Four Offaly Saints: The Lives of Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, Ciarán of Seir, Colmán of Lynally and Fíonán of Kinnitty by Pádraig Ó Riain (Four Courts Press, €14.95) Homilists and those interested in the early history of Ireland are indebted to Ó Riain for his splendid Dictionary of Irish Saints. For much of his professional life he…
To Love and to be Loved by Desmond O’Donnell (Dominican Publications, €15.00) The many people coming to Dublin next week will all have in mind two themes which the Pope Francis has identified as important not just for all Catholics, but for every human being, indeed for all life on earth. These are the themes of the…
Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig (Canongate, £12.99 ) Peter Hegarty The author of Reasons to Stay Alive describes himself as having once been a ‘terrified young man ‘who was ‘suicidally ill’. His struggles with depression and anxiety inform his writing and journalism: ‘The fact that I have had mental illness, though a nightmare in reality, has…
The Great Cover-Up: The Truth About the Death of Michael Collins by Gerard Murphy (The Collins Press, €19.99) The death of Michael Collins at Bealnablath, Co. Cork, on August 22, 1922 has prompted much comment and writing. No fewer than five books have been published on the subject, as well as numerous articles and countless columns…
Pat O’Kelly Enthusiastic reviews greeted Co. Tipperary soprano Jennifer Davis following her recent Covent Garden debut as Elsa of Brabant in Wagner’s Lohengrin. Latvian diva Kristine Opolais was the scheduled Elsa in this new production that opened in June, but she withdrew from the staging relatively close to opening night. Jennifer Davis, who is…
With the most prominent Jesuit of all coming to town next week it was apt that other key Jesuits figured in the media last week. On Wednesday of last week, Nationwide (RTÉ1) explored some of the more essential aspects of the life and work of Blessed Fr John Sullivan. That familiar black and white drawing…
The World of Books by the Books Editor These days papal visits, such as Pope Francis will make to Ireland next week, are taken for granted. They have become commonplace, but in the perspective of the two thousand years of history they are a very recent development. Indeed, there is a great need for…
What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson (Virago, £18.99) Patrick Claffey Born in 1943, Marilynne Robinson is a celebrated American novelist and essayist, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, a National Humanities Medal and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2016 – the year she was also named…
Commemoration by Heather Laird (Cork University Press, €9.95) Felix M. Larkin In Evelyn Conlon’s novel Not the Same Sky, one of the characters questions the purpose of memorials – and, by extension, the purpose of historical commemorations generally. She asks: “Are they to let us know? To make us accept? Or are they to make us weep?” In…
As a Catholic, you’d want to be sure your Faith was primarily in God and not in individual Catholic clergy. Too often, in striving for perfection, we assumed that those in the clerical state had already succeeded. Did we not really believe it when, at Mass, we heard them confessing their sins along with ourselves?…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan