In the century since the events on the plateau near the village of Fatima a multitude of books have been published dealing with the apparitions, and the coming century will undoubtedly bring many more. But many of these books merely provide summaries and comments, rather than new information. Many of the commentaries are couched in…
King Arthur: Revenge of the Sword (12A) That Arfur bloke wasn’t a bad old geezer, wuz he? No, mate. Okay, so it done his head in trying to get the hang of – whaddya call it, Excalleybur? – but the job was Oxo in the end, innit? There’s a joke told about John Wayne when…
Selected Prayers by Pope Francis (Veritas, €4.99) Prayer, according to Pope Francis, helps a person to keep their faith in God, and to entrust themselves to him even when they do not understand his will. “Prayer brings you to hope,” the Pope adds. “And when things become dark, with more prayer there will be more hope”– …
A short but worthy season of The Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio 1), came to a low key end last Friday night. This last episode included an interesting item on the Jehovah’s Witnesses. David Dunlea of the Jehovah Witnesses in Ireland and presenter Michael Comyn discussed the oppression of the Witnesses in Russia where it…
Ordinary People: Dennis Dinneen’s Photographs at the Douglas Hyde Gallery Denis Dinneen: Small Town Portraits text by Kevin Barry, with 32 monochrome plates (Douglas Hyde Gallery, €10.00pb) Dennis Dinneen (1927–1985) earned his living as a publican and taxi driver in Macroom, Co. Cork. But as a side line he also acted as a local photographer,…
The World of Books There is an old saying that one should not judge a book by its cover. But that is exactly what I propose to do. Or rather to judge the publishers and promoters of the volume, rather than the author of the text. That will be left to another hand. The book…
Miss Sloane (15A) Think General Schwarzkopf in a trouser suit. Failure isn’t an option for her. She’s Madeleine Elizabeth Sloane and she’s going up against the top dogs of the Senate, Samson-style, in a pitched battle about gun regulation. As we all know, this is a heavily divisive issue in America. The ‘doves’ say the…
Last week I wrote about some good British dramas on TV. They tend to put American dramas in the shade – the latter are marred too frequently by embarrassing corniness. I’ve been following Designated Survivor on Netflix and after a promising start, dramatically speaking (US President and Congress blown up in a terrorist attack), it…
A Man Sent by God: Blessed John Sullivan SJ by John Looby SJ (Messenger Publications, Beatification souvenir hardback edition, €14.95, paperback €9.95) This Saturday in ceremonies at the Jesuit church in Gardiner Street, the Venerable John Sullivan will be raised to the status of Blessed, another stage on the path to his eventual canonisation. This…
Felix M. Larkin The Easter Proclamation 1916, a comparative analysis by Liam de Paor (Four Courts Press, €14.95pb) The words “Easter Proclamation” in the title of this book are singularly ill-judged. They evoke the sacred Easter Proclamation, the Exsultet, sung at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night and so they reinforce the identification of…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan