Death and the Irish: A Miscellany edited by Salvador Ryan ( Wordwell, €25.00) One of the minor masterpieces of modern Irish literature is Seamus O’Kelly’s long story The Weaver’s Grave, which recounts the animadversions of two old men asked to find the family burial place in the local Cloon na Morav in Connacht. The request comes…
The dust hasn’t yet settled from the UK general election, and debate across Britain is febrile over the wisdom and propriety of Theresa May’s Conservatives placing themselves in debt to the DUP. Astonishingly and – one might think – irresponsibly, the controversy is but rarely over whether Britain’s governing party should be beholden to the…
One of the most prevalent myths about the Catholic Church is that it has either no interest in science or is antagonistic towards it. The Sky at Night: Inside God’s Observatory (BBC 4 last Sunday night) blew that one comprehensively out of the water. The programme was introduced as “the highlight” of an evening of astronomy…
The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation and the Present Day by Roy Hattersly (Chatto & Windus, £ 25.00) Roy Hattersley, a former MP and Minister in Britain, prefaces his congenial history with a fascinating autobiographical fragment in which he recalls the ease with which his father could translate…
Best-Loved Joyce written by James Joyce with an introduction by Bob Joyce. Edited by Jamie O’Connell (O’Brien Press, €12.99) Joyce Unplugged by Anthony J. Jordan (West Books, €15.00) Tomorrow, during the now ever-expanding festivities recalling the day in 1904 on which James Joyce’s Ulysses is set, will see a host of events of all kinds for…
Buried lives: The Protestants of Southern Ireland by Robin Bury (History Press, €20.00) In 1965, Michael Viney published an influential pamphlet, The Five Percent: A Survey of Protestants in the Republic, reprinting a series of articles from The Irish Times. The title gave its name to a sociological anxiety: will the five percent shrink to four…
Chruchill (PG) I interviewed Gay Byrne once and asked him what he thought was the main reason for his success in broadcasting. He replied tartly, “Events, dear boy, events!” What he meant was that he’d simply been in the right place at the right time. Perhaps the same could be said of Winston Churchill. Churchill…
Martin Luther: An Ecumenical Perspective by Walter Kaspar, Translated from the German by William Madges (Paulist Press, 14.99) This is a brief but very significant pamphlet by an important theologian. Walter Kasper is a German cardinal and the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, whose continuing programme of reconciliation emerged from…
Shouldering the Lamb: Reflections on an Icon by Richard Clarke (Dominican Publications, €12.00) This is the second book of Dr Richard Clarke, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh. It has already won praise from his episcopal neighbour, Archbishop Éamon Martin. Taking the almost universal image of Christ as a shepherd carrying a lamb to safety…
I thought I’d be writing this a week ago, but the start of the much anticipated drama Broken (BBC One, Tuesday nights) was postponed by a week out of sensitivity over the Manchester bombing, though I’m not quite sure as to why. Seán Bean stars as Fr Michael Kerrigan, an inner city priest struggling with…
Greg Daly
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone