Unbeatable: Father Tom Jones: Handball Supremo, by Tom Looney (Red Stripe Press, €14.99) Tom Jones was born in Tralee, Co. Kerry, on December 23, 1868. In his early years, he attended the local Christian Brothers school and the local Dominican Classical school. As he intended to study for the priesthood in the diocese of Kerry,…
As Advent approaches, I have hope on my mind, and a few programmes last week gave grounds for some hope that good programmes and insightful discussions can make their way into the media. Shetland (BBC One, Wednesday) recently returned for another series, and last week’s episode saw the reappearance of the local Minister, a brother…
I recently wrote about the theme of priests fighting crime in films of the thirties and forties. It also featured in some fifties films. The ‘Method’ actor Montgomery Clift was impressive in I Confess in 1951, playing a priest who goes to his death rather than break the seal of the confessional. A murderer confesses…
The Taoiseach: a century of political leadership, edited by Iain Dale (Swift Press, €23.99 / £20.00) This collection of essays about the sixteen men who have led Irish governments has the subtitle: “a century of political leadership”. The essays, however, demonstrate that leadership qualities were in short supply in independent Ireland. Of the sixteen,…
Factory life in Industrial Yarns Ltd Bray, 1958-98, by Kieran Devenish (Maynooth Studies in Local History / Four Courts Press, €12.95 / £13.50) Back in the early 1960s Dublin Opinion published a satirical cartoon of the then Taoiseach Seán Lemass cutting the ribbon at the opening of a new Irish factory devoted to the…
Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday. I don’t know.” With these chilling words, which open Albert Camus’ epochal 1942 novel L’Etranger, Camus enunciated a new style of writing, one that indexed the disaffected soul of his anti-hero Meursault, a man who can’t feel emotions the way the rest of us do. Meursault is…
Sudden Light, by Enda Wyley (Dedalus Press, €12.50 pb / €20 hb) Enda Wyley, recipient of the prestigious Lawrence O’Shaughnessy 2026 Poetry Prize in the US, has been described as a true poet whose poems are perpetually fresh, utterly scrutinised, marked by vigour and virtuosity, arriving on the page as accomplished things. Her new book,…
It might be a bit of a mixed metaphor to talk of sparks breathing, but I’ve found an example. Divine Sparks (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) now has an hour to play with, compared to the half hour of its predecessors. This allows presenter Áine Lawlor to cover a wide variety of topics – allowing the…
The Last Ditch: How one GAA Championship gave a Sports Writer back his Life, by Eamonn Sweeney (Hachette Books, €20.00 / £16.99) The author is a sportswriter and in the first two chapters reveals the challenges – phobias – which he has to overcome in plying his trade. In the rest of the book…
By Way of the Heart: Pierre Favre SJ, the First Jesuit Companion, by Brendan Comerford SJ (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £10.95) In any great enterprise the initiating leader needs associates to make the new initiative a success. Among the Jesuits the names of Ignatius Loyola himself and Francis Xavier are well known. Less well…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello