Deeds Not Words: The Survival of the Fitzmaurices Lords of Kerry 1550 to 1603 by Martin Moore (Gabha Beag publications,€20.00) This splendid study examines the political and military roles of the Fitzmaurices, Lords of Kerry and Barons of Lixnaw, in the Tudor Years of 1550 to 1603. It shows their involvement in local, national and…
Readers may forgive me at this season of peace and goodwill, having already written about my most enjoyed book of last year (The Irish Catholic December 24, 2020), for concluding here my thoughts about 2020 with something I wrote during this Covid-19 year, which – I now discover – seems curiously ad rem: A Poem for 2021 Bunting…
Before moving to Leipzig in 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach held several positions as organist and choirmaster in Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar and Cöthen. In Weimar he served under Lutheran Duke Wilhelm Ernst (1662-1728), who had a penchant for religious devotions and aimed to maintain the Church’s ancient musical tradition. This was to Bach’s advantage giving him…
The year had hardly begun when Covid-19 struck. It changed the way we viewed films. Social distancing wasn’t as much of a problem in cinemas as it was in pubs or at rock concerts but it still took away from the experience. The ‘reel’ thing wasn’t the ‘real’ thing anymore. People steeped themselves in boxsets,…
For centuries Jerusalem and the Holy Land was a place of great mystique, the hope of pious pilgrims as the object of a once in a lifetime visit. But over the course of the long nineteenth century this began to change: new techniques of image making and reproduction began to alter the ideas that people…
Sometimes when I look back on the year in TV and Radio there’s a certain sameness, but not this year. So many columns I wrote featured Covid-19 in some shape or form. One effect of the coronavirus was the proliferation of repeats in the media schedules with broadcasters finding it increasingly difficult to make programmes…
Some of our regular reviewers select the book or books they most enjoyed or were impressed by over the course of the last year… TJ Morrissey SJ The most interesting book of the year for me was Paul: A Biography, by Tom Wright (SPCK Publishing, £19.99). The author is recognised as one of St Paul’s…
Is fairness too much to ask for when it comes to debating what remains a contentious issue, asks Brendan O’Regan At this time of year we’re turning our minds to that special baby in the manger, and so it seemed particularly crass that Newstalk chose to raise again the issue of abortion on Thursday December…
The Christmas season has always been the time when families buy more books than they do at other times of the year. Here, arranged in something like order of age, are some suggestions from this year’s new offerings. The Dead Zoo by Peter Donnelly (Gill Books, €14.99) This artist’s most amusing books about the president up…
The World of Books by the Books Editor Literacy for both young and adult is an essential of social life. So these days teachers, politicians and booksellers are all agreed on the need to encourage reading. Easy enough with girls, it seems, but boys need more encouragement. So at Christmas all the deluge of new…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan