It’s great when I can highlight positive items in the media – I hope I do it often enough. The long-running Nationwide (RTÉ One) is a great source of positivity, and religious themes are regularly featured, with a strong emphasis on community. Last Monday’s episode marked the 200th anniversary of the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin and…
Richard Burton would have been 100 years old a few days ago. My book Poisoned Chalice: How Fame Ruined Richard Burton, is published by Bear Manor Media. It celebrates his life and career while taking time to point out that both were seriously compromised by what he called his “Faustian” pact with the devil, i.e.…
Creat claims, as by now we are all too well aware, are being made for the future of AI – the internet development of artificial intelligence which it is said is about to transform, not just the world, but the cosmos. Though there are Jeremiahs who are filling the airwaves with their doubts about both…
Generous Heart: A Daily Prayer Book, by Donal Neary SJ (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £11.95) Opening this book on its arrival on my desk, brought back to my mind the memory of my Jesuit mentors, seizing a quarter hour or so to pace about the corridors or grounds of Gonzaga College, to read their…
When Chris Grant (Scott Eastwood) is killed in a car crash alongside his sister-in-law Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald) in Regretting You (12A), it exposes the fact that they were having an affair. The revelation opens up a Pandora’s Box of reactions from Chris’ wife Morgan (Allison Williams), his daughter Clara (McKenna Grace) and Jenny’s husband Jonah…
I was pleased to find several positive examples of religion and spirituality in the media last week. A few weeks ago, I favourably reviewed Blue Lights (BBC One, Mondays) after seeing the first few episodes. It finished last Monday and must upgrade my rating to ‘outstanding’. It worked as gritty crime drama but it was…
Dublin’s Women Street Traders, 1882-1932: “Civic Evil” and civil disobedience, by Susan Marie Martin (Maynooth Studies in Local History / Four Courts Press, €11.65 / £10.25) The street traders of inner Dublin were affectionately known as “Shawlies” from their custom of wrapping themselves up against the dank weather in large black woollen shawls. They…
After Newman: A Eulogy for Anglo-Catholics 1845-1965, by Aidan Nichols OP (Gracewing, £20.00 / €22.99) Near our house, off Clyde Road, there used to be a convent of Anglican Nuns. They belonged to the Community of St Mary the Virgin, founded at Wantage in England in 1848. When my wife and I were young…
I could write a book on the Presidential Election, and no doubt some will. When it comes to news and the media I think radio wins – social media may be quicker but there are serious reliability issues, and TV can be less nimble. And so it was that when the count started RTÉ One…
Leo XIV: The New Pope and Catholic Reform, by Christopher R. Altieri (Bloomsbury Continuum, £20.00 / €19.99) This book is among the very first to try to encompass what the advent of Leo XIV means in general terms. You can be sure many more will follow, but as author Altieri, a born-American with decades of…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello