The recent release of Knife, based on the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie in 2022 – which resulted in him losing an eye – prompted me to look back at some landmark films dealing with people who were attacked, or indeed martyred, for their religious views. In Joan of Arc (1948), Ingrid Bergman played the…
It was depressing to see community conflict raising its ugly head again in the North. After the initial standoff over the Drumcree/Garvaghy Road march it rumbled on for a week. The only sign of hope at the time of writing is that it didn’t turn violent. On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) former Taoiseach…
Donegal Town, 1474-1974. Maynooth Studies in Local History, 182, by Matthew Potter (Four Courts Press, €12.95) For many years now, Four Courts Press has been publishing the Maynooth Studies in Local History and this volume is number 182 in the series. Readers will know them as short, focused and academically rigorous accounts of a wide…
Boyhood’s Fire: Na Fianna Éireann at War, 1916-1986, by James Durney, (Merrion Press, €18.99 / £17.99) The whole idea of “scouting” derives from the work of an arch-imperialist, Robert Baden Powell during the Boer War, who initiated the first groups. But others, very much anti-imperialist in Ireland, saw in the notion of boys and…
Utopia for Our Century: A Manifesto of Hope, by David Albertson and Jason Blakely (Yale University Press ($US 30.00 / £25.00 / €26.99) While in prison, awaiting his trial for high treason, St Thomas More wrote Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation. More understood the fear that drives retreat and disengagement in times of political upheaval…
When I was a teacher in a previous incarnation, disruptive pupils were the bane of my life. You could have 39 out of 40 children doing what you said but if the fortieth one stepped out of line, a domino effect took hold. Your day was gone. One day in the staff-room I suggested dealing…
It was a week with so many emotional and intellectual highs and lows. Among the highs was Pope Leo’s visit to France, which garnered quite a bit of attention, especially on Friday of last week, when the visit began. RTÉ gave it prominence, fair enough, but they chose to tack on, from the start, a…
My Greatest Race, by Ciara Mageean, with Cliona Foley (Gill Books, €22.99 / £24.99) This book, telling the personal story of Ciara Mageean, is a sure-fire best seller to be read by all who are engaged with Irish sport in any ways, and especially the toll on mind, spirit and body that it can…
Never a week goes by these days but there is heated discussion in Dublin or elsewhere across the country on the matter of housing provision, especially of an affordable and accessible kind. This is by no means a new problem, as two small exhibitions now on in Dublin well illustrate. The first is a display…
The Vatican and the Women Deacons, by Phyllis Zagano (Orbis Books, US$20.00 / €18.90; distributed in Ireland and Britain by Norwich Books and Music, 13a Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich; also available online directly from the Maryknoll Society site.) The role of women in the Church is one of the pressing matters of the day,…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello