Ireland, a man whose words were happily on the lips of…
A few of last week’s programmes were more food for thought than fuel for anger or frustration. I was happy with that! Sunday Morning Live (BBC One) returned recently, with our own Cara O’Brien subbing as co-host with Sean Fletcher. Last Sunday morning, discussing climate change, I wondered how the balance of views would work…
None of the classics are safe anymore. Hedda (R) is the latest one to receive a makeover. Dia Da Costa has transplanted the feminist fable Hedda Gabler from Henrik Ibsen’s Norway to a 1950s English manor. The text has been changed to make it relevant for the #MeToo era. With all these iterations are we…
A Divine Calling: One Woman’s Life-Long Battle for Equality in the Catholic Church, by Soline Humbert, foreword by Mary McAleese (The Liffey Press, €19.95 / £17.95) This book arrived for review at about the same time that it was announced that Dame Sarah Mullally was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Her elevation brings into focus the…
Picasso’s long life of creative achievement Of all 20th century artists the work of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is perhaps the most easily recognised. But for the ordinary gallery goer getting to see his important works of art usually involves a great deal of travelling from Paris and Madrid to Moscow and Tokyo and other far-flung…
In recent years immigration has been one of the thorniest topics around, and it drives polarisation big time. Spotlight: Why Are We Not Welcome? (BBC Two NI, Wednesday) explored a recent wave of racist and sectarian violence in North Belfast and Ballymena. Conor Spackman’s report told of how sectarian violence was still an issue, with…
Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) is the charming villain at the heart of Roofman (R). In real life, Manchester robbed 45 McDonalds restaurants between 1998 and 2000. That’s what I said: 45. He was caught and imprisoned in 2000 but escaped four years later, taking on the identity of a government agent called John Zorn. He…
The Best-Loved Poems from the Irish, selected translations of Gabriel Fitzmaurice, introduction by Alan Titley (Mercier Press, €14.99) These days when there is clearly an official drive to make us all more conscious of the Irish language, there yet remain as great many people for whom ‘the Irish’ remains a closed world. Here in…
New Perspectives on Conflict and Ireland in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Huddie, Cathal Billings and Arlene Crampsie (Liverpool University Press, £105.00 / €121.00) This collection of essays is the product of a conference of historians at Liverpool University. The subject for discussion was “Conflict in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century”. The contributions…
John Davidson (Robert Aramayo) doesn’t only swear in I Swear (12A). He also spits, twitches, hits people, breaks things and spouts racist and sexist slogans. And yet he’s one of the gentlest people you could meet. What’s going on? It’s Tourette’s Syndrome, a condition people were almost totally ignorant about when John first started experiencing…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone